HERON. 101 



63— FRECKLED HERON. 



Ardea lentiginosa, Freckled Heron, Orn. Diet. Supp. with a figure. Franklin's Narr. 

 App .p. 685 ? 



COLONEL MONTAGU mentions a Heron shot in the west of 

 England, and in his collection, of which he cannot precisely ascer- 

 tain the species. It is twenty-three inches long. Bill two inches 

 and three quarters ; in colour more like the Common Bittern than 

 any other, but not half the size: the plumage altogether much 

 darker, and the markings extremely different ; legs long, slender, 

 greenish, middle claw pectinated. It possibly may prove a female, 

 or young bird, of one of the two last described ; but this is only 

 conjecture : it is more fully described in the Supplement to the 

 Ornitho logica I Dictionary . 



64.— LENTIGINOUS HERON. 



Ardea lentiginosa, Compend. Orn. 136. 



Botaurus lentiginosus, Shaw's Zool. 



Ardea minor, American Bittern, Amer. Orn. vii. 35. pi. 65. f. 3. 



LENGTH twenty-two inches. Head small ; crown chocolate- 

 brown, shaded to a dull yellow, where the feathers are elongated ; 

 throat white, with a row of brown feathers down the middle ; back 

 and scapulars chocolate-brown ; legs greenish. 



Shot by Mr. Cunningham, at Middleton, in Dorsetshire, in 

 autumn 1804. It seems much allied to the American Species. 



65— WHITE-BELLIED BITTERN. 



LENGTH three feet. Bill three inches, dusky blue, the upper 

 ridge inclining to yellow ; lore and bare space round the eye bluish ; 



