FRECKLED BITTERN. 
597 
the lower mandible commences a black mark, 
that increases on the upper part of the neck on 
each side, and is two inches or more in length : 
the cheeks are yellowish, with an obscure dusky 
line at the corner of the eye : the feathers on the 
neck are long and broad, with their webs partly 
unconnected ; those in front are pale dull yellow, 
with broad chesnut streaks, formed by each feather 
having one web of each colour, margined, how- 
ever, with dull yellow on the chesnut side ; some 
feathers have the dark mark in the middle, espe- 
cially the lower ones ; they are all loose, as in the 
common Bittern ; those at the bottom of the neck 
four inches long, and hang pendant below the 
breast; the hind head is bare, and the feathers 
that fall over that part are pale yellow-brown : the 
feathers on the breast are also long, and of a fine 
chocolate-brown, glossed with purple, and mar- 
gined with dull yellow : belly and sides the same, 
but not quite so bright, the brown marks becoming 
speckled : the vent and under tail-coverts yel- 
lowish white: the back and scapulars are chocolate- 
brown, with paler margins, minutely speckled, and 
glossed with a tinge of purple in some particular 
lights ; the coverts of the wings dull yellow, 
darker in the middle of each feather ; the margins 
prettily speckled: the first and second order of 
quills, their greater coverts, and the alulae spuriae, 
dusky lead-colour, with a cinereous dash : the pri- 
maries very slightly tipped with brown ; the se- 
condaries and the greater coverts tipped more 
deeply with the same, and prettily speckled on the 
