298 AMERICAN BITTERN. 
much difference of size and weight, even in the same sex. Of about 
twenty specimens in my possession, scarcely two correspond in the 
length of the bills, legs, or wings. The plate before you was engraved 
from a drawing made by my son Joun Woopuouse. 
American Birrern, ArpeEa minor, Wils. Amer. Ornith. vol. vii. p. 35, pl. 65, 
fig. 3. 
ARDEA minor, Ch. Bonaparte, Synopsis of Birds of United States, p. 307. 
American Birrern, Nuttall, Manual, vol. ii. p. 60. 
American Birrern, ARDEA LENTIGINOSA, Richards. and Swains. Fauna Bor.- 
Amer. vol. ii. p. 374. 
Adult Male. Plate CCCXXXVII. Fig. 1. 
Bill longer than the head, moderately stout, straight, compressed, 
tapering to the point. Upper mandible with its dorsal line straight, 
towards the end slightly convex and declinate, the ridge broad and 
rather rounded at the base, gradually narrowed to the middle, then a 
little enlarged, and again narrowed to the point, the sides bulging, to- 
wards the margin erect, the edges sharp, towards the end obscurely 
serrated, the tip narrow, with a distinct notch or sinus on each side. 
Nasal groove oblong, with a long depressed line in front; nostrils sub- 
basal, linear, longitudinal. Lower mandible with the angle very long 
and extremely narrow, the dorsal line ascending and slightly convex, 
the sides flattened and sloping outwards, the edges sharp, direct, ob- 
scurely serrulate, the tip extremely slender. 
Head small, oblong, much compressed. Neck long. Body slender, 
much compressed. Legs longish, stout ; tibia bare for about an inch, 
reticulated all round, the scales on the hind part larger ; tarsus round- 
ish, with numerous large scutella before, reticulated behind with angu- 
lar scales; toes very long, slender, marginate, the fourth and third 
connected by a short web, not reaching the second joint of the former ; 
first toe large, second longer than fourth, all covered with numerous 
large scutella above ; claws long, slender, tapering, slightly arched, 
that of hind toe much larger and more arched. 
Eyelids, and a large space before the eye, bare. Plumage loose, 
soft, and blended ; hind part of neck in its whole length, and a large 
space on the fore part of the breast without feathers, but covered, 
