THE AMERICAN BITTERN. 95 



perches in a tree, but on its first arrival at its breeding- 

 grounds it is said to roost on a sheltered branch until the reeds 

 have grown high enough to conceal it. It is a voracious 

 eater, fish six inches long, eels twice that length, and even a 

 water-rat, have been found in its stomach, but its principal 

 food consists of small fishes, frogs, and water-insects of all 

 kinds, occasionally varied with the tender shoots of water- 

 plants." 



Nest. — Composed of dry rushes, placed on the ground in a 

 dense reed-swamp. 



Eggs. — From three to five in number, of a brownish-olive 

 colour, with a faint greenish tint when fresh. Mr. Seebohm 

 says that, when held up to the light, they are yellowish-brown 

 inside, not green like the eggs of the Heron. Axis, 2 -0-2 "25 

 inches; diam., 1-45-1 -55. 



II. THE AMERICAN BITTERN. BOTAURUS LENTIGINOSUS. 



Ardea lentiginosa, Montagu, Suppl. Orn. Diet. (18 13). 



Botaurus le?itiginosiis, Macg. Br. B. iv. p. 417 (1852) ; Dresser, 

 B. Eur. vi. p. 289, pi. 404 (1878) ; B. O. U. List Br. B. p. 

 Ill (1883); Seebohm, Br. B. ii. p. 506 (1884); Saunders, 

 ed. Yarr. Br. B. iv. p. 213 (1884); id. Man. Br. B. p. 373 

 (1889) ; Lilford, Col. Fig. Br. B. part xxiv. (1893). 



Characters. — The wavy plumage of the Bitterns involves such 

 long descriptions that it is not necessary to do more, in the 

 case of an accidental visitor like the present bird, than to state 

 that the American Bittern can always be distinguished by its 

 uniform brown head, and by the rufous tips to the primary- 

 coverts and quills, which are uniform slaty-grey or slaty-black. 

 Total length, 28 inches; culmen, 3-1; wing, 11-2; tail, 3-6; 

 tarsus, 375. 



Range in Great Britain. — It is a curious fact that a common 

 North American bird like this Bittern should have been first 

 described by Colonel Montagu from an English specimen which 

 occurred in Dorsetshire in 1804. It is an accidental visitor to 

 Great Britain, and has occurred many times. A specimen from 

 Cornwall was shown to me at the Biitish Museum by the 



