LITTLE BITTERN. 473 



figure in his Gleanings came from Aleppo ; it inhabits Ara- 

 bia, and M. Hohenacker, the Russian naturalist, includes the 

 Little Bittern among the birds found in the countries of the 

 Caucacus, between the Black and the Caspian Seas. 



In the adult bird, the beak, lore, and irides, are yellow ; 

 the top of the head, the occiput, the shoulders, the wing- 

 primaries, and the tail-feathers, are of a shining bluish black ; 

 all the wing-coverts buff coloured ; the cheeks and sides of 

 the neck, throughout its whole length, buff; the back of the 

 neck is almost bare in the Bitterns, but the feathers of the 

 sides of the neck passing obliquely backwards and downwards 

 hide the almost naked space ; the chin and the neck in front 

 white, partially tinged with buif ; the feathers at the bottom 

 of the neck in front are elongated, but the Bitterns have no 

 true occipital plume, or elongated feathers, on the back, like 

 the Herons ; on the lower part of the neck on each side, just 

 in advance of the carpal joint of the wing, when the wing is 

 closed, a few of the feathers have dark centres with bufF-co- 

 loured margins ; breast, belly, thighs, and under tail-coverts, 

 buff, with a small patch of white about the vent ; under wing- 

 coverts and the axillary plume pale buff; the legs, toes, and 

 claws greenish yellow. 



Males and females, when adult, are alike in plumage. 



The whole length about thirteen inches. From the carpal 

 joint to the end of the wing, five inches and three-quarters ; 

 the first three quill-feathers very nearly equal in length, and 

 the longest in the wing. 



A young bird in its first plumage, but with some down still 

 remaining upon it, has the top of the head of dark brown ; 

 the feathers of the neck white at the base, pale yellow brown 

 towards the end, with a streak of dark brown in the line of 

 the shaft ; the feathers of the back dark brown, with bufF- 

 coloured edges ; the wing-primaries and tail-feathers greyish 

 black ; the outer web of the first quill-feather chestnut ; the 



