576 ARDETTA 



Hdron blongios, French ; Garcenha, Portug. ; Garza pequena, 

 Span. ; Nonnotto, Guacco, Ital. ; Zweryrohrdommel, German ; 

 Woudaapje, Dutch ; Dvcergheira, Dan. ; Dverg-rordrum, Swed. ; 

 Zapla-woltschok, Russ. 



<$ ad. (Malta). Upper parts, including the head and .tail, black glossed 

 with greenish ; sides of head and neck dull vinous grey ; quills purplish 

 black ; wing-coverts ochreous, the larger tinged with dove-blue, under 

 parts ochreous ; the lower neck-feathers elongated ; bill and legs greenish 

 yellow ; iris and bare part round the eye yellow. Culmen 21, wing 5 83. 

 tail 2*4, tarsus 1'72 inch. The female is rather smaller, has the head 

 brownish black, the sides of head and neck rufous ; back and scapulars 

 dark chestnut-brown margined with ochreous ; quills dark brown ; a patch 

 of chestnut-red on the shoulder ; chin white, with a central ochreous 

 stripe ; under parts streaked with white. Young birds resemble the 

 female but have the upper parts more varied with buff, and the under 

 parts streaked with deep brown. 



Hob. Temperate Europe, straying to Scandinavia and the 

 British Islands, and has however been recorded from the 

 Fseroes and Iceland ; Madeira and the Azores ; northern and 

 central Africa in winter ; Asia Minor and temperate Asia as 

 far east as Northern India*. 



In habits it is shy and secretive and much resembles the 

 Bittern. It frequents dense reed-beds and slips with ease 

 through the densest thickets. Its flight is easy and swift, and 

 the call-note of the male is a somewhat soft bum, bum, that of 

 the female being gett, gdt, gett. It feeds, chiefly by night, on 

 small fish, frogs, and aquatic insects. Its nest is a clumsy 

 structure of aquatic plants and twigs, lined with fine grass or 

 flags, and is placed in the rushes well above the water, or some- 

 times on a bush. The eggs, 4 to 7 or even 9 in number, are 

 usually deposited in May or June, and are dull white, with a 

 bluish tinge when fresh, and measure about T37 by 1*05. 



804. CHINESE LITTLE BITTERN. 

 ARDETTA SINENSIS. 



Ardetta sinensis (Gmel.), Syst. Nat. i. p. 642 (1788) ; David and Oust. 

 - Ois. Chine, p. 448 ; Sharpe, Gat. B. Br. Mus. xxvi. p. 227 ; Blanf. F. 

 Brit. Ind. Birds, -iv. p. 401 ; (Seebohm), B. Jap. Emp. p. 27 ; Tacz. 

 F. 0. Sib. 0. p. 988. 



Jun-bagla, Hindu.; Kat-bogla, Beng. ; Yoshigoi,j8ip. 



