ARDEIU^:— THK HERONS. 138* 



Botaurus lentiginosus (Montag.) 



AMERICAN BITTERN. 



Popular synonyms. Stake-driver; Post-driver; Thunder-pump: Water-belcher; Bog-bull; 

 Bog-bumper; Mire-drum; Jjook-up; Indian hen; Indian puUet, etc. 



Arden imtgitann Bartr. Travels, 1702, (nnmen nudum). 



Botaurus mugltana CouES. Check List, 2d ed. 1882, No. 666. 

 Ardea lentiginosa Montague, Orn. Diet. Suppl. 18W — 8w. & Rich. F. B.-A. ii, l«il, 371.— 



NuTT. Man. ii. 1834. CO.— Aud. Syiiop. 1839, 203; Birds Am. vi. 181.3, 94, pi. .i65. 

 Botaurus lentiQinosus Stephens, Shaw's Gen. Zool. xii. 1819. 596.— Baibd, Birds N. 



Am. 1858. 674; Cat. N. Am. B. 1859. No. 492.— Reichenow, J f. O. !H77, 2t8.-RiDGW. 



Nom. Am. B. 1881. No. 497; Man. 1887, 12G..-A. O. U. Check List, 1886, No. I'JO. 

 Ardea hudso7iias Mebrem, Erseh. Grub. Ency. v, 1820, 175. 

 Ardea minor Wils. Am. Orn. viii, 1814, 35, pi. 65, fie. 3. 



Botaurus minor BoiE. Isis, 182G, 979.— CoUES, Key. 1872, 269; Check List, 1873. No. 



460; Birds N. W. 1874. 523. 

 Butor americanus Swains. Classif. B. ii. 1837, 354. 

 Ardea mokoko Vieill. Nouv. Diet. xiv. 1817, <4<». 

 Botaurus adspersns "Cab.," Bonap. Consp. ii, 1857, 156. 

 Ardea stellaris canadensis Edwards, Nat. Hist. pi. 136. 

 l,e Butor de la Baye de Hudson Edwards, 1. c. 

 Botaurus Freti-Hudsonls Briss. Orn. v, 17f;o, 450, pi. 37, flg. 1. 

 Ardea stellaris Varietas Forst. Philos. Trans. Ixsi, 1772, 4iu. No. 38 (Severn R.). 

 Bittern Var. A. Lath. Synop. iii, 1785. 58. 

 Ardea stellaris B. Lath. Ind. Orn. ii, 1790, 680. No. 18 B. (ex Edwards, pi. 136). 



Hab. The whole of temperate and tropical North America, north to latitude about 60°, 

 south to Guatemala. Cuba; Jamaica; Bermudas. Occasional in Europe (is British records). 



Sp. Chab. Adult: Ground-color of the plumage ochraceous-buff ; but this densly mot- 

 tled and finely sprinkled above with reddish brown and blackish, the latter color prevailing 

 on the dorsal and scapular regions, where the feathers have lighter edges, the buflf prevail- 

 ing on the wing-coverts, where the variegation consists of a finer and sparser sprinkling of 

 the dusky and brown; on the tertials and ends of the secondaries, the reddish (a sort of cin- 

 namon shade) forms the ground-color, and is thickly sprinkled with irregular dusky dot- 

 tings and zigzags; pectoral tufts nearly uniform dark brown, the feathers with broad lateral 

 borders of clear yellowish ochraceous. Pileum rusty brown, darker anteriorly, changing 

 gradually backward into the greenish olive-gray of the nape ; sides of the head and neck 

 yellowish ochraceous; a malar stripe of dark rusty, changing posteriorly into a very 

 conspicuous stripe of blue-black (or in some specimens dull grayish) down each side of the 

 neck; chin and throat white, with a very narrow median dusky streak, suffused with ochra- 

 ceous; foreneck pale buff, with sharply defined stripes of cinnamon-brown edged with a 

 black line; lower parts pale buff, with narrower brownish stripes; tibiffi and crissum plain 

 lightoreamy buff; primary-coverts and primaries dark slate, tipped with pale reddish 

 ochraceous, finely, but not densely, sprinkled with dusky. Upper mandible olivaceous- 

 black, the tomium (broadly) lemon-yellow; lower mandible pale lemon-yellow, deeper 

 basally, with a stripe of dusky brownish along the posterior part of the tomium; lores and 

 eyelids lemon- yellow, the former divided longitudinally by a m>Hlian stripe of dusky olive, 

 from the eye to the base of the upper mandible; iris clear, light sulphur-yellow next the 

 pupil, shading exteriorly into orange-brownish, this encircled narrowly with black; legs 

 and feet bright yellowish green; claws pale brown, dusky toward points.' Young: Similar 

 to the adult, but more reddish, the mottling coarser, and with a tendency to form ragged 

 transverse bars, especially on the posterior upper parts. 



1 Colors of fresh specimens (male an^l female) killed along the Truckee River, Nevada, 

 Nov. 18, and Dec. 11. 1867. 



