164 GRALIJE. 



which is long and pendent, consists of eight or ten awl- 

 shaped white feathers, margined with black. The feathers 

 on the back are produced, and have flocculent webs; they are 

 of a deep buff yellow, and tinged on the upper part with 

 greenish purple, and they extend as far as the tail. The 

 lower part of the neck and breast is dull yellow, and there 

 are a few slight markings of the same on the scapulars and 

 wing-coverts. All the rest of the plumage is white. The 

 mature plumage is similar in both sexes, only the crest is 

 shorter in the female. The young are without the crest and 

 long feathers on the back ; and their colours on the head and 

 upper part are grey and brown. Specimens of these birds 

 have been met in the early part of the summer ; but they 

 are not birds for which an ordinary observer can look : 

 indeed, the whole of the stragglers included in this section 

 belong to the curious department of our ornithology rather 

 than to the useful. 



STRAGGLING BITTERNS. 



Of these there are two recorded as having been seen; the 

 one belonging to the eastern or European migration, and the 

 other to the western or American. They are both rare, but 

 the American is much the rarer of the two. 



THE LITTLE BITTERN (BotaUTUS 



This is a small species, resembling the herons in the form 

 of the bill and the length of the neck, but more like the bit- 

 terns in the general form of the body and the structure of 

 the feet. It is a small species, not exceeding fifteen inches 

 in length. In the male, the head, back, and tail, are black, 

 with green reflections. The lesser wing-coverts are buff, the 

 larger whitish, and the quills black. There is a chestnut-co- 

 loured spot on the scapulars ; the neck, breast, and thighs, , 

 are buff, and the rest of the under parts white. The female 

 is brown above, with rust-coloured margins to the feathers; 



