PLATE 1X1 IV. 



GENUS ARDETTA (G. R. Gray). 



THIS genus was instituted for the Little Bittern of the British Islands and several other minute species 

 inhabiting Africa, India, and America. 



ARDETTA PUSILLA (Gould). 



MINUTE BITTERN. Genus: Ardetta. 



A T the time Gould wrote his " Birds of Australia " little or nothing was known of this tiny species, the 

 few individuals collected having been captured between Sydney and Botany Bay. Since then it has 

 been identified all along the Eastern Coast, but nothing is yet known of its habits and economy. 



We can only speak of it, then, as the representative of the Little Bittern (Ardetta minuta) of 

 Europe, but it is still smaller in size. In appearance its pose is more horizontal than the other Bitterns, 

 though it has the same solitary, aggressive expression and attitude. 



The sexes are quite unlike in plumage, the female shewing black in the upper-tail surfaces, and is 

 entirely mottled in different shades of yellow, brown, and cinnamon ; primaries, grey, tipped with black. 



The male has the top of the head, back, and tail bronzy -greenish black ; sides of face, neck, and 

 shoulders, buff, passing into rich cinnamon on the sides of the head and back of the neck ; down the centre 

 of the chin and neck in front a broad irregular stripe of reddish brown ; on either side of the chest, a patch 

 of black feathers margined with deep buff ; wing coverts, deep buff, with a patch of rich cinnamon on the 

 shoulders and a dash of the same colours on the edges of the wings ; primaries, slaty black ; space round the 

 eye, bill and feet, yellow ; irides, orange. 



Habitats : Gulf of Carpentaria, Rockingham Bay, Port Denison, Wide Bay District, Richmond and 

 Clarence River District, New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia. 



GENUS BUTOROIDES (Blyth). 



rnHIS genus of three species includes the Mangrove Bitterns, which are found frequenting the mangrove 

 -L swamps and belts a?id the adjacent low-lying grounds, covered with marshy herbage or reed-beds. 



BUTOROIDES MACRORHYNCHA (Gould). 



THICK-BILLED MANGROVE BITTERN. Genus : Butoroides. 



nnHIS is altogether a larger bird than the last; but in respect of locality it is very much restricted, 

 being found only on a small portion of the Eastern coast. Its habits and manners are identical with 

 the Butoroides javanica. 



The egg is a pale bluish green, measuring 1 inch 8-g- lines by 1 inch lines. 



