1(30 AMEIUCAM llIXrERN. 



oatiim' it. Tliis Bittern li\c(l \uitil cold \ve;it!iei', when he drunped and died. The Least 

 Bitterns arc migratory, but some winter in Southern Florida. 



ARDETTA NEOXENA. 

 Cory's Least Bittern. 



Ardetta iieoxina Coky, Auk, April, 18S(), page 2tj2. 



DESCRIFIION. 



Sp. Ch. Form slender. Size, small, and otiier characters mucii as in A. exilis. 



Color. Adult, Top of head, back and tail, black, glossed with green, and the feathers of the back of 

 neck tipped with greenish black. Side of head and throat, chestnut. Breast and underparts, quite unifirm 

 reddish chestnut, changing into blackish on the sides. Under tail coverts, dull black. Upper wing coverts, 

 reddish chestnut, under, pale chestnut. Primaries, dark slaty. 



OBSERVATIONS. 



This fine little bittern may be distinguished from the common Least Bittern by tlie nearly uniform dark 

 reddish chestnut of the under parts, which are pale buff in A. e.\ilis, anlby the generally darker olors. 



DIMENSIONS. 

 Length. 10.80; wing, -l.oO; bill, ISO; tarsus, 1.40. 



HABITS. 



The first specimen of Cory's Least Bittern was talien in Western Florida, in 188G, 

 and descril)ed by Mr. Cory in Tlie Auk, as cited above. A second specimen was obtained 

 in the same locality a year or two later, but the species is still very rare in collections. 



Notes on the American Bittern. In Contributions to Science, Vol. 1, ISS'), page ')'K I gave a 

 detailed account of the Vocal organs of the American Bittern, then new to science, which article I dedicated 

 to Mr. Bradford Torrey, and tliis matter is here reproduced, much as then written, with some additional 

 notes upon the subject. 



For over a hundred years, writers who have noticed tiie peculiar notes of the American Bittern, have 

 propounded various theories regarding the probable method by wJiich these sounds are produced. Some of 

 these theories were apparently absurd ; for example, we find it stated that the bird thi-usts its lieak beneath 

 the water, and thus bubbles out the sound ; again, we are told that the bird beats either the water or a stake 

 ■with its wings ; none, however, came near the truth. It remained for Mr. Bradford Torrey, and liis fi-iend 

 Prof Walter Faxon, after watching a Bittern which was repeatedly uttering its notes, under peculiarly 

 favorable circumstances, in the spring of ISSS, to advance an hypothesis nf tlie method by which the siiunds 

 are produced which is substantially correct. A most interesting account of this lias been published by Mr. 

 Torrey in the Auk, for January, 1889. 



Briefly, stated, Mr. Torrey's theory is. that the Bittern draws air into its oesophagus, and thus 

 somehow, by this peculiar method, produces the singular pumping sound. 



When this paper of Mr. Torrey's first came to my notice, I may frankly state, that, although greatly 

 impressed with the careful manner in which he made his observations, I believed he was mistaken in his 

 conclusions, for I was sure that the pumping sounds of the Bittern had their origin in the inferior larynx, as 

 is the case with the notes of all other birds of which we have knowledge. After dissecting, as will be seen 

 further on, probably the identical Bittern from which Mr. Torrey made his notes, I met with such strong, 

 although totally unexpected and unprecedented evidence, of the general correctness of Ids theory, (that the 

 notes proceed from the oesophagus) that I have with pleasure dedicated this article, wherein I have 

 recorded what I consider one of the most important discoveries in ornithological anatomy that it has been my 



