LITTLE BITTERN 



253 



In the European species the length does not exceed 13 inches; and 

 the hen falls somewhat short of this. In the cock the crown of the 

 head and the back are greenish black, and the cheeks, neck, wing- 

 coverts and under -parts buff, except for a white patch on the 

 abdomen. Apart from her smaller size, the hen is characterised by 

 the brown tinge on the crown of the head, the rufous cheeks, brown 

 back, brownish-buff wing-coverts, and the black-streaked buff under- 

 parts. Young birds may be distinguished from adult females by the 

 duller tone of their upper-parts, 

 in which the wing-coverts are 

 dark brown with buff edges. 



The little bittern ranges 

 over the greater portion of 

 Europe, southward of about 

 the sixtieth degree of lati- 

 tude, whence it visits Africa 

 in winter : eastward its geo- 

 graphical area extends through 

 Central Asia, and thence south- 

 wards across the Himalaya 

 into Sind, where, as in Kash- 

 mir, it breeds. Occasionally 

 it has been taken in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Delhi and Etawah. 

 During the summer a certain 

 number of little bitterns visit 

 northern Europe, inclusive of 

 the British Islands, where they 



are most commonly observed in the southern and eastern counties 

 of England. This, however, scarcely explains the real state of the 

 case, for there is considerable presumptive evidence that the species 

 occasionally nests in East Anglia, a pair of these birds having been 

 observed in one of the Norfolk Broads during the breeding-season. 



That little bitterns might occasionally nest in the alder-swamps of 

 the Norfolk Broads without being detected is indeed quite likely, when 

 the skulking nature of these birds, and the difficulty of examining 

 the covert in these marshes, are taken into consideration. Although 

 generally found amid reeds and rushes, where its protective colouring 

 renders it extremely difficult of detection, the little bittern occasionally 

 prefers to perch on trees ; and both in that situation and when among 

 reeds has the habit, shared by its larger relative, of standing bolt 



HOUHTEO IN THE ROWLftND WSRD STUDiOS 



LITTLE BITTERN, 



