88 ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. 



that district in large colonies among the high reeds and bushes 

 and is constantly to be "seen amongst the herds of half-wild 

 cattle, very often perched on the backs of the beasts, searching 

 for ticks, which seem to constitute, if not the principal, at 

 least a very favourite diet of the bird." The food of the Buff- 

 backed Heron seems to consist more of insects than of fish, 

 and beetles, grasshoppers, and locusts are its favourite food, 

 though it also devours frogs. 



Nest. Composed of sticks, and built in the reed-forests, or, 

 as Mr. J. H. Gurney found them in the Fayoom district in 

 Egypt, " in a large bed of dead tamarisks, from two to five 

 feet above the water." The species is a late breeder, and even 

 in June Mr. Gurney found no young in the nests, while some 

 of the latter where still being built. 



Eggs. From three to five in number, of a very pale greenish- 

 white. Axis, 1 7 5-1 '85 inch ; diam., 1*4. 



THE LITTLE BITTERNS. GENUS ARDETTA. 

 Ardetta, Gray, List Gen. B. 1842, App. p. 13. 

 Type, A. minuta (Linn ). 



In the Bitterns, with which we commence the second 

 section of the Herons, the tail-feathers are only ten in number, 

 and the bill is always serrated. In the Little Bitterns the 

 middle toe and claw are short, and only about the same 

 length as the tarsus. In the True Bitterns (JBofaurus) the 

 tarsus is shorter and by no means equal to the middle toe and 

 claw in length. 



The Little Bitterns, too, have the sexes quite different in 

 colour. They are distributed nearly over the entire globe. 



I. THE LITTLE BITTERN. ARDETTA MINUTA. 



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



Bolaurus minutus, Macg. Br. B. iv. p. 423 (1852); Seeb. Brit. 



B. ii. p. 510 (1884). 

 Ardetta minuta, Dresser, B. Eur. vi. p. 259 (1880); B. O. U. 



List Br. B. p. no (1883); Saunders, ed. Yarr. Br. B. 



iv. p. 200 (1884); id. Man. Br. B. p. 369 (1889); Lil- 



ford, Col. Fig. Br. B. part xix. (1891); Sharpe, Cat. B. 



Brit. Mus. xxvi. p. 222. 



