FRECKLED BITTERN. 



.597 



the lower mandible commences a black mark, 

 that increases on the upper part of the neck on 

 each side, and is two inches or more in length : 

 the cheeks are yellowish, with an obscure dusky- 

 line at the corner of the eye : the feathers on the 

 neck are long and broad, with their webs partly 

 unconnected ; those in front are pale dull yellow, 

 with broad chesnut streaks, formed by each feather 

 having one web of each colour, margined, how- 

 ever, with dull yellow on the chesnut side ; some 

 feathers have the dark mark in the middle, espe- 

 cially the lower ones 5 they are all loose, as in the 

 common Bittern ; those at the bottom of the neck 

 four inches long, and hang pendant below the 

 breast: the hind head is bare, and the feathers 

 that fall over that part are pale yellow-brown : the 

 feathers on the breast are also long, and of a fine 

 chocolate-brown, glossed with purple, and mar- 

 gined with dull yellow : belly and sides the same, 

 but not quite so bright, the brown marks becoming 

 speckled: the vent and under tail-coverts yel- 

 lowish white: the back and scapulars are chocolate- 

 brown, with paler margins, minutely speckled, and 

 glossed with a tinge of purple in some particular 

 lights : the coverts of the wings dull yellow, 

 darker in the middle of each feather ; the margins 

 prettily speckled: the first and second order of 

 quills, their greater coverts, and the alulae spuriae, 

 dusky lead-colour, with a cinereous dash : the pri- 

 maries very slightly tipped with brown ; the se- 

 condaries and the greater coverts tipped more 

 deeply with the same, and prettily speckled on the 



