AEDEID^— THE HERONS. 138* 



Botaurus lentiginosus (Montag.) 



AMEBICAir BIITEBN. 



Popular synonyms. Stake-driver; Post-driver; Thunder-pump; Water- belcher; Bog-bull; 

 Bog- bumper; Mire-drum; Look-up; Indian heu; Indian pullet, etc. 



Ardea mugitans Baktr. Travels, 1792, (nomen nudum). 



Botaurus mugitans CouES, Check List. 2d ed. ]883,_ No. 6C6. 

 Ardea lentiglnosa Montague, Orn. Diet. Suppl. 1813.-^Sw. & High. F. B.-A. ii, 1831, 371.— 

 NUTT. Man. 11, 1831, CO.— Aud'. Synop. 1839. 263; Birds Am. vi. 1813, flJ, pi. 365 



JBotau7-us_ lentiginosus Stephens, Shaw's Gen. Zool. xii, 1819, 596.— Baied, Birds N. 

 Am. 1858, 674; Oat. N. Am. B. 1859, No. 492.— Reiohenow, J f. O. 1877. 218.— Ridgw. 

 Norn. Am. B. 1881, No. 497; Man. 1887. 126..— A. O. U. Check List, 1886, No. 190. 

 Ardea hudsonias Mebeem, Erseh. Grub. Ency. v, 1820, 175. 

 Ardea minor WiLS. Am. Orn. viii, 1814, 35, pi. 65, fig. 3. 



Botaurus minor" BoiE, Isis, 1825, 979.— CoUES, Key, 1872, 269; Check List, 1873. No. 

 460; Birds N. W. 1874, 523. 

 Butor amerioanus Swains. Classll. B. ii. 1837. 354. 

 Ardea mokoko Tieill. Nouv. Diet, xiv, 1817, 440. 

 Botaurus adspersus "Cab.," Bonap. Cousp. ii, 1857, 156. 

 Ardea stellaris canadensis Edwaeds, Nat. Hist. pi. 136. 

 Le Butor de la Baye de Hudson Edwaeds, 1. o. 

 Botaurus Freti- Hudsonis Beiss. Orn. v, 1760, 450, pi. 37, fig. 1. 

 Ardea stellaris Varietas Foest. Philos. Trans, liiii, 1772, 410. No. 38 (Severn B.). 

 Bittem^XfiT. A. Lath. Synop. iii, 1785. 58. 

 Ardea stellaris B. Lath. Ind. Orn. ii, 1790, 680, No. 18 B. (ex Edwards, pi. 136). 



Has. The whole of temperate and tropical North America, north t(?latitud6 about 60°, 

 south to Guatemala. Cuba; Jamaica; Bermuda<s. Occasional in Europe (18 British records}. 



Sp. Ceab. Adult; Ground-color of the plumage ochraceous-buff ; but this densly mot- 

 tled and finely sprinkled above with reddish brown and blackish, the latter color prevailins 

 qn the dorsal and scapular regions, where the feathers have lighter edges, the buff prevail- 

 ing on the wing-epverts, where the variegation consists of a finer and sparser sprinkling of 

 the dusky and brown; on the tertials and ends of the secondaries, the reddish (a sort of cin- 

 namon shade) forms the ground-color, and is thickly sprinkled with irregular dusky dot- 

 tings and zigzags ; pectoral tufts nearly uniform dark brown, the feathers with*broad lateral 

 borders of clear yellowish oohraeeous. Pileum rusty brown, darker anteriorly, changing 

 gradually backward into the" greenish olive-gray of the nape; sides of the head and neck' 

 yellowish oehraioeous; a malar stripe of dark rusty, changing posteriorly into a very 

 conspicuous stripe of blue-black (or in some specimens dull grayish) down each side of the 

 neck; ohin and throat white, with a very narrow mediandusky streak, su£Eused with oohra-, 

 oeous;foreneck pale buff, with sharply defined stripes of oinnamon-brown edged with a 

 black line; lower parts pale buff, with narrower brownish stripes; tibiee and orissum plain 

 lightoreamy buff; primary-coverts and primaries dart slate, tipped with pale reddish, 

 oohrftceous, finely, but not densely, sprinkled with dusky. Upper mandible olivaoeous- 

 black, the tomium (broadly) lemon-yellow; lower mandible pale lemon-yellow, deeper 

 basally, with a stripe of dusky brownish alqng the posterior part of the tomium; lores and 

 eyelids lemon-yellojf, the former divided longitudlrially by a median stripe of dusky olive, 

 from the eye to the base of the upper mandible; iris clear, light sulphar-yellow next the 

 pupiL shading exteriorly into orange-brownish, this encircled narrowly with black; legs 

 and feet bright yellowish green ; claws pale brown, dusky toward points.' Young: Similar 

 to the adult, but more reddish, the mottling coarser, and with a tendency to form ragged 

 transverse bars, especially on the posterior upper parts. 



> Colors of fresh specimens (male and female) billed along the Truekee Eiver, Nevada, 

 Nov. 18, and Deo. 11. 1867. 



