DIKKCTORY TO BIRDS OF EASTERN NORTH AMERICA. lOl 



Binall mammals) which are secured by being grasped in the 

 bill. Ciies, harsh and unmusical. Young, naked when 

 hatched but are soon covered with down ; helpless and are 

 fed by regurgitation. 



A. BITTERNS. Botauridae. 



Tail feathers, ten, not stiffened; no plume-like feathers 

 on head or body ; lower neck behind destitute of feathers, 

 fig. 117. 



a. Striped Bitterns. Botaurus. 



Oesophagus, modified during the breeding season into a 

 sound-producing organ. Sexes, similar. Young, not strik- 

 ingly different. Nests, placed on the grouud, usually in 

 fresh-water bogs ; eggs, 3-6 ; greenish-ash or brown. Never 

 gregarious even when breeding. 



1. AMERICAN BITl^ERN, B. lentiginosus. 28.50; 

 bill, 3.00; above dark brown sprinkled and spotted with yel- 

 lowish ; beneath, and 

 on sides of head and 

 neck, pale yellowish 

 broadly streaked with 

 yellowish-rufous and 

 dusky ; triangulat* 

 patch on side of neck, 

 black ; iris, yellow ; 

 bill and feet greenish, 

 fig. 117. Young, sim- 

 ilar but somewhat pal- 

 er. Nestlings, covered 

 with long, yellowish 

 down. Breeds through- 

 out temperate N. A.; "'^^ A, a, 1. 1-20. 

 usually nests in inaccessible fresh water bogs but occasion- 

 ally breeds on salt marshes; migrates south in Oct. ; winters 

 from Fla. southward to Guatemala ; comes north in April. 

 Common. When not breeding frequents alike fresh and salt 



^^ 



