LITTLE RED HERON 105 
feeding-ground it prefers is a spot on the borders of 
a marshy stream shut in and overshadowed on all 
sides by trees and tall rushes. There the bird sits 
silent and solitary on a projecting root or dead 
branch; or stands motionless and knee-deep in the 
water, intent on the small fry it feeds on. For whole 
months it will be found every day in the same place. 
When intruded on in its haunts it erects the feathers 
of its head and neck, looking strangely alarmed or 
angry, and flies away uttering a powerful, harsh, 
grating cry. 
LITTLE RED HERON 
Ardetta involucris 
Above light fulvous, a black stripe on the nape; front, stripe on 
back of the neck, bend of wing and outer secondaries, chestnut-red ; 
back striped with black; wing-feathers ash-grey with red tips; be- 
neath yellowish white striped with brown ; beak yellow, feet green ; 
length 13, wing 5 inches. 
Tue Little Red, or Variegated, Heron which inhabits 
Paraguay and Argentina, is the least of the family 
to which it belongs, its body being no bigger than 
that of the Common Snipe; but in structure it is 
like other Herons, except that its legs are a trifle 
shorter in proportion to its size and its wings very 
much shorter than in other species. The under 
plumage is dull yellow in colour, while all the other 
parts are variegated with marks of fuscous and 
various shades of brown and yellow. The body is 
