GRALLATORES. 313 



the back and wings ; primaries and tail-feathers dark chest- 

 nut-red, deepening into black near the extremity and tipped 

 with buffy white ; all the under surface bufFy white, with a 

 stripe of brown down the centre of each feather ; irides yellow. 



Genus BOTAURUS, Stephens. 



Members of this genus are found in most parts of both 

 the Old and New Worlds, and they inhabit many of the 

 islands as well as the mainlands. The Bitterns are birds of 

 the night, for it is then that they skulk about the marshes 

 and sides of rivers for their peculiar food, such as frogs, snails, 

 water-voles, and insects. In the daytime they sleep among 

 the reeds, whence they are not easily roused. 



Sp. 558. BOTAURUS POICILOPTILUS. 



Australian Bittern. 



Ardea poiciloptila, Wagl. Syst. Av., Note to Ardea, sp. 28. 

 Botaurus australis, Cuv. Gal. de Paris. — Less. Traite d^Orn. p. 572. 

 melanotus, G. R. Gray, App. to Dieffenb. Trav. in New Zeal., 



vol. ii. p. 196. 

 poeciloptila, Bonap. Compt. Rend, de I'Acad. Sci., torn, xliii. 



seance du 2 Aout, 1856. 

 Bur -den-etch, Aborigines of the lowlands of Western Australia. 



Botaurus australis, Gould, Birds of Australia, foL, vol. vi. pi. 64. 



The Austrahan Bittern, although nowhere very abundant, is 

 so generally diffused over the surface of the country wherever 

 marshes and the sedgy banks of rivers occur, that there are 

 few localities of this description in which its presence may 

 not be detected : owing to the frequent occurrence of such 

 districts in Tasmania, it is perhaps more numerous in that 

 island than elsewhere. A fine specimen, which had been 

 captured on the Torrens, was sent to me during my stay in 

 Adelaide by Mr. Dark, the Surveyor ; I killed another myself 



