134 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 
over or near the water. The eggs, three to six (usually four), are bluish- 
white or pale blue, unspotted, closely resembling those of the Yellow-billed 
Cuckoo, and averaging 1.20 by .93 inches. 
This species when disturbed rises with a good deal of awkward flapping, 
much like most other herons, but makes fair speed when once under way. 
Apparently it migrates mostly by night, and it is one of the birds often 
killed by flying against wire fences, telephone and telegraph wires. We 
do not know that its food differs much from that of the other herons. 
In suitable places Least Bitterns are extraordinarily abundant, but 
the numbers vary much in the same locality from year to year. On 
Chandler’s Marsh, Ingham county, we have known two collectors working 
together to find more than 20 nests containing eggs, and nearly as many 
empty ones, during a day’ssearch. According to Dr. R. H. Wolcott many 
false nests or “roosts” are constructed in the vicinity of the one in which 
the eggs are laid. In the southern half of the state most of the eggs are 
laid between June first and 15th, and we have no reason to suppose that 
more than one brood is reared in a season. 
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 
Adult male: Top of head, back, scapulars and tail deep greenish-black; the scapulars 
margined on the outer edge by a pale buff stripe; sides of head and neck buff, deepening 
to chestnut along the black cap and down the back of the neck; a brownish black patch 
on each side of the breast in front of the bend of the wing; entire under parts from bill 
to tail whitish or very pale buff, many of the feathers with narrow dark brown shaft-lines, 
and a darker stripe down the middle of the neck and chest; lesser wing coverts and some of 
the others light buff, but the greater coverts, tertiaries, and outer vanes of most of the 
secondaries, rich chestnut; primaries dark slate color. Bill brown along the ridge, yellow 
along the cutting edges; legs and feet greenish-yellow; iris bright yellow. Adult female: 
Similar, but top of head dark brown instead of black, back and scapulars lighter brown, 
the buffy stripe much wider than in male; the under parts darker buff and more heavily 
streaked with brown. Immature: Similar to the adult female, but most of the back 
feathers buff-tipped. 
Length 12 to 14 inches; wing 4.30 to 5.25; culmen 1.60 to 1.90; tarsus 1.50 to 1.75. 
70. Cory’s Bittern. Ixobrychus neoxenus (Cory). (191.1) 
Synonyms: Cory’s Least Bittern, Cory’s Dwarf Bittern.—Ardetta neoxena, Cory, 
1886, and most subsequent authors. 
Figure 38. 
Precisely like the preceding in size and proportions, and very similar 
in color, but with much more chestnut, the entire under parts being of this 
color, more or less mixed or shaded with black. 
Distribution.—Originally discovered in Florida, in the Everglades, 
where all the earlier specimens were taken. Subsequently 16 specimens 
were taken near Toronto, Ont., one was taken in Wisconsin, one in Ohio, 
and at least twoin Michigan. The first Michigan specimen was taken 
at Manchester, August 8, 1894, by L. Whitney {Watkins (Auk, XII, 77), 
the second by Jesse Craven, at St. Clair Flats, May 14, 1904. Very likely 
the distribution of this species will prove to be the same as that of 
the preceding, and several ornithologists have suggested that Cory’s Bittern 
may prove to be simply a color phase of the Least Bittern. Almost nothing 
is known as yet in regard to the habits of this bird, but what there is 
agrees closely with what we know of the other species. 
