THE LITTLE BITTERN 



Ardetta minuta (Linnaeus). 

 Plate 41. 



Although only an occasional visitor to the British Islands, there is good ground 

 for believing that this small species has nested in Norfolk as well as in other parts 

 of England. It is rarer in Scotland, but some thirty occurrences have been noted 

 in Ireland. 



The Little Bittern is common during the summer months among the marshes 

 of Central and Southern Europe and in North Africa, where it is also found in 

 winter, whilst eastwards it ranges as far as North-west India. 



The nest, built of twigs, dead reeds, and sedge, is usually placed just above 

 the water, in dense reed-jungles or in tamarisks. The eggs, generally six in 

 number, are dull white in colour, sometimes tinged with pale greenish. 



Like the Common Bittern and Night-Heron, this species feeds at night, and 

 lives on frogs, small fishes, worms, aquatic insects and their larvae. 



It passes the day lurking among the dense tangled growth of the marshes, and 

 if suspicious of danger, is an adept at threading its way through the thick cover 

 of its surroundings. 



Lord Lilford states that " the only note I ever heard uttered by this species 

 is, to my ear, best rendered by ' woogh,' ' woogh ' — a sort of deep guttural cough." 



The female differs from the male in being rather smaller, also in having the 

 head brownish-black in colour, the cheeks and neck reddish-buff, and the back 

 and scapulars dark chestnut with narrow margins of buff, while the underparts 

 are buff streaked with brown. 



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