ARDEID. 385 
nest, composed of sedges, was built in a dense clump of bulrushes. 
The eggs, three in number, were of a pale skim-milk blue color 
aud were about 1:25 inches in length. 
Ardetta minuta, Zin. 
935.—Jerdon’s Birds of India, Vol. I, p. 756 ; Murray’s Vertebrate 
Zoology of Sind, p. 274. 
THE LITTLE BITTERN. 
Length, 14; wings, 5°75; tail, 2; tarsus, 1:5; bill at front, 
1°75. 
Bill bright yellow, dusky above, round the eyes yellow ; irides 
yellow ; feet yellowish-green. 
Top of head, occiput, back, scapulars, and tail, glossy 
black ; small wing-coverts and the upper three-fourths of the 
other coverts pale sienna-yellow, the lower fourth more or less 
white ; quills ashy-black ; cheeks, neck, and all the lower sur- 
face of the body pale rufescent, tinged with purplish yellow on 
the neck, and with brown streaks on the flanks. 
Within our limits the Little Bittern has only been recorded 
from Sind, where Mr. Doig obtained the eggs. 
GENus, Botaurus, Brisson. 
Bill rather short, stout, higher at the base than broad; the 
upper mandible curved towards the point; tarsi short; tibia 
feathered for the greater portion of its length; feet very long ; 
claws long, moderately curved; neck short, densely feathered 
and thick. 
Botaurus stellaris, Lin. 
936.—Jerdon’s Birds of India, Vol. II, p- 757; Butler, Guzerat ; 
Stray Feathers, Vol. LV, p. 24; Deccan; Stray Feathers, Vol. 
1X, p. 436; Murray’s Vertebrate Zoology of Sind, p. 275. 
THE BITTERN. 
Length, 26 to 30; expanse, 46; wing, 13; tail, 45; tarsus, 
3°75; bill at front, 3. 
Bill brown, below pale yellow; orbits pale yellow; irides 
bright gamboge-yellow ; legs greenish-yellow. 
Crown of head and a broad moustache black; neck ochre- 
yellow, with brown zigzag lines on the sides, and long streaks 
and spots of brown in front; upper plumage ochre-yellow with 
a tinge of reddish, each feather marked with a dusky spot ; 
primaries and secondaries dark ferruginous, with bars of blackish- 
brown ; all the coverts (except the primary) and the scapulars, 
mottled yellow and dusky; beneath, the same, but paler, and 
with large dusky streaks. 
The Bittern is a rare bird; it occurs in Sind, and has been 
recorded from one or two localities in the Deccan. It is a cold 
weather visitant only. 
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