AUDIiIl).K— THE HERONS. 138* 



Botaurus lentiginosus (Moiitag.) 



AMEHICAN BITTERN. 



Popular synonyms. Stake-driver; Post-driver: Thunder-pump: Water-belcher; Bog-bull; 



BoK-bumper; Mire-drum: Look-up; Indian huu; Indian pullot, etc. 

 Ardea mugitans Babtr. Travels. 17!I2. (nomen nudum). 



Botaurus muoitans CouES. Check List. 2d ed. 188;. No. 66(i. 

 Ardea leutiginnna Montague, Orn. Diet. Suppl. 181j— Sw. Si lilOH. F. B.-A. ii. ISil. 371.— 



NUTT. Man. ii. 1831. CO.— Aui). Syiiop. 1839. 2&; Birds Am. vi. 1813. !IJ, pi. sa 

 Jiotauru.t lenliginosus Stephens. Shaw's Gen. Zool. xii. 1819. 59U.— Baihd. Birds N. 



Am. 18.JS. 671: Cat. N. Am. B. 1839. No. 492.— Reichenow. J f. O. 1877. 1!I8.— Kidgw. 



Nom. Am. B. IS81. No. -197; Man. 1887. 12(i..— A. 0. U. Check List. 1S86. No. 199. 

 Ardea hudsonlas Mebkem. Ersch. Grub. Ency. v. 1820, 175. 

 Ardea minor WiLS. Am. Orn. viii. 18H. 35, pi. C5, Hr, 3. 



Botaurus minor BoiE, Isis, 1821!. 979.— CouES. Key, 1872, 209; Chock List, 1873, No, 



4e0; Birds N. W. 1874, 523. 

 Butor americanus Swains. Classif. B. ii, 1837, 354, 

 Ardea mokoko Vieili,. Nouv. Diet. xiv. 1817, 440. 

 Botaurus adspersns "Cab.," Bonap. Consp. ii. 1857, 156. 

 Ardea stellaris caKarfensi.s Edwards. Nat. Hist. pi. 136. 

 J.e Butor de la Baye de Hudson Edwaeds, I. c. 

 Botaurus Freti- /ludsonis Briss. Orn. v. 17i;0, .IJO, pi. 37, Hg. 1. 

 Ardea stellaris Varietas Forst. Philos. Trans. Imi, 1772, 410, No. 38 (Severn R.). 

 Bittern Var. A. Lath. Synop. iii, 17S5, .18. 

 Ardea stellaris B. Lath. Ind. Orn. ii. 1790, 680. No. 18 B. (ex Edwards, pi. l.tfi). 



Hab. The whole or temperate and tropical North America, nortli to latitudi> about 00°. 

 south to Guatemala. Cuba; Jamaica; Bermudas. Occasional in Europe lis British records). 



Sp. Chab. Adult: Ground-color of tile plumage ochraceous-bufT; but this densly mot- 

 tled and finely sprinkled above with reddish brown and blackish, the latter color provailinc: 

 on the dorsal and scapular regions, where the feathers have lighter edges, the buff prevail- 

 ing on the wiuK-coverl.«, where the variegation consists of a finer and sparser sprinkling of 

 the dusky and brown; on the tertials and ends of the Hccondnrios. the reddish la sort of cin- 

 namon shade) forms tile groiiml-color. and is thickly .sprinkled with irregular dusky dot- 

 tings and zigzags; pectoral tufts nearly uniform dark brown, the feathers with broad lateral 

 borders of clear yellowish oohraceous. Pileum rusty brown, darker anteriorly, changing 

 gradually backward into the greenlsli olive-gray of the nape: sides of the head and neck 

 yellowish ochraceous; a malar stripe of dark rusty, changing posteriorly into a very 

 conspicuous stripe of blue-black (or In some specimens dull grayish) down each side of the 

 neok; chin and throat white, with a very narrow median dusky streak, suffused with oohra- 

 ceous; foreneck pale bulT. with sharply defined stripes of cinnamon-brown edged with a 

 black line; lower parts pale bulT. with narrower bruwuish stripes; tibiin and erlssum plain 

 lightcreamy bulT; primary-cuverts and primaries dark slate, tipped with pale reddish 

 o ihraceous, finely, but not denscdy, sprinkled with dusky. Dppor mandible olivaceous- 

 black, the tomium (broadly) lemon-yellow; lower mandible pale lemon-yellow, deeper 

 basally, with a stripe of dusky brownish along the posterior part of the tomium; lores and 

 eyelids lemon-yellow, the former divided longitudinally by a median stripe of dusky olive, 

 from the eye to the base of the upper mandible; Iris clear, light sulphur-yidlow n<'xt the 

 pupil, shading exteriorly into orange-brownish, this encircled narrowly with black; legs 

 and feet bright yellowish green; claws palebrown, dusky toward points.' Young: Similar 

 to the adult, but more reddish, the mottling coarser, and with a tendency to form ragged 

 transverse bars, especially on the posterior upper parts, 



' Colors of fresh specimens (male and female) killod along the Truckco River, Nevadn. 

 Not, 18, and Dec. 11. 18ii7. 



