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Genus ARDETTA. 



Ardea apud Brisson, Orn. v. p. 497 (1760). 



Botaurus apud Boie, Isis, 1822, p. 559. 



Cancrophagus apud Kaup, Natiirl. Syst. p. 42 (1829). 



Butor apud Swainson, Classif. of B. ii. p. 354 (1837). 



Ardeola apud Bonaparte, Comp. List, p. 48 (1838). 



Ardetta, G. R. Gray, List of Gen. of B. Appendix, p. 13 (1842). 



The genus Ardetta is represented in the Palsearctic, Ethiopian, Oriental, Australian, Nearctic, 

 and Neotropical Regions, only one species being found in the Western Palaearctic Region. 



In many respects these birds resemble the Bitterns, so much so that some authors have 

 included them in the genus Botaurus ; but they are clearly deserving of generic separation. 

 They frequent marshes, rivers, and sheets of water which are well covered with aquatic vegeta- 

 tion, are shy and secretive in their habits, and hide pertinaciously amongst the dense thickets of 

 reeds and bushes. They take wing unwillingly, but fly swiftly and with ease. They feed on 

 small fish, insects, frogs, &c, which they obtain in the wet localities they inhabit. Their cry is 

 more like that of the Bittern than the call-note of the Herons. They construct a rather heavy 

 nest of twigs and aquatic plants, which they place amongst the reeds above shallow water ; and 

 they deposit several bluish-white eggs. 



Ardetta minuta, the type of the genus, has the bill longer than the head, straight, tapering 

 to a sharp point ; gape-line straight ; nostrils linear ; space in front of the eye bare ; wings 

 moderately long, broad and full, the first two quills nearly equal, the third slightly shorter; 

 tail short, slightly rounded; legs rather short, the tibia feathered to the joint, tarsus anteriorly 

 scutellate ; toes long, rather slender ; claws long, slightly curved, acute, that on the middle toe 

 serrated on the inner edge; plumage soft and full, the head without crest, and the dorsal 

 plumage not elongated as in Ardea. 



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