THE BITTERN. 405 



BOTAURUS, STEPHENS. 



Botaurus, STEPHENS, Shaw's Gen. Zool., XI. (1819) 592. (Type Ardea stel- 

 laris, L.) 



Bill moderate, scarcely longer than the head ; bill outlines gently convex, gonys 

 ascending; tarsi very short, less than the middle toe ; broadly scutellate ; inner 

 lateral toe much longest; claws all very long, acute, and nearly straight. 



Tail of ten feathers; no peculiar crest; plumage loose, opaque, streaked; sexes 

 similar. 



BOTAURUS LENTIGINOSUS. Stephens. 

 The Bittern ; Stake-driver. 



Botaurus lentiginosus, Stephens. Shaw's Gen. Zool., XI. (1819) 596. 



Ardea (botaurus) lentiginosa, Nuttall. Man., II. (1834) 60. 



Ardea minor, Wilson. Am. Orn., VIII. (1814) 35. Aud. Orn. Biog., IV. (1838) 

 296. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Brownish-yellow, finely mottled and varied with dark-brown and brownish-red ; a 

 broad black stripe on each side the neck, starting behind the ear; iris golden yellow. 



Length, twenty-six and fifty one-hundredths inches ; wing, eleven ; tarsus, three 

 and sixty one-hundredths inches ; bill, above, two and seventy-five one hundredths 

 inches. 



Hob. Entire continent of North America. 



Perhaps none of our Herons are more generally known 

 than this species ; for it is common in all New England as a 

 summer resident, and in some localities, particularly the 

 northern, is quite abundant. It arrives from the South 

 from about the last week in March to the 10th of April, 

 according to latitude, and remains in the meadows, where it 

 makes its home until the middle of October. It seems to 

 be more diurnal in its habits than most of our other Herons, 

 and seems always employed in the pursuit of fishes, frogs, 

 and other reptiles and insects, of which its food consists. 



It breeds in communities, sometimes as many as a dozen 

 pairs nesting within the area of a few rods. The nests are 

 placed on low bushes, or thick tufts of grass, sometimes in 

 low, thickly wooded trees ; and are composed of coarse 

 grasses, twigs, and a few leaves. I know of no other place 

 in New England where these birds breed in such abun- 

 dance as in the neighborhood of the Richardson Lakes, in 

 Maine. There, in some of the tangled, boggy, almost im- 



