BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT HERON. Nycticorax nycticorax naevius (Boddaert)

Field characters.—Considerably smaller than Great Blue Heron, and with noticeably shorter legs and neck. Prevailing coloration of body and wings light gray; under surface whitish; top of head and back greenish black. (There are usually two or three long slender plumes, 1/8 inch wide, extending backward from crown of head to middle of back.) Young birds are streaked all over with light and dark brown. Flight slow, direct, with deliberate wing beats. Voice: A sharp harsh squawk.

Occurrence.—Thinly scattered as a resident west of foothills. Frequents vicinity of water and roasts and nests in trees near by. Seen at Snelling May 26, 1915, and near Lagrange, December 14, 1915, and May 8, 1919.

Black-crowned Night Herons are resident in small numbers along the Merced and Tuolumne rivers below their exit from the foothills. The harsh-voiced notes of the birds, of frequent utterance during the night when they are active, have given them the common name of "squawk." Like most other herons they get their food from the margins of ponds and sluggish streams. The birds roost throughout the day in concealment, congregated in dense willow thickets, whence they issue forth at dusk to forage singly over the surrounding bottomlands.