272 AMERICAN GAME. 



merable specks and streaks of brownish yellow ; quills, 

 black, with a leaden gloss, and tipped with yellowish 

 brown ; legs and feet, yellow, tinged with pale green ; 

 middle claw, pectinated ; belly, light yellowish brown, 

 streaked with darker ; vent,*plain ; thighs, sprinkled on 

 the outside with grains of dark brown ; male and female 

 nearly alike, the latter somewhat less. According to 

 Bewick, the tail of the European Bittern contains only ten 

 feathers ; the American species has, invariably, twelve. 

 The intestines measured five feet six inches in length, 

 and were very little thicker than a common knitting- 

 needle ; the stomach is usually filled with fish or frogs.* 



" This bird, when fat, is considered by many to be 

 excellent eating." 



It is on the strength of Mr. Wilson's statement as 

 above that I have given among the vulgar appellations 

 of this beautiful bird that of Dunkadoo ; though I must 

 admit that I never heard him called a Durikadoo, either 

 on the sea-coast of New Jersey or any where else ; and 

 further must put it on record, that if the sea-coasters of 

 New Jersey did coin the said melodious word as imita- 

 tive of its common note, they proved much worse imita- 

 tors than I have found them in whistling bay snipe, 

 hawnking Canada geese, or yelping Brant. They might 

 just as well have called him a Cockatoo, while they were 

 about it. 



* I have taken an entire water-rail from the stomach of the European 

 Bittern. ED. 



