The Argentine Little Bittern 277 



Perhaps the most wonderful of all the stories told about 

 the protective colouring of birds is that related by Mr. 

 W. H. Hudson of the Little Bittern of Argentina 

 (Ardetta involucris). The genus Ardetta contains nine 

 species, which are distributed over the temperate and 

 tropical portions of the Old and New Worlds. Of the 

 Little Bittern of Europe, Ardetta minuta, it has often been 

 recorded that, on the approach of danger, it will stiffen 

 itself in an instant, and draw all its plumage close together, 

 so that it resembles a reed or a branch, completing the 

 likeness by throwing its head into the air, and remaining 

 perfectly motionless. The same habit may even be 

 observed in the Common Bittern (Botaurus stellaris) in our 

 Zoological Gardens. This is a large bird with a handsome 

 frill on each side of the neck, but the general colour is a 

 freckled brown, while the under surface has a good deal of 

 yellow or straw-colour in its composition, so that one can 

 well imagine that in a thicket of rushes, such as all Bitterns 

 love to frequent, its resemblance to a dead rush, which it 

 does its best to imitate, must be a wonderful protection to 

 the bird when danger surprises it. In a menagerie, how- 

 ever, when it stands like a rush with a background of dark 

 evergreen bushes, the effect is not so convincing, but even 

 then the bird goes through its performance as if it were in 

 the midst of its protecting reed-bed, and as the observer 

 moves to one side of it or the other, the Bittern will turn 

 his rush-coloured breast towards him as if nothing should 

 make him show his blackish head and darker-coloured 

 upper plumage. 



The performance of the little Argentine Bittern must be 

 told in Mr. Hudson's own words " When driven up, the 

 bird flies eighty or a hundred yards away, and drops again 

 amongst the rushes ; it is difficult to flush it a second time, 

 and a third time it is impossible. A curious circumstance 

 is that where it finally settles it can never be found. As I 



