110 LITTLE BITTEEN, 



very expert in catching flies. The young birds are fed with 

 food from the crops of their parents, which the latter are said 

 to place on the edge of the nest. 'If the young brood continue 

 undisturbed they remain long in the nest, but if they are 

 molested they hurry out and cling to the rushes, being 

 fully capable of climbing up and down in the same manner 

 as the parent birds. As soon as the young can help themselves 

 the parents leave the breeding-place, and are no more seen 

 in the neighbourhood for the remainder of the season. 

 While the female sits on her eggs she can hardly be driven 

 away, and remains not only close to the spot, but runs up 

 and down the rushes in the greatest excitement, continually 

 uttering her alarm note, while the male bird watches the 

 scene from his hiding-place.' 



The note is a harsh croak; that which expresses alarm 

 being likened, by Meyer, to the word 'gaek,' repeated two 

 or three times. Viellot compares it to the barking of a 

 large dog, when heard at a distance. 



The nest is generally to be found where flags grow, sometimes 

 near, but at other times farther off from water. It is placed 

 on hummocks in the marshes, or on strewed reeds or flags, 

 a little above the usual rise of the water, and in some 

 instances on the low boughs of an overhanging tree: a few 

 have been found in bushes about a yard from the ground. 

 It is made of such materials as the dry twigs of the willow, 

 grass, reeds, rushes, and flags; and is a shapeless structure. 



The eggs, four and occasionally five, in number, or even 

 six, according to Mr. Hewitson, are of a pale whitish' green 

 colour. Their incubation occupies sixteen or seventeen days. 



Male; length, one foot one or two inches; bill, rich, yellow, 

 the point dusky; iris, bright yellow, over it is a yellow 

 streak. Head on the crown, black, reflected with green or 

 blue; neck on the back and sides, dull yellowish buff', tinged 

 with lilac purple; on the lower part of the neck in the front 

 the feathers are elongated on the sides, and at that part 

 a few of the feathers have dark centres with buff-coloured 

 margins. Nape, almost bare of feathers, but those of the 

 sides of the neck passing obliquely backwards and downwards 

 cover the otherwise bare space; chin, white; throat, pale dull 

 yellow. The breast has the loose feathers dull yellow, tinged 

 with violet, some of them margined with dusky and rich 

 brownish yellow; below, the breast is yellow; back, black, 

 with green reflections. 



