424 BOTAURUS MINUTUS. 



Male. — This Bittern, which is the smallest European 

 bird of the family of Ardeinse, is most closely allied to a still 

 smaller American species, Ardea exilis of Wilson, Ardeola 

 t xilis of the Prince of Canino, from which, considering their 

 form and colours, it is difficult to distinguish it. Viewed as 

 a British bird, however, it runs no risk of being mistaken. 

 Its body is extremely compressed ; the neck long ; the head 

 oblong and very narrow. 



The bill is about a third longer than the head, slender, 

 but strong, straight, compressed, and tapering to a fine 

 point ; its upper outline decimate toward the end, the lower 

 straight and ascending, the edges serrulate, the tips slender 

 and acuminate ; the gape-line almost straight. The tongue 

 is an inch and two-twelfths in length, trigonal, fleshy, 

 grooved near the base, convex toward the end, deeply sagit- 

 tate at the base, with a long acute papilla on each side, the 

 tip acute. The oesophagus is eight inches long and very 

 wide ; the stomach roundish, of moderate size, with their 

 parietes. 



The nostrils are linear ; the eyes of moderate size. The 

 legs rather long ; the tibia feathered almost to the joint ; the 

 tarsus with anterior scutella ; the toes long, slender ; the 

 first with eight, the second eighteen, the third twenty-eight, 

 the fourth twenty-two scutella ; the inner toe considerably 

 longer than the outer. The claws are rather long, very 

 slender, compressed, little arched, finely pointed, the inner 

 thin edge of the middle toe serrate, with about thirty teeth. 



The eyelids and loral spaces are bare. The hind-neck is 

 destitute of feathers, or even down, of which there is none 

 on any part of the body, excepting two small stripes on the 

 fore part of the breast, and a patch on each side of the 

 rump. The plumage is soft and blended ; the feathers on 

 the upper part of the head elongated ; those on the fore- 

 neck of moderate length, but on the sides large and curved 

 backwards, so as to cover the extended bare space behind ; 

 and on the lower parts elongated. The wings are rather 

 large, of twenty-six quills ; the second longest, but scarcely 

 exceeding the first ; the inner secondaries much shorter than 

 the longest primaries when the wing is closed. The tail is 



