LEAST BITTERN. 



31 



Tule Lake, Oreg. (Bailey). It breeds rarely along the Atlantic coast 

 from Washington, D. C. (Cones), to Raleigh, N. C. (Brimley), and 

 Lake Ellis, N. C. (Philipp), and more commonly on the coast of 

 South Carolina (Wayne), in Georgia (Perry), throughout most of 

 Florida, and along the Gulf coast to the mouth of the Rio Grande 

 (Merrill). There is thus a large part of the eastern United States 

 south of the thirty-ninth parallel and back from the coast in which 

 the species is either lacking or very rare. 



The least bittern nests locally in a few places in central Mexico 

 Ocotlan, Jalisco (Nelson) ; La Laguna, Jalisco (Nelson) ; Patzcuaro, 

 Michoacan (Stone) ; and the valley of Toluca (Goldman). It breeds 

 also in Cuba (Gundlach) ; and Porto Rico (Gundlach). 



Winter range. The least bittern winters north to Micanopy, Fla. 

 (Baynard) ; and Orlando, Fla. (Hyer) ; also in the Bahamas (Bon- 

 hote). In Mexico it occurs in winter north to San Bias, Tepic 

 (Lawrence) ; Lake Patzcuaro, Michoacan (Jouy) ; and the valley of 

 Toluca (Goldman). Thence it ranges south to Lion Hill, Panama 

 (Sharpe) ; Georgetown, Guiana (Loat) ; Iguape, Brazil (Ihering) ; 

 Paraguay (Berlepsch and Stolzmann) ; and to Valdivia, Chile 

 (Boeck). 



Migration range. Records of migration or of wandering have been 

 made at Halifax, N. S., March 16, 1896 (Piers) ; Quebec City, Can- 

 ada (Dionne) ; Beaumaris, Ontario (Fleming) ; Shoal Lake, Mani- 

 toba, June, 1901 (Chapman) ; San Angelo, Tex., September 10, 1885 

 (Lloyd) ; Fort Thorn, N. Mex. (Henry) ; Boulder, Colo., May 25, 

 1910 (Betts) ; Cheyenne, Wyo. (Knight) ; Truckee Valley, Nev. 

 (Ridgway) ; Malheur Lake, Oreg. (Bendire) ; Mazatlan, Sinaloa, 

 September (Lawrence) : San Jose del Cabo, Lower California, com- 

 mon in the fall (Brewster). 



Spring migration. 



