AMERICIAN BITTERN. 47 



of their neighbours, as if each inhabited a separate 

 quarter of the globe. 



The blue heron is twenty-three inches in length, and 

 three feet in extent; the bill is black, but from the 

 nostril to the eye, in both mandibles, is of a rich light 

 purplish blue ; iris of the eye, gray ; pupil, black, sur- 

 rounded by a narrow silvery ring ; eyelid, light blue ; 

 the whole head, and greater part of the neck, are of 

 a deep purplish brown ; from the crested hindhead 

 shoot three narrow pointed feathers that reach nearly 

 six inches beyond the eye; lower part of the neck, 

 breast, belly, and whole body, a deep slate colour, \vith 

 lighter reflections ; the back is covered with long, flat, 

 and narrow feathers, some of which are ten inches long, 

 and extend four inches beyond the tail ; the breast is 

 also ornamented with a number of these long slender 

 feathers ; legs, blackish green ; inner side of the middle 

 claw pectinated. The breast and sides of the rump, 

 under the plumage, are clothed with a mass of yellowish 

 white unelastic cottony down, similar to that in most 

 of the tribe, the uses of which are not altogether 

 understood. Male and female alike in colour. 



The young birds of the tirst year are destitute of the 

 purple plumage on the head and neck. 



209. ARDEA MIXOR, WILSON AMERICAN BITTERN. 



WILSON, PLATE LXV. FIG. III. 



THIS is another nocturnal species, common to all our 

 sea and river marshes, though nowhere numerous ; it 

 rests all day among the reeds and rushes, and, unless 

 disturbed, flies and feeds only during the night. In 

 some places it is called the Indian hen; on the sea 

 coast of New Jersey it is known by the name of 

 dunkadoo, a word probably imitative of its common 

 note. They are also found in the interior, having 

 myself killed one at the inlet of the Seneca lake, in 

 October. It utters, at times, a hollow guttural note 

 among the reeds, but has nothing of that loud booming 



