404 Ardeidce. 



colony breeding on pollard trees and bushes in the immediate 

 neighbourhood of a swamp on the Lower Danube. By Continen- 

 tal naturalists it is generally known as A. ralloides, ' like a rail ' 

 from rallus, ' a rail/ and o25o?, appearance (B.O.U.). So in Ger- 

 many it is Eallen Reiher, ' Rail Heron ;' but in France Heron 

 Crabier, ' Crab-eating Heron ;' and in Italy Scarza ciufetto, 

 ' Tufted Heron/ 



145. LITTLE BITTERN (Botaurus minutus). 



This is a very rare bird in England, though common enough 

 in France and Germany, and I have met with it on the Simplon 

 Pass in Switzerland: it is a diminutive member of the great 

 Heron family, and a very prettily marked species. I have a 

 record of one mentioned by Montagu as killed in the neighbour- 

 hood of Bath in 1789, but whether in Wilts or Somerset there 

 is no evidence to show ; but I have information of several un- 

 doubted specimens being taken in this county : one killed about 

 1850 in the parish of Seend, and in the possession of Mr. Taylor, 

 of Baldham Mill, as I was informed by the late Mr. Withers : 

 another shot by Mr. Jervoise's keeper at Britford, near Salisbury, 

 about 1851, in the month of June ; for the knowledge of which I 

 am again indebted to my good friend, the Rev. George Powell, 

 rector of Sutton Yeny. One, an adult male, killed at Stourton, 

 in 1820, by Jacob Riddick, gamekeeper to Sir R. C. Hoare, as I 

 am informed by Mr. Baker; and one procured at Wilton, by 

 Mr. C. Parham, on September 8th, 1869, as I learn from the 

 Rev. A. P. Morres. 



The chief characteristic of the Bitterns, wherein they differ 

 from the true Herons, consists in the plumage of the neck, 

 which, in the hinder part is bare, or scantily clothed with down, 

 but the front and side feathers being long and extending back- 

 wards completely cover the naked space ; these feathers can also be 

 expanded laterally at will, when the bird assumes a strange appear- 

 ance, reminding one of the voluminous folds of cravat in fashion 

 in the palmy days of Beau Brummel ; the neck is also considerably 

 shorter, and the beak stouter than in the preceding species. The 



