of the District of Montreal, 357 



above ; lores, eyelids, and legs pale greenish yellow ; irides or- 

 ange ; eggs 4, cinereous green. 



Dorsal aspect. Line over the eye yellowish white ; crown 

 ferruginous brown ; feathers of nape and sides of neck, large, long, 

 with straggling vanes, ferruginous yellow streaked with brown ; 

 below the auriculars a streak of black descends 3 or 4 inches 

 down the neck ; dorsal feathers umber brown mottled with black, 

 with cream coloured margins ; greater and smaller wing co- 

 verts, scapulars, secondaries, rump, and tail brown, sprinkled 

 with brownish yellow and black ; the brownish yellow predom- 

 inating on the great wing coverts ; primaries clove brown with 

 pale outer margins. 



Ventral aspect. Chin white, with a narrow line of brownish 

 yellow in the medial line ; throat cream colour, the feathers with 

 broad central brownish yellow streaks ; on the belly and vent 

 the streaks are narrower ; flanks brownish yellow, sprinkled with 

 brownish black ; tail coverts cream colour ; wing coverts cream 

 colour sprinkled with brownish black. 



2nd and 3rd primaries subequal in length and longest ; 1st 

 about a Hne shorter. Length 21 inches ; alar expanse 31 J- inches. 

 The female resembles the male, and the young bird is also sim- 

 ilar but has the tints less decided. The legs of the American 

 bittern are long; length of the tarsus 3 inches 2 lines; length of 

 middle toe from the ankle joint to extremity of the nail 3 inches 

 8 lines ; length of bill from the angle of the mouth to the tip 3j 

 inches. 



A. exilis. Little Bittern. 

 Ardettaexilis. Baird ! 



v.s.p. Bill yellow with a black ridge ; legs and feet yellow 

 tinged with green anteriorly ; irides orange yellow ; eggs un- 

 known, but if resembling the European analogous species, white. 



Dorsal aspect. Frontlet, chesnut deepening into black on the 

 crown of head, which has a deep sea green reflection ; sides of 

 head, nape of neck, chesnut ; feathers of back and scapulars dark 

 chesnut tipped with rusty yellow ; small wing coverts brownish 

 yellow, with a central broad spot of brownish black ; upper row 

 of great wing coverts, with the lower row of the smaller ones, 

 rusty yellow ; lower row of great wing coverts bright chesnut ; 

 rump cinereous, the feathers tipped with whitish ; piimaries and 

 tail dusky, the former tipped with chesnut. 



