igoi] Kells — Cory's Least Bittern. 67 



Plate IV. 

 Lower or outer surface of specimens represented in plale III; one-third natural 

 size. 



Plate V. 

 Upper or inner surface of specimens represented in plate III; one-third natura 

 size. 



Plate VI. 



The lower surface of the anterior end of the plastron fiifured ni the preceding- 

 plates; natural size; to show the sulci of the interg-ular and yular shields, 

 details of sculpture, etc. 



CORY'S LEAST BITTERN {Botaurus neoxemis, Cory). 



By \V. L. Kells, Listowel, Ont. 



Many years ag-o, in the time of the early settlement of the 

 township of Peel, the writer remembers to have seen a specimen 

 of a bird which he has never since seen alive. It was at the 

 time of the spring- migration, and the bird, probably wearied 

 with a long flight, was able to fly but a short distance at a time, 

 so that being pursued it was finally captured in a pool of water into 

 which it fluttered in its eff"orts to escape. When dissected it 

 proved to be a female. It evidently belonged to the family of the 

 Waders, or Shore birds, as it had a long neck and bill and long 

 legs, with a slender body, but some of the colouring of its plumage 

 was very beautiful. 



Many years afterwards, when visiting the museum in the 

 University of Toronto, a specimen of the Least Bittern Botaiiriis 

 exilis was identified as similar in size and form, but lacking 

 in some of the handsome hues of the Peel specimen. When 

 again in Toronto, in the spring of 1891, the writer noticed at the 

 store of Thurson & Spanner a mounted specimen of a Least Bit- 

 tern, which had been collected the season before in the Toronto 

 marsh. In the published "Transactions of the Canadian In- 

 stitute" for 1890-91, is the following reference to this bird, 

 which was then regarded as the first specimen of the Florida 

 Dwarf Bittern or, as it had been previously called, Cory's Least 

 Bittern, unknown to science, that had been taken in Ontario. Mr. 



