148 AMERICAN BITTERN. 



description underneath, is taken from a skin sent 

 to us from South Carolina. In habits, as described 

 by Wilson and Audubon, the species of America 

 closely resemble those of the Common Bittern. 



Length of the skin, from the point of the bill to 

 the end of the tail, rather more than two feet ; bill 

 to the rictus four inches, being longer proportionally, 

 more slender and heron-like than in the true Bit- 

 terns. Length of the naked space on the tibiae one 

 inch ; of tarsus three and three quarters ; of the 

 centre toe, including the claw, four inches. The 

 ground colour of the plumage, except the wings, is 

 ochreous- yellow, on the crown being dark chest- 

 nut, changing into that colour; on the neck the 

 centres of the feathers are pale sienna-brown, and 

 they want the " rayed" appearance of dark and 

 light seen in the common bird ; on the back and 

 wings the markings, although somewhat similar, are 

 much divided ; the throat is white, a stripe of the 

 pale ochreous running along its centre, and, on the 

 lower parts, the general colour is considerably paler 

 than above ; each feather is marked on the centre 

 with a dash of sienna-brown, which is bordered and 

 minutely freckled with brown. The quills, instead 

 of being irregularly barred and blotched with pale 

 reddish-bnrwn, as in the Common Bittern, are of a 

 uniform dull brown, pale reddish towards the edge 

 of the inner web, where the dark colour is shaded 

 off by minute freckles ; the .tail is sienna-brown, 

 freckled minutely with blackish-brown. Such is 

 the general description of an American bird, but 



