AMERICAN BITTERN. 167 



GRALLA TORES, A RDE1DJE. 



PLATE CLXX. 



AMERICAN BITTERN. 



ARDEA LENTIGINOSA. 



The American Bittern is a rare visitant in Great Britain, 

 but is, as its name denotes, an indigenous inhabitant of 

 America, migrating northward on that continent, for the 

 purpose of breeding, as far as the Hudson's Bay about the 

 month of May, and retiring southward to pass the inclement 

 winter season in milder regions. Selby states, in his " Illustra- 

 tions of British Ornithology," that the specimen which is now in 

 the British Museum belonged to Montagu's collection, and was 

 shot in the parish of Piddleton, in Dorsetshire, in the autumn 

 of 1804. 



Our drawing was made from the same specimen, which was 

 at the time in good preservation. 



The locality chosen by this bird is similar to that of our 

 Bittern, namely, banks of lakes, rivers, and ponds, where 

 reeds and rushes give the bird shelter during the day-time 

 and food at night; for, like others of its family, this Bittern 

 sleeps during the day in thickets of water-plants, and feeds 

 undisturbed during the dark hours of the night, at which 

 time fishes come to the shallows in search of their own food, 

 and thus afford him an abundant supply. 



The sound uttered by the American Bittern is generally 

 reported to be like a tap on a drum twice or thrice re- 



