332 THE HERON 



the first week in June. Probably only a single brood is reared in the season. 

 [F. c. B. j.] 



5. Food. Water-voles and other small mammals, birds, frogs, and newts, 

 fish, water-beetles, Crustacea. The young are fed mainly on fish, and by both 

 parents, [w. r. P.] 



LITTLE -BITTERN [Ixobrfichus minutus (Linnaeus) ; Ardetta minuta (Linn.). 

 French, blongier nain ; German, kleine JRohrdommel, Zwergrohrdommel ; 

 Italian, tarabusino]. 



1 . Description. The little-bittern may readily be distinguished from the com- 

 mon and American bitterns by its greatly inferior size, and by the fact that the middle 

 toe and claw do not exceed the tarsus in length. The sexes differ conspicuously, but 

 there is no seasonal change of coloration. (PL LXXI.) Length 11 in. [279mm.]. The 

 male has the crown and the whole of the back, scapulars, tail, and remiges black : 

 the rest of the plumage is of a pale ochreous buff, save a patch of dark brown buff- 

 bordered feathers, which covers the wrist-joint in the closed wing, and the abdomen 

 and under tail-coverts, which are white. The throat and the lower portion of the 

 neck-ruff shows faint indication of white longitudinal lines. The back of the neck is 

 down-clad, as in the typical bitterns. The beak is purplish yellow, the iris orange- 

 yellow, the feet greenish yellow. The female has the crown dark brown, the back 

 and wing-coverts greyish brown, each feather margined with dull ochreous buff. 

 The outermost wing-coverts have a rufous tinge. The neck-ruff is longitudinally 

 striped with dark brown, buff, and white. The remiges are dark brown. The 

 breast is white suffused with buff, and striated with dark brown, while the abdomen 

 is white. The juvenile plumage resembles that of the female, but is duller. The 

 downy young are of an ochreous buff above, greyish white below, [w. p. p.] 



2. Distribution. Although there is little doubt that this species formerly 

 bred occasionally if not regularly with us, it has ceased to do so now. On the Con- 

 tinent it nests as far north as France, the Low Countries, N. Germany, and from 

 Livonia to lat. 56 in the Perm government in Russia, while southward it is found 

 in suitable localities not only to the Mediterranean and some of its islands, but also 

 in North-western Africa (Algeria, Tunisia) and in Egypt. In Asia its breeding 

 range extends from Palestine, Asia Minor, Transcaspia, and lat. 56 in W. Siberia, 

 through Mesopotamia east to Sind, the North- West Provinces of India, and Kashmir. 

 Its winter quarters lie chiefly in Africa, though a few winter in Southern Asia, 



