AMERICAN BITTERN. 165 



the buff on the under part is lighter, and the feathers are 

 margined with pale whitish buff. 



Its native haunts are in the marshes of the temperate por- 

 tions of the eastern continent, upon the hummocks or thick 

 tufts of herbage, surrounded by water, in which it builds a 

 large nest of withered rushes and other aquatic plants, and 

 lays five or six white eggs. With us it is a rare visitant, 

 but occasional specimens have been seen throughout the 

 whole length of the island, as indeed might be expected 

 from its haunts on the continent. It does not so decidedly 

 belong to the eastern migration as do the herons, but is 

 found abundantly along the basin of the Rhine, from Hol- 

 land to the Alps, though always in watery places, and its 

 habits, like those of the bittern, are retired. 



AMERICAN BITTERN (JBotaurus lentiginosus). 



This is an American species, and has some resemblance to 

 our European bittern, only it is much smaller, more minutely 

 freckled, and, though a night bird, as are all the examples 

 of the genus, it does not rise and boom like our native 

 bittern, though it drums when alarmed. In America, its 

 migration extends from the Gulf of Mexico, or the swamps 

 on the lower part of the Mississippi, to Hudson's Bay, on 

 the swampy shores of which it arrives in the beginning of 

 summer. It appears to migrate more to the north and east 

 than the American herons, which may in part account for 

 the appearance of those rare specimens that straggle into 

 Britain. It is very generally distributed over the swamps 

 of North America; and, from its retiring habits and the 

 difficulty of exploring its haunts, is probably much more 

 numerous than one would infer from the numbers seen. Its 

 seasonal movements in America resemble more the autumnal 

 collection and spring dispersion of those birds which display 

 their habits within the compass of Britain, than the actual 



