66 
BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 
writer, in referring* to examinations which he made, states that the teeth 
of the pectinated claw were thirty-five or forty in number, and, as they 
contained particles of the down of the bird, showed evidently from this 
circumstance that they act the part of a comb to rid the bird of vermin 
in those parts which it cannot reach with its bill. The late Isaac G. 
Darlington, of West Chester, some years ago, had large numbers of 
gold-fishes in a pond near his residence. One day Mr. Darlington 
caught twenty-five of these fish and placed them in a small pool, intend¬ 
ing to remove them the following morning. About bedtime, Mr. D. 
said, I heard a loud squawking, and on going out saw two Night Herons j 
actively engaged in catching these fish. I shot one of these robbers, 
which you there see mounted, on the book-case, and on making an in- 
vestigaton found only one of the fish remaining. “An incident may 
illustrate the habits of the Night Heron, and perhaps of the whole i 
family. I Night Heron had been noticed for several days sitting on a 
tree near a branch of White Clay creek. It was at length shot and 
brought to me, with the tail of a large fish projecting four inches beyond 
its bill. On removing the fish (a sucker Catostomus, which must have 
been twelve inches long), its head and shoulders—except the bony por¬ 
tions—were eaten away by the gastric liquor of the stomach.”— Michener. 
I have examined the stomachs of twenty odd of these herons, adult and 
young, which have been shot in June at the breeding-grounds, and found 
in all only the remains of fishes. In two or three immature birds, taken 
in August and September, I have discovered a few grasshoppers and 
portions of insects. 
Note. —The Yellow-crowned Night Heron (N. violaceus) which is 
found in eastern North America, “from the Carolinas and the lower 
Ohio valley south to Brazil,” has not, within the last twenty years, to 
my knowledge been observed in Pennsylvania. Dr. Turnbull, * writing 
of this species says: “A rare straggler from the south. It has been seen 
on the borders of the Schuylkill near Philadelphia.” 
* Birds of East Pennsylvania and New Jersey, published in 1869. 
