HERON. 69 



FEMALE. 



Ardea minuta, Lin. i. 240. Faun. Helv. 



Ardeola nsevia, Bris. v. 500. t. 40. f. 2. Id. 8vo. ii. 342. 



Le Blongios tachete, Biif. vii. 395. 



Little Bittern, Gen. Syn. v. 66. Edw. pi. 275. 



THE male of this species is scarcely bigger than a Thrush ; 

 length fifteen inches. Bill greenish yellow, the upper mandible 

 black at the tip, the edges jagged ; the top of the head, the back, 

 and tail, dull green ; neck very long ; the fore part of it, breast, and 

 thighs, buff-colour; belly and vent white; the hind part of the neck 

 bare of feathers, but covered by those growing on the sides of it ; at 

 the inner bend of the wing a large chestnut spot ; the lesser wing 

 coverts yellowish buff, the greater whitish; the web of that next the 

 back half buff, half black; quills black; legs dusky; thighs 

 feathered to the knees; middle claw serrated. 



The female is of the same size ; the crown blackish green ; the 

 feathers of the upper part of the body brown, margined with pale 

 rufous ; beneath the same, but paler, and the feathers more deeply 

 margined with rufous; forehead edged with chestnut; the feathers 

 on the fore part of the neck long, as in the other; belly white; tail 

 blackish green, margined with fulvous at the end ; legs greenish. 



These two birds are by most authors considered as the same 

 species, and the last being the female. They have been found 

 frequently in Switzerland, also in Arabia, though scarce in other 

 parts.* In France they are also rare, only now and then one being 

 met with ; are said to be common on the River Coic, near Aleppo; 

 and that they are observed frequently to stand with the neck stretched 

 straight upwards. According to the Brit. Zool. a male has been 

 once shot, perched on one of the trees of the public walks in Shrews- 

 bury; a second killed in 1773, near Christchurch, in Hampshire, 



* I have seen it in drawings from India, &c. we are assured that it is found at Bengal, 

 View of Hind. ii. 158. 



