284 



AVES-ORDER ARDEIFORMES. 



Fig, 44.— The Boat biilrd Heron 

 {Canchroma cochlearia). 



the bird ia an exaggerated form of Night-Heron, its plumage also suggesting 



the propriety of this alliance. The genus stands, in fact, between the true 



Night -Herons (Nyctieorax) and the 

 Mottled Night-Herons {Gursachius) of 

 the Indian Region. 



Two species of Boat-billed Herons are 

 known — the South American species 

 C. cochlearia, which is found from 

 Brazil to Guiana, Colombia, and 

 Ecuador, and the Central American 

 species, 0. :.eledoni, which takes its 

 place from Panama to Mexico, and has 

 a tawny-coloured breast instead of a 

 white one. They are nocturnal birds, 

 and Mr, Richmond says that in Costa 

 Rica he found G. zeledoni in colonies, 

 and the note of the species was a 

 "squawk," something like that of the 

 Night-Heron. 



The Bitterns have ten tail-feathers 

 pnd the end of the bill serrated. In 

 this group are contained the Little 

 Bitterns {Ardetta), the Dwarf Tiger 

 Bitterns uf South America (Zebriliis), 

 and the Asiatic Bitterns (Ardeiralhts and 

 Uupetor), as well as the True Bitterns 



{Botaiirus). Of the Little Bitterns ten species are known, and the distribution 



of the genus is almost cosmopolitan. The 



most tyoical species is the Little Bittern 



of Eurone {Ardetta minuta), a bird which 



still occasionally finds its way to England, 



and doubtless formerly bred in the British 



Islands. One of the most remarkable of 



the Little Bitterns ' is, however, the 



Argentine species {Ardetta involitcris), 



concerning which Mr. W. H. Hudson 



tells a remarkable story, one of the most 



interesting of all histories of bird-life. 



Most of the Bitterns have the curious 



faculty of concealing themselves from 



observation by their faculty of "reed- 

 simulating," and many of our readers 



must have noticed some of these birds in 



the Zoological Gardens standing stock- 

 still, and evidently imagining that by so 



doing they were invisible to the intruder. 



The Common Bittern {Botaurus stellaris) 



will not only do this, but will gradually 



and slowly turn his breast to any observer 



if the latter only walks slowly away from 



him, under the evident impression that by so doing he renders himself 



invisible, as, indeed, the bird would be if he were in his native reed-bed ; 



Fig. 45 —Tim Littlk Bittekk 

 (Ai-detta viiinita). 



