IV ARDEIDAE 89 
ated on lofty trees, though frequently on low bushes, ivy-covered 
cliffs, flat rocks, or reeds and herbage in swamps, is often a large 
fabric of sticks without lining or with a slight bedding of grass, 
leaves, and the like, but may be a mere mass of rushes and flags ; 
the tree-building forms at times resorting to the ground and 
vice versd. Bitterns generally crush down the aquatic vegetation 
and add softer materials on this substructure, depositing four or 
five olive-drab eggs; Avdetta in some cases does the same, but the 
eggs are bluish- or greenish-white ; whereas those of the Herons 
proper are of a greenish- or whitish-blue colour of varying depth, 
and exceptionally amount to six or seven. Butorides not uncom- 
monly lays only two. If the first set is removed a second 
is often produced after a short interval; but the young remain 
long in the nest. Incubation lasts from sixteen to thirty days. 
Herons were of old protected by law, as affording an excellent 
quarry for Falcons, while the flesh was highly esteemed; when 
wounded, however, they must be carefully approached, as they use 
the bill with deadly effect, and aim at the captor’s eye. In India 
they are used as decoy-birds with the eyes sewn up. 
The following will sufficiently shew the coloration; the largest 
species is Ardea goliath ; Ardetta furnishes the smallest forms. 
Botaurus stellaris, the Bittern, which bred so lately as 1868 
in Norfolk, and occurs throughout the warmer parts of the Palae- 
arctic and the whole of the Ethiopian Region, is buff, with black 
bars above and streaks below, black crown, nape, and _ stripes 
down the side of the neck, and chestnut bands on the primaries. L. 
lentiginosus, distinguished by the nearly uniform brown primaries, 
is rarely found in Britain, but inhabits North America, probably 
meeting about Nicaragua with B. pinnatus of tropical South 
America, which lacks the neck-stripes; while B. poeciloptilus of 
the Australian Region has much of the back brown. The neck- 
feathers in these birds form an elongated ruff. Ardetta minuta 
of Central and Southern Europe, Western Asia, and the northern 
half of Africa, formerly known to have bred in England, is 
vreenish-black, with buff neck, wing-coverts, and under surtace, 
the latter slightly streaked with dusky. These streaks are more 
decided in other species, which are often greyer, browner, ‘or 
more ruddy above; 4. cinnamomea of the Indian [Region is 
almost entirely rufous, while all have a slight head-tuft. A fuller 
crest marks Zebrilus pumilus of northern South America, wherein 
