190 AVES GRALLATORES. [ARDEA. 



DIMENS. Entire length fourteen inches three lines: length of the 

 bill two inches ; of the tarsus one inch nine lines ; of the middle toe, 

 claw included, two inches ; from the carpus to the end of the wing five 

 inches six lines. 



DESCRIPT. (Adult.) Crown of the head, occiput, back, scapulars, 

 secondary quills, and tail, black, with green reflections ; cheeks, neck, 

 wing-coverts, and all the under parts, reddish yellow ; flanks, and sides of 

 the breast, with a few brownish streaks ; primary quills dusky : bill 

 yellow ; the tip brown : orbits and irides yellow : feet greenish yellow. 

 (Young of the year.) Crown of the head brown; fore part of the neck 

 whitish with longitudinal dark streaks; cheeks, nape, breast, back, and 

 wing-coverts, chestnut-brown more or less deep, some of the feathers 

 with pale rufous edges: greater quills and tail-feathers deep brown. 

 (Egg.) White : long. diam. one inch six lines; trans, diam. eleven lines. 



Occasionally met with, but not common in this country. Montagu 

 records that three specimens were shot in Devonshire during the Spring 

 and Summer of 1808. Others have been killed at different times in the 

 Orkneys, in Somersetshire, Shropshire, Northumberland, Hampshire, 

 Suffolk, and, more recently, on Uxbridge Moor, and on the banks of the 

 Thames near Windsor. Frequents marshes, and rushy places on the 

 borders of lakes and rivers. Breeds in such situations, constructing a 

 large nest of leaves and rushes. Lays five or six eggs. Food small 

 reptiles, fish, worms, &c. 



(2. BOTAURUS, Steph.) 



178. A. stellaris, Linn. (Common Bittern.) Upper 

 parts ochre-yellow, variegated with black ; beneath paler, 

 with oblong dusky streaks. 



A. stellaris, Temm. Man. d'Orn. torn. n. p. 580. Bittern, Mont. 

 Orn. Diet. Selb. Illust. vol. 11. p. 30. pi. 8. Bew. Brit. Birds, 

 vol. ii. p. 22. 



DIMENS. Entire length two feet six inches six lines : length of the 

 bill (from the forehead) three inches, (from the gape) four inches ; of the 

 tarsus three inches eleven lines ; of the middle toe four inches six lines ; 

 of the tail four inches six lines ; from the carpus to the end of the wing 

 one foot : breadth, wings extended, three feet nine inches. 



DESCRIPT. Crown of the head, and a broad streak or moustache from 

 the corners of the mouth, black; neck-feathers loose and elongated, 

 capable of being raised and depressed at will, ochre-yellow, with brown 

 zigzag transverse lines on the sides, and long streaks and spots of reddish 

 brown in front : all the upper parts of the body ochre-yellow tinged with 

 orange-red, with a large dusky spot in the middle of each feather; 

 primary and secondary quills, primary coverts, and spurious winglet, 

 ferruginous, with transverse bars of blackish brown ; rest of the coverts 

 and scapulars, mottled like the back with ochre-yellow and zigzag dusky 

 lines : under parts of the same colour as above but paler, with large 

 oblong longitudinal dusky streaks : upper mandible brown, passing into 

 yellow at the edges; lower mandible, lore, orbits, and feet, greenish 

 yellow ; irides bright gamboge-yellow. (Egg.) Of a uniform light olive- 

 brown: long. diam. two inches two lines; trans, diam. one inch six 

 lines. 



Occasionally met with in extensive marshes, as well as on the borders 

 of rivers and lakes, but not so abundant as formerly. Is partial to sedge 



