400 ABDEID.E. 



Sexes different in plumage. Only 10 tail-feathers. This is a 

 remarkable genus of small Bitterns, none of the ten species 

 enumerated in Sbarpe's Catalogue having a wing more than six 

 inches long. The genus is found in most parts of the world ; 

 three species are Indian. 



Key to the Species. 



a. Tibia feathered to tibio-tarsal joint. 



a'. Culmen about equal to mid-toe and claw . A. minuta, p. 400. 

 b' '. Culmen longer than mid-toe and claw . A. sinensis, p. 401. 



b. Tibia naked for some distance above jpint . . A. cinnamomea, p. 402. 



The habits of all species of Ardetta are very similar. They hide 

 in thick grass or reeds in marsh, dense swampy thickets, or high 

 rice during the day, and can only be driven out by close beating ; 

 hence they are seldom seen. They climb about amongst bushes 

 or thick reeds just as Purple Moorhens do, or like huge Grass- 

 Warblers. They go out at dusk to feed at night on fish, frogs, 

 water-insects, and worms, and about the sea-coast on crabs and 

 other Crustacea. Some species occasionally feed during daylight. 



The nest is a pad of grass or rush built on reeds with the tops 

 bent down, or sometimes in a bush, or more frequently in a 

 tussock of grass or a clump of reeds or bulrushes just above the 

 water. 



1570. Ardetta minuta. The Little Bittern. 



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



Ardetta minuta, Blyth, Cat. p. 283; Adams, P. Z. S. 1858, p. 508; 

 Jerdon, B. 1. iii, p. 756 ; Hume fy Henders. Lah. to Yark. p. 296 ; 

 Hume, S. F. i, p. 256 ; id. N. $ E. p. 624; id. Cat. no. 935 ; Doig, 

 S. F. viii, pp. 376, 379; Scully, Ibis, 1881, p. 592: Biddulph, Ibis, 

 1882, p. 289 ; St. John, Ibis, 1889, p. 178 ; Barnes, Birds Bom. 

 p. 385 ; Oates in Hume's N. $ E. 2nd ed. iii, p. 257 ; Sharpe, Cat. 

 B. M. xxvi, p. 222. 



Coloration. Male. Forehead and crown, back, scapulars, ter- 

 tiaries, rump, and tail black, with bronze-green gloss ; sides of 

 head, including feathers above orbits, greyish or pinkish buff ; hind 

 neck bare, rest of neck greyish and isabelline behind, and yellowish 

 in front and on the throat, sides of throat white ; smaller and 

 median wing-coverts ochreous buff, the latter paler and passing 

 into very pale lavender-grey on the greater coverts ; primary- 

 coverts, primaries, and secondaries blackish brown ; upper breast 

 yellowish buff, the feathers greatly lengthened so as to cover those 

 of the lower breast, which are black with buff margins ; upper 

 abdomen buff, passing into the white of the lower abdomen and 

 lower tail-coverts ; flanks with narrow brown shaft-lines. 



Females differ in having the neck more rufous along the sides of 

 the hind neck ; back and scapulars brown, with buff edges to the 

 feathers ; wing-coverts more isabelline than in males ; fore neck 

 and upper breast streaked with dusky, and the lower breast and 

 abdomen and flanks with broad blackish shaft- stripes. 



Young birds resemble females, but have the upper surface 



