524 RALLL'S AQUATICUS. 



are said to bo " yellowish, marked with reddish-brown spots ;" 

 and Mr. John Smith, of Yarmouth, in a notice printed in the 

 Annals of Natural History, vol. ii., p. 78, gives the following- 

 detailed account of the nest and eggs : — " The bird had 

 selected for her nest a thick tuft of long grass, hollow at the 

 bottom, on the side of the reed pond '; the nest about an inch 

 and a half thick, was composed of withered leaves and rushes ; 

 it was so covered by the top of the grass, that neither bird, 

 nest, nor eggs, could be seen ; the entrance to and from the 

 nest was through an aperture of the grass, directly into the 

 reeds, opposite where any one could stand to see the nest. 

 The length of the eggs, on an average, were one inch and a 

 half, some near a tenth more, others near a tenth less ; weight, 

 seven drachms ; colour, light cream, thickly spotted at the 

 larger ends with bright rusty red, intermixed with sunk faint 

 lilac spots, thinly and finely spotted at the lesser ends with 

 the same colours, with a blush of pink over the whole egg, 

 but more towards the lesser ends ; the yolk a bright blood- 

 red, brighter than any egg I ever opened, and I think that the 

 pink tint of the shell is owing to the redness of the yolk, for 

 after emptying the eggs it was hardly perceptible. On the 

 20th of June I found another nest in the same reed pond ; 

 the eggs were destroyed ; this nest was built among the reeds, 

 and very near the water. On the 10th of July I obtained a 

 third nest from the same place, of eleven eggs, within two or 

 three days of hatching ; the nest and situation much like the 

 last." It is very probable that the white eggs found by 

 Montagu were those of the Little Bittern. 



Young. — The young are first covered with black hair-like 

 down. When fledged they differ little from the adult, and 

 might be described in the same terms, with the following 

 slight exceptions : — " The bill is more dusky, the red of the 

 lower mandible and edges of the upper being less bright, and 

 the tarsi are of a dull greenish-brown tint. The white on the 

 throat is more extended ; the greyish-blue of the fore neck 

 and breast paler, and most of the feathers narrowly tipped 

 with yellowish-white ; of which colour are the middle of the 

 breast, the abdomen, and the inner part of the legs. 



