ARDEID.E— THE HERONS. 138* 



Botaurus lentiginosus (Montag.) 



AMEEICAN BITTERN. 



Popular synonyms. Stake-driver; Post-driver; Thunder-pump Water-belcher; Bog-bull; 

 Bog- bumper; Mire-drum; Look-up; Indian hen; Indian pullet, etc. 



Ardea mugitans Bartr. Travels. 17i»2, (nomen nudum). 



Botaurus mugitans Coues. Check List, 2d ed. 1882, No. 666. 

 Ardea lenliginosa Montague, Orn. Diet. Suppl. 1813.— Sw. & Rich. F. B.-A. ii, 1831,374.— 



Nutt. Man. ii, 1831. 00.— Aud. Synop. 1839. 263; Birds Am. vi. 1813. 94, pi. 365 

 Botaurus lentiginosus Stephens, Shaw's Gen. Zool. xii, 1819, 596.— Baibd, Birds N. 



Am. 1858, C74: Cat. N. Am. B. 1859, No. 492.-:Reichenow. J f. O. 1877. 218.— RlDGW. 



Nom. Am. B. 1881, No. 497; Man. 1887. 120..— A. O. U. Check List, 1S86, No. 190. 

 Ardea hudsonias Merrem, Ersch. Grub. Ency. v. 1820, 175. 

 Ardea minor WiL3. Am. Orn. viii. 1814, 35, pi. 65, fig. 3. 



Botaurus minor Boie, Isis, 1826, 979— Coues, Key, 1872, 209; Check List, 1873, No. 



460; Birds N. W. 1874, 523. 

 Butor americanus Swains. Classif. B. ii, 1837, 351. 

 Ardea mokoko Vieill. Nouv. Diet, xiv, 1817, 440. 

 Botaurus adspersus "Cab.," Bonap. Consp. ii. 1857, 156. 

 Ardea stellaris canadensis Edwards, Nat. Hist. pi. 136. 

 Le Butor de laBaye de Hudson Edwards, I. c. 

 Botaurus Freti-Hudsonis Briss. Orn. v, 1700, 450. pi. 37, (ig. 1. 

 Ardea stellaris Varietas Forst. Philos. Trans. l»ii, 1772, 410. No. 38 (Severn R.). 

 Bittern Var. A. Lath. Synop. iii, 1785, 58. 

 Ardea stellaris B. Lath. Ind. Orn. ii, 1790. 680, No. 18 B. (ex Edwards, pi. 136 . 



Hab. The whole of temperate and tropical North America, north to latitude about 00°, 

 south to Guatemala. Cuba; Jamaica; Bermudas. Occasional in Europe (18 British records). 



Sp. Char. Adult: Ground-color of the plumage ochraceous-buff; but this densly mot- 

 tled and iinely sprinkled above with reddish brown and blackish, the latter color prevailing 

 on the dorsal and scapular regions, where the feathers have lighter edges, the butt prevail- 

 ing on the wing-coverts, where the variegation consists of a liner and sparser sprinkling of 

 the dusky and brown; on the tertials and ends of the secondaries, the reddish (a sort of cin- 

 namon shade) forms tin- ground-color, and is thickly sprinkled with irregular dusky dot- 

 i 1 zigzags; pectoral tufts nearly uniform dark brown, the feathers with broad lateral 

 borders of clear yellowish ochraceous. Pileum rusty brown, darker anteriorly, changing 

 gradually backward into the greenish olive-gray of the nape; sides of the head and neck 

 yellowish ochraceous; a malar stripe of dark rusty, changing posteriorly into a wry 

 conspicuous stripe of blue-black (or in somo specimens dull grayish) down each side of the 

 neck; chin and throat white, with a very narrow median dusky streak, suffused with 

 ceous; foreneck pale bull, with sharply defined stripes of cinnamon-brown edged with a 

 black line; lower parts pale buff, with narrower brownish stripes; tibise and orissum plain 

 light or eamy buff; primary-coverts and primaries dark slate, tipped with pale reddish 

 ochracei . but not densely, sprinkled with dusky. Upper mandible olive. 



black, the tomium (broadly) lemon- yellow; lower mandible pale lemon-yellow, deeper 



i.asally, with astri] f dusky bro^ I the tomium; loi 



eyelids lemon- yellow, the former divided longitudinally by a median stripe of dusky olive, 

 from the eye to the base of the upper mandible; Iris clear, light sulphur-yellow next the 

 pupil, shadin ige-brownish, this encircled narrowly with blaok; lege 



and feet bright yellowish green ; olaws pale brown, dusky toward po ig: Similar 



to the adult, but more reddish, the mottling coarser, and with a tender.. 

 transvi illy on the posterior upper parts. 



Imens (male and female) killed Nevada, 



Nov. 18, and Deo. 11, 18 ■■ 



