100 
NIGHT HERON. 
brown or black, according to the age of the bird; chin, throat, 
and breast white, with a very faint tinge of cream-colour. 
Back, on the upper part, black, with green reflections, on the 
lower part fine grey. 
The wings expand to the width of three feet three inches 
and a half, or a little over that measurement, the first quill 
feather is of the same length as the fourth, the third a little 
longer, the second the longest in the wing. Greater and 
lesser wing coverts, grey; primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries, 
grey; greater and lesser under wing coverts, pure white. 
Tail and tail coverts, fine bluish grey. The legs are feathered 
nearly to the knees; the bare part and the toes, pale yellowish 
green. Claws, black, short, and hooked; that of the middle 
toe pectinated on its inner side. 
The female is like the male. 
In the young the tip of the bill is blackish brown, the 
remainder dark brown, the edges paler in colour; the base 
and lower mandible, yellowish green or yellowish brown; iris, 
brown, the eyelids pale greenish brown, head, crown, and 
neck on the back, brown, with the centre of each feather 
yellowish white; the neck in front has the feathers yellowish 
white, deeply margined with brown and yellowish brown; the 
nape wants the ( ,plume. Chin, throat, and breast, yellowish 
white, the feathers deeply margined with yellowish or greyish 
brown, forming elongated spots; back, deep brown, with 
angular yellowish white streaks on the centre of the feathers. 
Greater wing coverts, deep brown, with triangular-shaped spots 
of whitish on their tips; lesser wing coverts, deep brown, 
with angular whitish streaks on the centres of the feathers; 
primaries, also deep brown, with triangular-shaped spots of 
white on their tips; secondaries and tertiaries, deep brown, 
tipped with pale brown. Tail, greyish brown; upper tail 
coverts, a mixture of grey and two shades of brown; legs 
and toes, yellowish green, or yellowish brown; claws, dark 
brown. 
Selby observes, ‘As the bird proceeds to maturity, it 
acquires at each successive moulting a plumage approaching 
nearer to that of the adult; and in these intermediate stages, 
has been described as constituting different species, by various 
writers.’ 
John Gatcombe, Esq., of Wyndham Place, Plymouth, has 
obliged me with a very beautiful drawing of this species, but 
it did not arrive quite in time for the use of this work. 
