LEAST BITTERN. 605 



Ardea minor, Wilson, Am. Orn., viii, 1814, 35. 



Botaurua minor, BoiB, Ws, 1826, 979. 



Botaurua lentiginosua, Stephens, Shaw's Gen. Zool., xi, 1819, 596. 



Ardea stellaria, var. minor, Gmblin, Syst., Nat., i, 1788, 635. 



Ploinage of upper-parts singularly freckled with brown of varions shades, blackish, 

 tawny and whitish ; neck and under-parts ochrey or tawny-white. Each feather 

 marked with a brown dark-edged stripe, the throat line white, with brown streaks; 

 a velvety-black patch on each side of the neck above ; crown dull-brown, with buff 

 superciliary stripe; tail brown; quills greenish-black, with a glaucous shade, brown 

 tipped ; bill black and yellowish, legs greenish, soles yellow ; length, 23-28 ; wing, 10-13 ; 

 tall, 4^ ; bill, about 3 ; tarsus, about 3|. 



Habitat, entire temperate North America (up to 58° or 60°). Cuba. South to- 

 Guatemala. Breeds chiefly from the middle districts northward, wintering thence stJuth- 

 ward. Regularly migratory. Accidental in Europe. 



Summer resident from March to November, but usually seen in this 

 vicinity during the spring and fall migrations. Like the Blue Heron it 

 is an early and late migrant, often seen after severe frosts in the fall. 

 It is apparently more numerous than any others of the family except the 

 Green Heron. But, unlike any of the preceding, it is usually seen in 

 weedy and bushy swamps and not along running streams, prefering, if it 

 must have company, that of the Snipe and Rail, to that of its immediate 

 rolatives. 



A friend describes to me a bird which he saw stalking along the bank 

 of a creek in spring, as of a freckled mulatto color, about two feet long, 

 slender and graceful in its movements, which he calls " Nelly Bly," for 



" When she walks she lifts her foot 

 And then she puts it down.'' 



A description which better applies to this species than to any other of 

 this family. 



The nest of the Bittern is placed on the ground ; the eggs, three to 

 five in number, are brownish-drab, measuring about 2.00 by 1.50. 



Genus AKDETTA. Gray. 

 Generic characters as in Botaurua, but sexes differently colored. 



Ardetta exilis (Gm.) Gr. 



ILieaut Bittern. 



Ardea exilis, Kirtland, Ohio Geolog. Snrv., 1838, 165. — Audubon, B. Am., vi, 1843, 100. 



Ardetta exilis, Whbaton, Ohio Agric. Rep. for 1860, 1861, 368 ; Reprint, 10 ; Field Notes, 

 i, 1861, 129 ; Food of Birds, etc., Ohio Agric. Rep. for 1874, 1875, 573 ; Reprint, 13. 

 — Tkemblt, Field Notes, i, 1861, 180.— Langdon, Cat. Birds of Cin., 1877, 15 ; Journ. 

 Cin. Soc. Nat. Hist., i, 1878, 117 ; Revised List, ib., iii, 1879, 184 ; Reprint, 18 ; Sum- 

 mer Birds, ib., iii, 1880, 227 ; Field Notes, lb., ii, 1880, 127.— Dury and Freeman, 

 ib., ii, 1880, 184 ; Reprint, 5. 



