YELLOW-CROWNED HERON. 
27 
we are told, are yearly taken for the table, being accounted in that 
quai tei excellent eating. This bird also extends its migrations 
into Virginia, and even farther north ; one of them having been 
shot a few years ago on the borders of Schuylkill below Phila- 
delphia. 
The food of this species consists of small fish, crabs and li- 
zards, particularly the former ; it also appears to have a strong 
attachment to the neighborhood of the ocean. 
The Yellow-crowned Heron is twenty-tAvo indies in length, 
from the point of the bill to the end of the tail ; the long floAving 
plumes of the back extend four inches farther; breadth from lip 
to tip of the expanded wings thirty-four inches ; bill black, stout, 
and about four inches in length, the upper mandible grooved ex- 
actly like that of the common Night Heron ; lores pale green ; 
irides fiery red ; head and part of the neck black, marked on each 
cheek with an oblong spot of white ; crested crown and upper part 
of the head white, ending in two long narroAV tapering plumes of 
pure Avhite, more than seven inches long ; under these arc a few 
others of a blackish color ; rest of the neck and Avhole loAver parts 
fine ash, somewhat whitish on that part of the neck where it joins 
the black ; upper parts a dark ash, each feather streaked broadly 
down the centre with black, and bordered Avith Avhite; wing quills 
deep slate, edged finely with white ; tail even at the end, and of 
the same ash color ; wing-coverts deep slate, broadly edged with 
pale cream ; from each shoulder proceed a number of long loosely 
webbed tapering feathers, of an ash color, streaked broadly doAvn 
the middle with black, and extending four inches or more beyond 
the tips of the wings ; legs and feet yelloAV ; middle claAV pecti- 
nated. Male and female, as in the common Night Heron, alike 
in plumage. 
