THE LEAST BITTERN. Re 
whack-a-whack, goes the bird, and the dullest imagination can picture the 
stake sinking deeper into the mud with every stroke. 
The nest is an unpretentious affair, a grass-lined depression on the 
surface of some tiny island, high and dry, or a bed of reeds and coarse 
grasses, or even sticks, placed anywhere about the swamp, under cover of 
the protecting vegetation. Sometimes the nests are built in shallow water. 
No. 209. 
: LEAST BIPtERN: 
YA. O. U. No. 191. Ardetta exilis (Gmel.). 
Description—<Adult male: ‘Top of head, back, scapulars, and taii shining 
black with faint greenish reflections ; sides of head and neck pale rufous, deepening 
on back of neck to rich chestnut; wing-coverts, bordering the black, brownish buff ; 
the greater coverts and tertials broadly tipped with chestnut-rufous, and the inner 
primaries and secondaries narrowly; under parts whitish, clearest on chin and 
sides of throat and lower belly, streaked with buffy on throat, fore-neck, chest, 
and flanks; dark brown patches on sides of breast, sometimes almost meeting in 
front; bill pale yellow, blackening on culmen; iris yellow; legs greenish in front, 
yellow behind; toes yellow. Adult female: Similar, but dark brown rather than 
black on top of head; black of back entirely replaced by glossy rufous-brown, the 
scapulars margined on outer edge with white; buffy ’flank-streaks with sharp, 
blackish shaft-lines, ete. Jimmature male: Similar to adult, but back and scapu- 
lars washed with rufous, and feathers chestnut-tipped. Jmmature feinale: Like 
adult female, but feathers of back and scapulars bordered with ochraceous, etc. 
Length 12.00-14.00 (304.8-355.6) ; wing 4.60 (116.8) ; tail 1.60 (40.6) ; bill 1.75 
(44.5); tarsus 1.60 (40.6) ; middle toe and claw 1.65 (41.9). 
Recognition Marks.—Little Hawk size; black or dark brown and rufous 
coloring above; slender form; marsh-skulking habits. The brownish buff area 
on wing, and white or buffy of under tail-coverts serve to distinguish this form 
from Ardetta neoxena (for which see Appendix A.). 
Nest, a raised and slightly hollowed platform of dead cat-tail leaves, etc., 
surrounded by water or mud of swamp. Eggs, 3-5, rarely 6, pale bluish- or 
greenish-white (often fading to white in collections). Av. size, 1.20 x .9o0 
(30.6 x 22.9). 
General Range.—T'emperate North America north to British Provinces, and 
south to the West Indies and Brazil. Less common west of the Rocky Moun- 
tains; on the Pacific Coast north to northern California. 
Range in Ohio.—Not common summer resident, but sometimes locally abun- 
dant. 
ONE is tempted to apply the epithet awkward to this bird as he is ordi- 
narily noted in daylight. See him as he springs up suddenly from your 
