CATALOGUE OF CANADIAN BIRDS. 1 27 



Mr. John Bates shot a pair at the end of May, 1857, on a creek 

 near Hamilton water-works. These are the only birds of this 

 species ever seen in Ontario. {Mcllwraith.) 



187. White-faced Glossy Ibis. 



Plegadis guarauna (Linn.) Ridgw. 1878. 



Found as a rare straggler in British Columbia. Only two speci- 

 mens known to have been taken in that province ; one on Salt 

 Spring Island in the Gulf of Georgia, and the other at the mouth 

 of the Fraser River. {Fannin.} 



Family XVI. ARDEIDiEi. Herons, Bitterns, &c. 



LXX. BOTAURUS Hermann. 1783. 

 190. American Bittern. 



Botaurus lentiginosus (Montag.) Steph. 1819. 



This species is only a straggler in Greenland but is a summer 

 migrant in Newfoundland. It breeds in Prince Edward Island, 

 Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario and north- 

 ward to Hudson Bay, in all suitable localities. 



Westward it becomes more abundant and is found commonly 

 from Manitoba to the Pacific, never being seen in flocks but 

 turning up in all marshes and in weedy brooks. Richardson 

 says it is common in the interior up to the fifty-eight parallel, 

 and Bernard Ross says it descends the Mackenzie to the Arctic 

 Sea. Although it is abundant in British Columbia we have no 

 record of its occurrence in Alaska. 



Breeding Notes. — Nests in the reeds and grass in nearly all 

 marshes. On June 29th, 1892, found a nest at Indian Head, Assa., 

 containing five eggs. The nest was built on a mass of last year's 

 rushes about eighteen inches above tha water and consisted of 

 the same materials. The bird feeds upon mice, snakes, frogs and 

 almost anything that has life and that it is able to swallow. 

 {Spreadborough.) 



A pair breeds every year in Ashbridge's Bay, Toronto, Ont. 

 This species lays five eggs, occasionally six. {Raitie.) 



I have found the nest of this species four times in the County 

 of Leeds, Ont. The bird lays its eggs very regularly about the 



