The Night Heron was occasionally seen in England but was unable to breed as it was invariably shot. Gould recalled that as a boy a specimen was sent to him which had been killed in Windsor Great Park, - a reference to his youthful skill in mounting animals.

The illustration shows the adult (foreground) and the young are two-thirds lifesize.

DISTRIBUTION: Breeds from south Europe (north to Netherlands) eastwards to China and Japan, south to northwest Africa and across to Lesser Sunda Islands, west, east and south Africa, Madagascar, and locally in Americas. European populations winter in Africa south of the Sahara to Cape Province. In Britain relatively rare vagrant, mostly between April and June