da8 AMERICAN BITTERN. 
spread over the breast, and reach nearly to the thighs; under these 
long plumes the breast itself, and middle of the belly, are of a deep 
blackish slate, the latter streaked with white; sides, blue ash; vent, 
white; thighs, and ridges of the wings, a dark purplish rust color; 
whole upper part of the wings, tail, and body, a fine light ash, the 
latter ornamented with a profusion of long, narrow, white, tapering 
feathers, originating on the shoulders, or upper part of the back, and 
falling gracefully over the wings; primaries, very dark slate, nearly 
black; naked thighs, brownish yellow ; legs, brownish black, tinctured 
with yellow, and netted with seams of whitish; in some, the legs are 
nearly black. Little difference could be perceived between the plu- 
mage of the males and females; the latter were rather less, and the 
long, pointed plumes of the back were not quite so abundant. 
The young birds of the first year have the whole upper part of the 
head of a dark slate; want the long plumes of the breast and back ; 
and have the body, neck, and lesser coverts of the wings, considerably 
tinged with ferruginous. 
On dissection, the gullet was found of great width, from the mouth 
to the stomach, which has not the two strong muscular coats that form 
the gizzard of some birds; it was more loose, of considerable and uni- 
form thickness throughout, and capable of containing nearly a pint. 
It was entirely filled with fish, among which were some small eels, all 
placed head downwards ; the intestines measured nine feet in length, 
were scarcely as thick as a goose-quill, and incapable of being dis- 
tended; so that the vulgar story of the Heron swallowing eels, which, 
passing suddenly through him, are repeatedly swallowed, is absurd and 
impossible. On the external coat of the stomach of one of these 
birds, opened soon after being shot, something like a blood-vessel lay 
in several meandering folds, enveloped in a membrane, and closely ad- 
hering to the surface. On carefully opening this membrane, it was 
found to contain a large, round, living worm, eight inches in length; 
another, of like length, was found coiled, in the same manner, on an- 
other part of the external coat. It may also be worthy of notice, that 
the intestines of the young birds of the first season, killed in the month 
of October, when they were nearly as large as the others, measured 
only six feet four or five inches; those of the full-grown ones, from 
eight to nine feet in length. 
AMERICAN BITTERN.— ARDEA MINOR. — Fie. 262. 
Le Butor de la Baye de Hudson, Briss. v. i 449, 25.— Buff. vii. p. 430. — Eadie. 
136. — Lath. Syn. iii. p. 58.— Peale’s Museum, No. 5127. 
BOTAURUS MINOR. — Bonaparte. 
/ 
Ardea minor, Bonap. Synop. p. 307. — Ardea Mokoho. — Wagl. Syst. Av. No. 29. 
Tais is another noctural species, common to all our sea and river 
marshes, though nowhere numerous. It rests all day among the reeds 
and rushes, and, unless disturbed, flies and feeds only during the night. 
