118 



HERON. 



above pale ash-colour; wing- coverts mixed with black ; under pa rt 

 of the body white; quills part black, part white; legs bluish. 

 Inhabits America, and is probably a young Blue Heron. 



86.— GREATER RED HERON. 



Ardea Botaurus, hid. Orn. ii. 698. Gm. Lin. i. 636. Tern. Man. Ed. ii. 571. 



Botaurus major, Bris. v. 455. Id. 8vo. ii. 330. N. C. Petr. xv. 482. t. 24 i 



Ardea Stellaris major, seu rubra, Rati, 100. 13. Will. 208. 



Ardea ranivora, Gerin. iv. 430 ? 431. 



Grand Butor, Bitf. vii. 422. Dec. russ, ii. 246. 



Greater Speckled, or Red Heron, Will. Engl. 283. 



Greater Bittern, Gen. Syn. v. 58. 



LARGER than the Common Bittern; length three feet nine 

 inches. Bill eight inches long, and yellowish ; irides yellow ; lore 

 and round the eye bare and yellow ; feathers of the head black, and 

 long; the upper part of the neck and body, wings, and tail, cine- 

 reous brown ; sides of the neck rufous, marked with a streak of 

 black ; throat, and neck before white, dashed with black and rufous 

 white streaks ; feathers of the breast long, and pendent ; under parts 

 of the body rufous ; scapulars the same, and very narrow ; thighs 

 white ; legs brown; claws brown, middle one serrated within. 



Found in the marshes of Italy, and in some parts called Ruffey.* 

 Said also to inhabit Astrachan during the summer.-j- 



The Ardea Botaurus of the Petersburg Transactions is probably 

 the same ; and if so, it is found at Astrachan, in the marshes, in 

 May, migrating from the south. It lays three smooth, plain green 

 eggs, the size of those of a Hen. As to the description of the last, 

 it varies in few things; the back more inclines to ash-colour; but 

 the longitudinal black streaks down the neck are the same in both ; 

 the thighs in this are chestnut, in the former white ; the quills and 

 tail black, instead of cinereous brown. 



* Aldrov. Av. iii. 408. f Dec. Russ. ii. 146. 



