88 AKDEID^: ' ARDETTA 



the country and appears to be a resident. The following are recorded 

 localities : Cape Colony Cape division, January, September, Wor- 

 cester, January, March, Vryburg, August (S. A. Mus.), Ceres 

 (Shelley), Kuruman (Fritch), Port Elizabeth, fairly common 

 (Brown) ; Natal near coast (Ayres), Eichmond Koad (Butler) ; 

 Transvaal Potchefstroom, January to September (Ayres), Komati- 

 poort, October (Francis in S. A. Mus.) ; Bechuanaland Lake Ngaini 

 district (Andersson), Nocana, July (Fleck) ; Ehodesia -Upper Zam- 

 besi (Bradshaw and Chapman) ; German South-west Africa Oka- 

 vango (Andersson), Eeheboth, October (Fleck). 



Habits. The Eed-necked Little Bittern is a skulking bird found 

 in thick reed-beds, where it hops from one stem to another and 

 threads its way with great celerity among the tangled vegetation, 

 seldom making a flight of any length or duration. It lies very 

 close, as a rule, when disturbed, and endeavours to avoid obser- 

 vation by stretching out its long neck and compressing its body 

 and remaining motionless in a vertical position so as to resemble 

 the reeds among which it is resting. The food consists of small 

 lizards, frogs, and insects of various kinds, especially grass-hoppers 

 and caterpillars. 



Mr. Austin Eoberts has found the nest of this species on several 

 occasions in the swamps near Potchefstroom ; it is usually placed 

 about four feet above the water where three or four rushes cross 

 one another in the densest part of the reed bed ; it is flat and made 

 of roots, similar to a Turtle Dove's, but a little larger. The clutch 

 is two or three, and the eggs, which are white, measure 1'45 x 

 1-1. One nest was found containing three fledgelings which had 

 already learned the habit of concealing themselves by standing 

 erect and pointing their beaks up in the air so as to resemble the 

 reeds around them. 



^ 

 * 601. Ardetta minuta. European Little Bittern. 



^OOO 



Ardea minuta, Linn. Syst. Nat. 12th ed. i, p. 240 (1766). 



Ardetta minuta, Dresser B. Eur. vi, p. 259, pi. 401 (1880) ; Sharpe, Cat. 



B. M. xxvi, p. 222 (1898) ; Beiclienow, Vog. Afr. i, p. 366 (1901) ; 



Shortridge, Ibis, 1904, p. 205. 



Description. Eesembling A. payesi very closely, but distinguished 

 by the colour of the sides of the face and neck, where the rufous- 

 chestnut is replaced by a vinous-brown shade ; the wing- coverts are 



