92 ARDEID^] BOTAUEUS 



Feilden and Reid, Zool 1882, p. 344; Sharpe, ed. La yard's B. S. 



Afr. p. 722 (1884) ; Symonds, Ibis, 1887, p. 334 ; Fleck, Journ. 



Ornith 1894, p. 388; Shelley, B. Afr. i, p. 158 (1896) ; Woodivard 



Bros. Natal B. p. 198 (1899). 

 Botaurus capensis, Ayres, Ibis, 1869, p. 300 ; Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xxvi, 



p. 257 (1898). 

 Botaurus stellaris capensis, Beichenoiv, Vog. Afr. i, p. 364 (1901) ; 



" Koerdomp " of the Dutch. 



Description. Adult male. General colour tawny-buff, passing to 

 nearly white, everywhere mottled and freckled with dark brown to 

 black ; crown and nape, where the feathers are elongated to form 

 a crest, and a moustachial streak from the gape below the eye and 

 ear-coverts black ; wing-quills black, mottled with rufous-brown, but 

 not regularly barred as in the European bird ; below the chin is 

 white, the rest of the lower surface pale tawny-buff; the feathers 



FIG. 25. Head of Botaurus capensis. x ^ 



of the neck which are elongated and spread out on either side to 

 form a species of ruff, narrowly banded with transverse markings of 

 dark brown on either side, with ill-defined lines of tawny along the 

 centres ; a few of the longer feathers of the breast with broad and 

 almost black centres, those of the abdomen with a few narrow 

 streaks ; insides of the thighs and under tail-coverts hardly marked, 

 outsides of the thighs and flanks with the axillaries and wing-coverts 

 more strongly mottled. 



Iris yellow to hazel ; bare space round the eye ashy fulvous ; 

 bill light greenish-ash ; legs pale green. Length about 28'0 ; wiug 

 12-25 ; tail 4-25 ; culmen 2-45 ; tarsus 3-4 ; middle toe 4-25. 



The female is very similar to the male but is slightly smaller. 

 This speci"es differs from the European Bittern only in its slightly 

 smaller size and less barred wing-quills. 



