NIGHT HERON. 
41 
also the long slender plumes that flow from the head. 
These facts 1 have exhibited by dissection on several 
subjects, to different literary gentlemen of my acquain- 
tance, particularly to my venerable friend, Mr William 
Bartram, to whom I have also often shewn the young*. 
One of these last, which was kept for some time in 
the botanic garden of that gentleman, by its voice 
instantly betrayed its origin, to the satisfaction of all 
who examined it. These young certainly receive their 
full coloured plumage before the succeeding spring, as, 
on their first arrival, no birds are to be seen in the 
dress of the young bird ; but, soon after they have bred, 
these become more numerous than the others. Early 
in October they migrate to the south. According to 
Buffon, these birds also inhabit Cayenne, and are 
found widely dispersed over Europe, Asia, and America. 
The European species, however, is certainly much 
smaller than the American, though in other respects 
corresponding exactly to it. Among a great number 
which I examined with attention, the following des- 
cription was carefully taken from a common sized full 
grown male. 
Length of the night heron, two feet four inches ; 
extent, four feet ; bill, black, four inches and a quarter 
long from the corners of the mouth to the tip ; lores, 
or space between the eye and bill, a bare bluish white 
skin ; eyelids also large and bare, of a deep purple 
blue ; eye three-quarters of an inch in diameter ; the 
iris of a brilliant blood red ; pupil, black ; crested crown 
and liindhead, deep dark blue, glossed with green ; 
front and line over the eye, white ; from the liindhead 
proceed three very narrow, white, tapering* feathers, 
between eight and nine inches in length ; the vanes of 
these are concave below, the upper one enclosing the 
next, and that again the lower ,• though separated by 
the hand, if the plumage be again shook several times, 
these long flowing plumes gradually enclose each other, 
appearing as one ,• these the bird has the habit of 
erecting when angry or alarmed : the cheeks, neck, and 
whole lower parts, are white, tinctured with yellowish 
