90 AEDEID^ ARDETTA 



Length about 11 ; wing 6-4; tail 2-0; culmen 1-65 ; tarsus 1-8 ; 

 middle toe 1-8. 



The male is like the female in most respects, but not quite so 

 rufous below. It is perhaps slightly larger. 



In the young bij-d the general colour above is more slaty, and all 

 the feathers of the back and wing-coverts are tipped with sandy- 

 buff ; below the brown streaks are not quite so broad. 



Distribution. — The range of the African Dwarf Bittern extends 

 over the greater part of Africa, from Senegal and the Shilluk country 

 of the Upper White Nile, southwards to Cape Colony. It has also 

 occurred iu the Canaries. 



Within our limits it is most abundant in Ehodesia and Northern 

 Damaraland, and is a decidedly rare bird in Cape Colony ; nor has it 

 been recorded from Potchefstroom by the indefatigable Mr. Ayres. 

 The following are localities : Cape Colony — near Cape Town and near 

 the junction of the Vaal and Orange Elvers (Smith), Paarl (Gird 

 according to Layard), Malmesbury (S. A. Mus.) ; Natal— common 

 (Woodward) ; Transvaal — Selati railway in Lydenburg, April (Francis 

 in S. A. Mus.); Beohuanaland — Kooroomoorooi Pan, January 

 (Ayres) ; Ehodesia — Pandamatenka (Holub), Upper Zambesi Eiver 

 (Chapman and Bradshaw), Salisbury district (Marshall), Kafue Eiver 

 (Alexander) ; German South-west Africa — Ondonga, Ovaquenyana, 

 Ovagandyaro, Omanbonde, all in Ovampoland (Andersson). 



Habits. — This Bittern is usually found in swamps surrounded 

 by a few trees and bushes, among the lowest branches of which it 

 prefers to rest. It is not shy, and its flight is slow and heavy ; 

 it has a croaking cry and nothing resembling the boom of the true 

 Bittern ; aquatic animals of all sorts form its food, such as snails, 

 insects, frogs and small fishes. Both Andersson and Ayres state 

 that this bird is chiefly active at night, hut this is disputed by the 

 Woodwards, who were told by Mr. Fitzsimmons that he had several 

 times watched it diligently hunting by day. 



Andersson is the only naturalist who has written of its nesting 

 habits; he states as follows: "It breeds in Oudonga, usually 

 placing its nest in the lower branches of palm bushes, which are 

 partly immersed iu water, a few feet above which the nest is 

 situated ; it is composed of stalks of coarse grass, or of small twigs 

 laid across each other without much care or strength, and with 

 hardly any depression for the reception of the eggs, which are four 

 in number." 



