SY'STEMA TIC SYNOPSIS. — HERODIONES — HERODII. 



Mexico, Central and South America to Brazil. Inhabits cat-tail marshes and reedy swamps, 



such as Rails frequent ; 

 nest a mere platform of 

 dead rushes or reeds, 

 placed among the living 

 ones, which are hent over 

 it by the bird ; nest some- 

 tiiries in a bush. Eggs 

 3-6, about 1.22 X 0.92, 

 elliptical, white with a 

 faint greenish tinge. 

 A. neoxe'na. (Gr. vtosy 

 neos, new, and ^evos, xe- 

 nos, a guest, stranger, 

 foreigner.) Florida 

 Dwarf Bittern. Co- 

 ry's Least Bittern. Adult $•. 

 Crown, back, and tail, black, glossed 

 with green ; no buff stripe along scap- 

 ulars. Sides of head and throat chest- 

 nut ; feathers of back of neck tipped 

 with greenish-black. Breast and under 

 parts rufous-chestnut, nearly uniform, 

 shading into blackish on sides ; under 

 tail-coverts and lesser wing-coverts 

 black; other upper wing-coverts ru- 

 fous-chestnut, under ones paler chest- 

 nut; the remiges slaty-plumbeous, 

 without rufous tips; inner secondaries 

 black. Legs and feet greenish -yellow, 

 soles yellow. Length ILOO; wing 

 4.50 ; tail and tarsus 1 .60 ; culmen 

 1 .75-L80. Florida to Ontario, Michi- 

 gan, and Minnesota. About 15 speci- 

 mens of this interesting species are 

 now known, showing no intergra- 

 dation with exilis. This is a much 

 more heavily colored bird, with less 

 variegation, black or blackish in 

 several places where exilis is not, 

 and the general tone of other jiarts 

 chestnut instead of rufous or buff. 

 The 9 differs little from $, and the 

 young closely resemble the 9 ] black 

 duller, and a little scapular chestnut. 

 Cory, Auk, Apr. 1886, p. 262, and 

 July, 1886, p. 408; Coues, Key, 

 3d ed. 1887, p. 888; 4th ed. 1890, 

 p. 905; A. 0. U. Check List, 2d ed. 1895, p. 70, No. 191.1. For criticism, bibliography, 

 etc., see Chapm. Auk, Jan. 1896, pp. 11-19, ph I. 



021 . — Leafct Bitteru 



