86 ARDEID^: AKDETTA 



Distribution. Africa from Senegal and the White Nile, south- 

 wards. This is a very scarce bird in South Africa, and, so far as I 

 am aware, has only been twice procured in April, 1870, on the 

 Kleimont Eiver, in the Bathurst division of Cape Colony, by Messrs. 

 E. Atherstone and H. Barber, and on the Hex River in the Rusten- 

 burg district of the Transvaal by Mr. Lucas. The latter specimen 

 is now in the British Museum.* 



Mr. Lucas states that he found the nest of this bird " composed 

 of rushes, on water " and that it contained five eggs tinged with 

 pale green and measuring about 1-8 X 1'45. 



Genus IX. ARDETTA. 



Type. 



Ardetta, Gray, List Gen. B. App. p. 13 (1842) A. minuta. 



Bill long and slender, the culmen usually slightly exceeding the 

 tarsus and the middle toe and claw, which are themselves about 

 equal ; mandibles serrated towards their tips ; wings short and 

 round, the second and third primaries usually the longest; tail 

 very short, slightly rounded, of ten feathers only ; tibio-tarsus 

 feathered almost to the heel ; tarsus with transverse scutes in front ; 

 a slight crest on the nape, and the feathers of the upper breast 

 somewhat lengthened, concealing the lower breast, but no regular 

 ornamental or decomposed train of feathers. 



This is a large^enus containing some seventeen species of small 

 Bittern-like birds and is distributed all over the world. Four 

 African species are recognised by Reichenow, three of which occur 



within our limits. 



Key of the Species. 



. . A. Wing-coverts buff contrasting with the black or 

 brown mottled back and scapulars. 



a. Neck frill chestnut A. payesi, p. 86. 



b. Neck frill ochraceous or ashy fulvous A. minuta, p. 88. 



B. Whole of the upper surface, including the wing- 

 coverts and neck, ashy black A. slurml, p. 89. 



600. Ardetta payesi. Bed-necked Little Bittern. 



Ardea payesi, Hartl., Journ. Ornith. 1858, p. 42. 



Ardetta minuta (nee Linn.) Gurney, Ibis, 1859, p. 249, 1860, p. 205, 

 1868, p. 469, 1878, p. 300 ; Layard, B. S. Afr. p. 309 (1867) ; Gurney, in 

 Andersson's B. Damaral. p. 292 (1872) ; Barratt, Ibis, 1876, p. 211. 



* There were three examples in the Durban Museum from the neighbourhood 

 of that place : one of these, received in exchange, is now in the South African 

 Museum. 



