588 
MINUTE HERON. 
The Minute Bittern has been thus accurately 
described by Latham : “ Size of a Thrush in the 
body : length eleven inches and a half : beak two 
inches long, greenish, with a pale point : irides 
straw-colour : crown of the head dark rufous 
chesnut : sides of the neck rufous ; the feathers 
pretty long, and meeting behind, where it is nearly 
bare ; chin and fore-part of the neck white, with a 
series of feathers on each side the white, of a pale 
ferruginous colour, each feather marked with a 
blackish line down the shaft: on the lower. part 
of the neck the feathers are long and loose ; some 
of them nearly white, and hang over the breast, 
which is brownish black ; this colour passing up- 
wards on each side as a crescent to the back ; but 
the feathers on each side have whitish margins : 
the back is rufous chesnut, with pale yellow 
margins : the first and third order of wing-coverts 
like the back, but plain ; the middle ones fer- 
ruginous, with a dusky line down each shaft : 
quills black ; some of the inner prime ones marked 
with chesnut at the tips ; secondaries the same, 
with some few of them wholly chesnut : belly, 
thighs, and vent, white ; * tail black : legs green, 
bare for three quarters of an ineh above the 
knee.” 
I have seen several specimens of this species 
that were killed in Jamaica, and some of them 
varied a little from the above. One had the back, 
* In some of the specimens shewn to me by a friend, tliese 
parts were varied with dusky down the shafts. — J. F. S. 
