60 WADING BIRDS. 



This species is about 23 inches in length, and 3 feet in alar extent. 

 Bill, black ; lores, light purplish-blue ; iris, grey ; head and neck of 

 a deep purphsh brown. Long occipital feathers, dark brown, and 

 not very distinct or separate from the rest. General plumage, of a 

 deep slate color. The back covered with long, flat and narrow 

 feathers, some of them near 10 inches long, and extending 4 inches 

 beyond the tail ; the breast also ornamented with similar feathers. 

 Legs blackish green. 



t t J\'o long occipital feathers in the follotoing species. 



AMERICAN BITTERN. 



(Ardea lentiginosa, Montague, Suppl. Orn. Diet. (ann. 1813.) A. 



minor, Wilson, viii. p. 35. pi. 65. fig. 3. (ann. 1814.) Phil. Museum, 



No. 3727.) 

 Sp. Charact. — Yellowish ferruginous, mottled and sprinkled with 



deep brown 5 throat white, streaked with brownish; the crown, a 



wide space on each side the neck, and primaries plain black. — 



Young, with similar colors, but less decided. 



The Bittern of America, though no where numerous 

 from its retiring habits, is found in almost every part of the 

 continent, where there exist extensive marshes, either mari- 

 time or inland, up to the 58th parallel of northern latitude,* 

 where they are frequent, in the morasses and willow thickets 

 of the interior, throughout the fur countries. From the in- 

 clement regions they retire in the winter, while in other 

 parts they are permanently resident. They are said to revisit 

 Severn river, at Hudson's Bay, about the beginning of June, 

 where they make their nests in the swamps among the sedge, 

 and lay 4 cinereous green eggs. They breed also in several 

 parts of the state of Massachusetts, young birds being met 

 with in the marshes of Fresh Pond, and other places in the 

 vicinity of Boston, about the middle of summer. 



* Richardson's North. Zool. ii. p. 374. 



