NON-INDIGENOUS BRITISH BIRDS. 199 



Family ARDEID.E. 'Genus Ardetta. 



LITTLE BITTERN. 



Ardetta minuta {LitincEus). 



(British : Possibly breeds : Spring and autumn coasting migrant.) 



Single Brooded. Laying season, May and June. 



Breeding area : South-western Palaearctic region, 

 north-eastern Ethiopian region, and north-western 

 Oriental region. The Little Bittern breeds throughout 

 Europe in suitable localities south of the Baltic. It also 

 breeds in Asia Minor, Palestine, Persia, Baluchistan, 

 North-west India (including Cashmere), and North- 

 western Turkestan. South of the Mediterranean it 

 breeds in the Azores, Madeira, and Northern Africa, 

 from Morocco to Egypt, but principally in the north- 

 west. 



Breeding habits : The Little Bittern arrives at its 

 European breeding places in the south during March 

 and April, but not until May in the north. It is a shy, 

 skulking, solitary species, frequenting marshes and 

 swamps and the reed and rush-fringed margins of pools. 

 Of the pairing habits of this bird nothing appears to be 

 known. The nest is built amongst the dense aquatic 

 vegetation, sometimes amongst the belt of reeds at some 

 distance from the shore, half floating in the stagnant 

 shallow water, or on the bank in rushes and coarse 

 grass. Less frequently it is made on the flat top of 

 a pollard willow ; whilst the bird has even been known 

 to make use of the old nest of a Magpie built in a tree 

 near the swamps. In India the favourite situation is 

 amongst wild rice or rushes. The nest is a large 

 slovenly mass of half-rotten vegetation, the cup, which 

 is shallow and saucer-like, being made of drier and finer 



