IV ARDEIDAE 



89 



ated on lofty trees, though frequently on low bushes, ivy-covered 

 cliffs, flat rocks, or reeds and herbage in swamps, is often a large 

 fabric of sticks without lining or with a slight bedding of c-rass, 

 leaves, and the like, but may be a mere mass of rushes and fia^^-s 

 the tree-building forms at times resorting to the ground and 

 vice versa. Bitterns generally crush down the aquatic vegetation 

 and add softer materials on this substructure, depositing four or 

 five olive-drab eggs ; Ardetta in some cases does the same, but the 

 eggs are bluish- or greenish-white ; whereas those of the Herons 

 proper are of a greenish- or whitish-blue colour of varying depth, 

 and exceptionally amount to six or seven. Butorides not uncom- 

 monly lays only two. If the first set is removed a second 

 is often produced after a short interval ; but the young remain 

 long in the nest. Incubation lasts from sixteen to thirty days. 

 Herons were of old protected by law, as affording an excellent 

 quarry for Falcons, while the flesh was highly esteemed ; when 

 wounded, however, they must be carefully approached, as they use 

 the bill with deadly effect, and aim at the captor's eye. In India 

 they are used as decoy-birds with the eyes sewn up. 



The following will sufticiently shew the coloration ; the largest 

 species is Ardea goliath ; Ardetta furnishes the smallest forms. 



Botaurus stellar is, the Bittern, which bred so lately as 1868 

 in Norfolk, and occurs throughout the warmer parts of the Palae- 

 arctic and the whole of the Ethiopian Eegion, is buff, with black 

 Ijars above and streaks below, black crown, nape, and stripes 

 down the side of the neck, and chestnut bands on the primaries. B. 

 lentiginosus, distinguished by the nearly uniform brown primaries, 

 is rarely found in Britain, but inhabits North America, probably 

 meeting about Nicaragua with B. 2^^'n'natus of tropical South 

 America, which lacks the neck-stripes ; while B. iJoeciloiMv.s of 

 the Australian Eegion has much of the back brown. The neck- 

 feathers in these birds form an elongated ruff. Ardetta minuta 

 of Central and Southern Europe, Western Asia, and the northern 

 half of Africa, formerly known to have bred in England, is 

 greenish-black, with buff neck, wing-coverts, and under surface, 

 the latter slightly streaked with dusky. These streaks are more 

 decided in other species, which are often greyer, browner, or 

 more ruddy above ; A. cinnamomea of the Indian Eegion is 

 almost entirely rufous, while all have a slight head-tuft. A fuller 

 crest marks Zehrilus 2}umilus of northern South America, wherein 



