550 RARE BRITISH BIRDS 



2. Distribution. This species breeds locally in South and Central Europe, as well as 

 throughout the greater part of Africa and Temperate and Tropical Asia to the Sunda Isles. It 

 is represented by allied forms in America. In Europe it breeds in Spain, sparingly in France, 

 formerly in Holland and North Germany, and still occasionally in the latter ; in Sardinia, Italy, 

 Hungary, Transylvania, Slavonia, Croatia, Herzegovina, Roumania, Bulgaria, and in Russia (the 

 Podolsk, Kief, Poltava, Kursk, Voronesh, Astrakhan, and Orenburg governments, the lower 

 Don, Ural, and Caucasus). In Asia it breeds from Syria, Asia Minor, and Transcaspia east to 

 China, Formosa, and Japan, as well as in the Moluccas, Sunda Isles, and Borneo, while in Africa 

 it not only nests in North Africa, but also south in small numbers to Madagascar and Cape 

 Colony. In Europe it is migratory, wintering in Africa, while Asiatic birds probably winter in 

 Tropical Asia and Malaysia. As a casual it has been recorded from the Faroes, Azores, 

 Madeira, tolerably often from the British Isles, and on the Continent from Sweden, Denmark, 

 the Baltic Provinces, and Central Russia, as well as on the River Ob in West Siberia. [F. c. R. j.j 



AMERICAN-BITTERN [Botdurus stelldris lentiginosus (Montagu). Stake-driver, thunder- 

 pump]. 



1. Description. Distinguished from the common-bittern by the uniform slaty black 

 primaries (i.e. not barred or mottled with rufous as in the common-bittern). General colour of 

 the upper parts brown, barred and freckled on the back and wings with golden buff and black ; 

 mantle less freckled, and consequently darker ; tail feathers grey, slightly mottled with rufous ; 

 head rufous brown ; feathers of the back of the head washed with golden buff ; back of the 

 neck bare, but concealed by a ruff of golden buff; throat white, with a mesial streak of 

 dark brown, margined with buff, running down the fore-neck on to the chest, where it widens 

 out, giving the whole under surface a heavily striated appearance ; lower belly, thighs, and 

 under tail-coverts uniform whitish buff; iris sulphur-yellow next the pupil, shading exteriorly 

 into orange-brownish, narrowly encircled with black ; upper mandible olivaceous black ; the 

 tomium lemon-yellow ; lower mandible pale lemon-yellow : lores and eyelids lemon-yellow, 

 the former divided longitudinally by a medium stripe of dusky olive from the eye to the base 

 of the upper mandible ; legs and feet bright jrellowish green ; claws pale brown, dusky towards 

 their points (Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway). [w. p. p. and T. w.] 



2. Distribution. An American species breeding from Newfoundland to Labrador, Hudson's 

 Bay, lat. 58 and the lower Mackenzie in the north-west, but not in Alaska, though common in 

 British Columbia, and south through the United States to Texas, and wintering south to 

 Guatemala, Cuba, Jamaica, and occurring on passage in the Bermudas. As a casual it has 

 occurred in Greenland, probably in Iceland, about thirty-nine times in the British Isles, once 

 on Guernsey, and also on the Azores. [F. c. R. J.] 



[THE GREEN-HERON, Butorides virescens (Linnaeus), which breeds in eastern North America 

 and winters from the West Indies southward, and is replaced by allied races in the S.W. 

 States and Lower California, is said to have been shot in Cornwall on one occasion (1889). 



1. Description. The little green-heron may be recognised by its small size, and by having 

 the sides of the head and back of the neck rich chesnut. The adult male in summer plumage 

 has the top of the head glossy greenish black, extending down the back of the neck in a long 

 crest of similar coloured feathers ; sides of the neck and upper mantle rich chesnut ; dorsal 

 plumes, which entirely cover the back, are long, lanceolate, and of a bright glossy green ; 

 scapulars, wing-coverts, and secondaries greenish black, fringed all round with buff or white ; 

 primaries deep slate-grey, glossed with green on the outer web ; tail glossy green ; middle of 

 the throat white ; lower throat white, spotted with blackish brown ; remainder of the under 

 surface of the body, from the chest downwards, slaty grey tinged with buff; iris and bare part 

 about the eye bright yellow ; bill greenish black above, bright yellow beneath ; feet greenish 



