5J2 BRITISH BIRDS. 



Magpie's nest in a tree close to its haunt. The nest is very large for the 

 size of the bird, loosely put together, and made of pieces of aquatic vegeta- 

 tion, sometimes a few twigs, and lined with finer material, such as grass 

 or dead leaves of the reed. 



The eggs of the Little Bittern are from five to nine in number and 

 pure white in colour*. They soon become stained by contact with the 

 bird's feet and the damp materials of the nest. Their small size and colour 

 is a sufficient distinction from the eggs of all the other Herons. They 

 vary in length from 1'45 to 1*29 inch, and in breadth from 1'05 to '98 inch. 

 They are oval in shape ; the shell is fine, but closely pitted with small 

 pores. Only one brood appears to be reared in the year. 



Hume writes in his ( Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds ' : " It lays in 

 June. Four is the usual, and five the maximum, number of eggs. It 

 appears always to build in amongst rushes or wild rice, and to place its 

 nest sometimes on the ground, but more generally on a little platform a 

 foot or so above the water's level, formed by bending down the rushes or 

 reed in situ. The nest itself is slight and flat, composed of reed and rush 

 loosely put together, 6 or 7 inches in diameter, and from an inch to 

 2 inches in thickness. This, however, I state mainly on the evidence of 

 the native collector I sent to Cashmere, as I have only myself seen one 

 single nest/' 



The general colour of the plumage of the adult male Little Bittern is 

 buff and dark brown glossed with green, the latter colour being confined 

 to the forehead, crown, and nape, the back, rump, upper tail-coverts and 

 tail, scapulars, innermost secondaries, secondaries, and primaries. A ruff 

 of reddish-brown feathers margined with buff is displayed on each side of 

 the breast. All the rest of the plumage is buff, shading into grey on the 

 sides and back of the neck and the tips of the greater wing-coverts. The 

 female principally differs from the male in being smaller, in having the 

 back of the neck and the sides of the head chestnut, and the feathers on the 

 chin, throat, and fore neck have dark shaft-lines; the ruff on each side of 

 the breast is smaller in extent ; and the feathers of the back, the innermost 

 secondaries, and scapulars are dark chestnut-brown, narrowly margined with 

 pale buff. Young in first plumage very closely resemble the adult female, 

 but the chestnut on the back of the neck is duller and the feathers have 

 pale tips, the back is darker and duller, the wing-coverts have dark centres, 

 the sides of the head, the chin, throat, and fore neck are buff, each feather 

 with a broad dark brown centre. Birds of the year are intermediate in 

 plumage. The young are first covered with chestnut-buff down, and the 

 bill is not so pointed and much shorter than in adults. 



* The light green egg figured by Hewitson may be a faded example of the egg of the 

 Squacco Heron. The eggs of the Little Bittern are as white as those of a Turtle-Dove, 

 even when held up to the light, but are larger and less glossy. 



