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$Unique_ID{BRD00624}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Yellow-Crowned Night Heron}
$Subject{Ardeinae; Ardea; Nycticorax; violacea; Yellow-Crowned Night Heron;
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron}
$Journal{Birds of America: Volume VI}
$Volume{Vol. 6:89-94}
$Family{Ardeinae}
$Genus{Ardea; Nycticorax}
$Species{violacea}
$Common_Name{Yellow-Crowned Night Heron; Yellow-crowned Night-Heron}
$Log{
Plate CCCLXIV*00624P1.scf
Family*00621.txt
Genus*00622.txt
}
Portions copyright (c) Creative Multimedia Corp., 1990-91, 1992
B I R D S O F A M E R I C A .
By John James Audubon, F. R. SS. L. & E.
------------------------------------------
VOL. VI.
--------------------------------
YELLOW-CROWNED NIGHT HERON.
[Yellow-crowned Night-Heron.]
ARIDEA VIOLACEA, Linn.
[Nycticorax violacea.]
PLATE CCCLXIV.--ADULT AND YOUNG.
The Yellow-crowned Heron, which is one of the handsomest species of its
tribe, is called "Cap-cap" by the Creoles of Lower Louisiana, in which country
it is watched and shot with great eagerness, on account of the excellence of its
flesh. It arrives about New Orleans toward the end of March, and departs in the
middle of October. On arriving, they throw themselves among the thickets along
the bayous, where they breed. Like the Night Heron, this species may be enticed
near by imitating its cries, when it approaches, cutting many curious zigzags in
the air, and alights close by. It is a curious circumstance that when massing
over several gunners placed on the watch for them, they dive toward the ground
if shot at and missed, and this they do several times in succession, according
to the number of shots. It is in the evening and at dawn that they are chiefly
obtained. They are said not to travel in boisterous weather, or when there is
thunder; and I have heard the same stated with regard to the Night Heron.
In some parts of the Southern States, this species is quite abundant, while
in the intermediate tracts it is seldom or never met with. Thus, in the
Floridas, I found great numbers on a bayou near Halifax river, but afterwards
saw none until I reached one of the keys, more than two hundred miles distant,
and farther south, where it was breeding in society. The first of these flocks
I saw in winter, the other on the 22nd of May. Again, while proceeding toward
the Texas, we saw a few on an island in Bay Blanche, but met with none
afterwards until we reached Galveston Island, where they were plentiful. They
seldom advance eastward far beyond North Carolina, and I am not aware of any
having been seen farther than New Jersey. On the other hand, they are not
generally found on the Mississippi beyond Natchez, although stragglers may
sometimes be seen farther up.
This species is by no means entirely nocturnal, for I have seen it
searching for food among the roots of mangroves at all hours of the day, and
that as assiduously as any diurnal bird, following the margins of rivers, and
seizing on both aquatic and terrestrial animals. Whilst at Galveston, I
frequently saw a large flock similarly occupied. When they had satisfied their
hunger, they would quietly remove to some safe distance toward the middle of an
island, where, standing in a crouching posture on the ground, they presented a
very singular appearance. That they are able to see to a considerable distance
on fine clear nights, I have no doubt, as I am confident that their migratory
movements are usually performed at such times, having seen them, as well as
several other species, come down from a considerable height in the air, after
sun-rise, for the purpose of resting and procuring food.
The flight of the Yellow-crowned Heron is rather slow, and less protracted
than that of the Night Heron, which it however somewhat resembles. When in
numbers, and surprised on their perches, they usually rise almost
perpendicularly for thirty or forty yards, and then take a particular direction,
leading them to some well-known place. Whenever I have started them from the
nest, especially on the Florida Keys, they would sneak off on wing quite low,
under cover of the mangroves, and fly in this manner until they had performed
the circuit of the island, when they would alight close to me, as if to see
whether I had taken their eggs or young.
When on the ground, they exhibit little of the elegance displayed by the
Louisiana, the Reddish, the Blue, or the White Herons; they advance with a less
sedate pace, and seldom extend their neck much even when about to seize their
food, which they appear to do with little concern, picking it up from the ground
in the manner of a domestic fowl. Nor are they at all delicate in the choice of
their viands, but swallow snails, fish, small snakes, crabs, crays, lizards, and
leeches, as well as small quadrupeds, and young birds that have fallen from
their nests. One which was killed by my friend EDWARD HARRIS, Esq., on the 19th
of April, 1837, on an island in the Bay of Terre Blanche, about 4 o'clock in the
evening, was, when opened next morning, found to have swallowed a terrapin,
measuring about an inch and a half in length, by one in breadth. It was still
alive, and greatly surprised my companions as well as myself by crawling about
when liberated.
This species places its nest either high or low, according to the nature of
the place selected for it, and the abundance of food in the neighbourhood. In
the interior of swampy woods, in Lower Louisiana, I have found the nests placed
on the tops of the loftiest cypresses, and on low bushes, but seldom so close
together as those of many other Herons. On the Florida Keys, where I have
examined more of these tenements than in any other part, I found them either on
the tops of mangroves, which there seldom attain a greater height than
twenty-five feet, or on their lowest branches, and not more than two or three
feet from the water. In the Carolinas, they usually resort to swamps, nestling
on the bushes along their margins. The nest is similar to that of other Herons,
being formed of dry sticks loosely put together, and a few weeds, with at times
a scanty lining of fibrous roots. The eggs are generally three, never, in as
far as I have seen, more, of a pale blue colour, inclining to green,
thin-shelled, and averaging two inches in length by an inch and three and a half
eighths in their greatest breadth. The young seldom remain in the nest until
able to fly, as is the case with those of some other species, but usually leave
it to follow their parents along the shores. If seared from the nest, they
scramble along the branches with considerable agility, and hide whenever an
opportunity occurs. I have given the figure of a young bird procured in
October.
The differences between the periods at which this bird breeds in different
latitudes, correspond with those observed with respect to other species of the
same tribe. Thus, eggs and young may be procured on the Florida Keys six weeks
sooner than in South Carolina, although two broods are usually raised in both
districts, the birds frequently removing from one place to another for the
purpose. The beautiful slender plumes on the head and back generally fall off
soon after incubation commences, although I have on a few occasions found the
male still bearing these ornaments when the female was sitting on her second set
of eggs. When the young are just able to fly I have found them good eating, but
the old birds I never relished.
When wounded, the Yellow-crowned Heron defends itself vigorously with its
claws, the scratches inflicted by which are severe, and also strikes with the
bill. If not brought to the ground, in a place where the trees are close and
thickly branched, it is difficult to obtain them without a second shot, for they
scamper quickly