it uses with much effect. If you seize it, it utters a loud, rough, continued
sound, and tries to make its escape whenever it perceives the least
chance.
The Night Heron undergoes three annual changes of plumage ere it
attains its perfect state, although many individuals breed in the spring of
the third year. After the first autumnal moult, the young is as you see
it represented in the plate. In the second autumn, the markings of the
neck and other parts have almost entirely disappeared ; the upper parts
of the head have become of a dull blackish-green, mixing near the upper
mandible with the dull brown of the first season, while the rest of the
plumage has assumed a uniform dull ochreous greyish-brown. In the
course of the following season, the bird exhibits the green of the shoulders
and back, the head is equally richly coloured, and the frontal band between
the upper mandible and the eye, and over the latter, is pure white.
At this age it rarely has the slender white feathers of the hind head longer
than an inch or two. The sides of the neck, and all the lower parts,
have become of a purer greyish-white. The wings are now spotless in
all their parts, and of a light brownish-grey, as is the tail. The following
spring, the plumage is complete, and the bird is as represented in the
plate. After this period, with the exception of losing its long crestfeathers
after the young are hatched, it retains its colouring. No difference
can be observed in .the tints of the sexes, but the male is somewhat
larger.
A very considerable difference in size is observable at all seasons in
birds of this species. Some that are fully feathered, and therefore at least
three years old, measure as much as four inches less than others of the same
sex, and weigh less in proportion. These circumstances might suffice
with some naturalists to attempt to form two species out of one, but in
this they would certainly fail.
In the neighbourhood of New Orleans, and along the Mississippi, as
far up as Natchez, the shooting of this species is a favourite occupation
with the planters, who represent it as equalling any other bLd in the delicacy
of its flesh.
The frog, of which I have introduced a figure, is common in the retired
swamps which the Night Heron frequents, and is often devoured
by it. The flowering plants which you see, are abundant in the States
of Georgia and South Carolina, as well as in the Floridas.
ARDEA NrCTicc-RAX, Linn. Syst Nat. vol. i. p. 235—Lath. Ind. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 678.
—Ch. Bonaparte, Synops. of Birds of the United States, p. 306.
NIGHT HERON, OR QUA BIRD, Wils. Amer. Ornith. vol. viL p. 3, pi. 51, fig. 2. Adult.
Fig. 3. Young.
QUA BIRD, OR AMERICAN NIGHT HERON, ARDEA DISCORS, Nuttall, Manual, vol. ii.
p. 54.
Adult Male in Spring. Plate CCXXXVI. Fig. 1.
Bill a little longer than the head, strong, straight, compressed, tapering.
Upper mandible with the dorsal line slightly arched and decimate,
the ridge broad and rather rounded at the base, narrowed towards the
end, the sides sloping, the edges very sharp and inflected, obscurely serrated
with minute oblique slits, and having a distinct notch close to the
compressed, rather obtuse tip. Nasal groove wide at the base, extending
narrow to near the tip ; nostrils basal, linear, wider behind, longitudinal.
Lower mandible with the angle very long and narrow, the dorsal line
straight and sloping upwards, the sides flat, the sharp obscurely jagged
edges slightly inflected, the tip very acute.
Head oblong, much compressed ; eyes large. Neck long. Body rather
slender, compressed. Feet rather long, robust; tibia bare at its lower
part; tarsus covered anteriorly along its upper two-thirds with scutella,
below and on the sides with large angular scales ; toes long and rather
slender, scutellate above, flat beneath, marginate; hind toe stout, fourth
a little longer than second, third much longer; claws of moderate size,
stout, arched, compressed, rather acute, that of middle toe beautifully
pectinate on the inner edge.
Plumage soft, blended. Feathers of the upper and hind part of the
head elongated and loose, with three very long, linear incurved occipital
feathers, having their webs inflected. The feathers of the neck, especially
of its lower part and sides, are also elongated, the latter curved backwards.
Wings of moderate length, broad, rounded; primaries broad,
rounded, the third longest, the first longer than the fourth. Tail short,
slightly rounded, of twelve broad, rounded feathers.
Bill black. Bare loral space and eyelids yellowish-green ; iris bright
red. Feet yellow ; claws brown. Feathers on the upper part of the
head, the fore part of the back, and the scapulars, glossy blackish-green ;
anterior part of forehead white; neck anteriorly white, on the sides and
behind shaded into pale lilac, the lower elongated feathers tinged with