134 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 



over or near the water. The eggs, three to six (usually four), are bluish- 

 white or pale blue, unspotted, closely resembling those of the Yellow-billed 

 Cuckoo, and averaging 1.20 by .93 inches. 



This species when disturbed rises with a good deal of awkward flapping, 

 much like most other herons, but makes fair speed when once under way. 

 Apparently it migrates mostly by night, and it is one of the birds often 

 killed by flying against wire fences, telephone and telegraph wires. We 

 do not know that its food differs much from that of the other herons. 



In suitable places Least Bitterns are extraordinarily abundant, but 

 the numbers vary much in the same locality from year to year. On 

 Chandler's Marsh, Ingham county, we have known two collectors working 

 together to find more than 20 nests containing eggs, and nearly as many 

 empty ones, during a day's search. According to Dr. R. H. Wolcott many 

 false nests or "roosts" are constructed in the vicinity of the one in which 

 the eggs are laid. In the southern half of the state most of the eggs are 

 laid between June first and 15th, and we have no reason to suppose that 

 more than one brood is reared in a season. 



TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 



Adult male: Top of head, back, scapulars and tail deep greenish-black; the scapulars 

 margined on the outer edge by a pale buff stripe; sides of head and neck buff, deepening 

 to chestnut along the black cap and down the back of the neck; a brownish black patch 

 on each side of the breast in front of the bend of the wing; entire under parts from bill 

 to tail whitish or very pale buff, many of the feathers with narrow dark brown shaft-lines, 

 and a darker stripe down the middle of the neck and chest; lesser wing coverts and some of 

 the others light buff, but the greater coverts, tertiaries, and outer vanes of most of the 

 secondaries, rich chestnut; primaries dark slate color. Bill brown along the ridge, yellow 

 along the cutting edges; legs and feet greenish-yellow; iris bright yellow. Adult female: 

 Similar, but top of head dark brown instead of black, back and scapulars lighter brown, 

 the buffy stripe much wider than in male; the under parts darker buff and more heavily 

 streaked with brown. Immature: Similar to the adult female, but most of the back 

 feathers buff-tipped. 



Length 12 to 14 inches; wing 4..30 to 5.25; culmen 1.60 to 1.90; tarsus 1.50 to 1.75. 



70. Cory's Bittern. Ixobrychus neoxenus (Cory). (191.1) 



Synonyms: Cory's Least Bittern, Cory's Dwarf Bittern. — Ardetta neoxena, Cory, 

 1886, and most subsequent authors. 



Figure 33. 



Precisely like the preceding in size and proportions, and very similar 

 in color, but with much more chestnut, the entire under parts being of this 

 color, more or less mixed or shaded with black. 



Distribution. — Originally discovered in Florida, in the Everglades, 

 where all the earlier specimens were taken. Subsequently 16 specimens 

 were taken near Toronto, Ont., one was taken in Wisconsin, one in Ohio, 

 and at least two in Michigan. The first Michigan specimen was taken 

 at Manchester, Augusts, 1894, by L. Whitney ^Watkins (Auk, XII, 77), 

 the second by Jesse Craven, at St. Clair Flats, May 14, 1904. Very hkely 

 the distribution of this species will prove to be the same as that of 

 the preceding, and several ornithologists have suggested that Cory's Bittern 

 may prove to be simply a color phase of the Least Bittern. Almost nothing 

 is known as yet in regard to ^the habits^^of this bird, but what there is 

 agrees closely with what we know of the other species. 



