72 
ALTRICIAL GRALLATORES — HERODIONES. 
Com. Char. Prevailing color ochraceous, darker above and paler below. Pileum with a lon- 
gitudinal space of black ; an immaculate pale-colored area covering wing-coverts ; front of neck 
indistinctly striped longitudinally with a deeper shade, upon a whitish ground. Remiges and 
rectrices uniform dusky, with or without ochraceous tips. 
A. Lower part of tibia naked all round; upper parts nearly uniform brown, or brown and black, 
without conspicuous stripes. 
1. A. minuta . 1 Remiges uniform black. Wing, 5.80-5.90 ; culmen, 1.70-1.75. II ah. Palae- 
arctic Region. 
2. A. exilis. Remiges narrowly tipped with rufous. Wing, 4.30-5.25 ; culmen, 1.60-1.90. 
Hub. North, Middle, and northern South America. 
B. Lower part of tibia feathered in front. Upper parts conspicuously striped ivith black and 
ochraceous. 
3. A. involucris . 2 Remiges broadly tipped with rufous. Wing, 4.85 ; culmen, 2.00. Hob. 
Southern South America. 
Ardetta exilis . 1 
THE AMERICAN LEAST BITTERN. 
Little Bittern, Penn. Arct. Zool. II. 1785, 453, no. 359 (part). 
Minute Bittern, Lath. Synop. III. 1785, 66 (Jamaica; = 9 ail.). 
Ardca exilis, Gmel. S. N. I. ii. 1788, 645, no. 83 (based on the Minute Bittern of Lath. l.c. ). — Wins. 
Am. Orn. VIII. 1814, 37, pi. 65, fig. 4. — Nutt. Man. II. 1834, 66. —Aud. Orn. Biog. III. 
1835, 77 ; V. 1839, 606, pi. 210; Synop. 1839, 263; Birds Am. VI. 1843, 100, pi. 366. 
Ardetta exilis, Gundl. J. f. O. 1856, 345. — Baird, B. N. Am. 1858, 673 ; Cat. N. Am. B. 1859, 
no. 491. — Ridgw. Nom. N. Am. B. 1881, no. 498. — Coues, Check List, 2d ed. 1882, no. 667. 
? Ardea spadicea, Gmel. t.c. 641 (Reichenow). 
IIah. The whole of temperate North America, north to the British Provinces ; West Indies, 
Middle America, and northern South America, to Brazil. Bermudas. 
Sp. Char. Adult male : Pileum, including slight occipital crest, with entire back, scapulars, 
rump and tail, glossy greenish black, the outer webs of the outer row of scapulars edged with 
pale buff, forming a narrow longitudinal stripe. Sides of the head and neck bright ochraceous, 
deepening into reddish chestnut on the nape ; chin, throat, and foreneck paler, the first sometimes 
whitish, with a medial series of dusky and yellowish-buff dashes ; the foreneck and jugulum 
faintly striped with white and pale orange-buff, the latter predominating ; on each side the breast 
a patch of maroon-dusky, the feathers tipped with paler and suffused with blackish, forming tufts 
of large loose feathers, partly concealed by the large feathers of the jugulum ; lower parts ivhitish, 
washed with pale creamy-buff. Carpal region, greater wing-coverts, lower webs of tertials and 
1 Ardetta minuta. 
Ardea minuta, Linn. S. N. 1. 1766, 240. — Naum. Vog. Deutschl. IX. 1838, 194, pi. 227. — Gray, 
Gen. B. III. 556 ; Cat. Brit. B. 1863, 148. 
Bota.urus minutus, Boie, Isis, 1822, 559. 
Ardcola minuta, Bonap. Consp. List, 1838, 48. 
Ardca danuhialis, Gmel. S. N. I. 1788, 637. 
Ardca soloniensis, Gmel. 1. e. 
Botaurus pusillus, Brehm, Vug. Deutschl. 598. 
2 Ardetta involucris. 
Ardea involucris, Vieill. Enc. Meth. 1823, 1127. 
Ardetta, involucris, Scl. & Salv. P. Z. S. 1869, 634. 
'! Ardca erythromelas, Vieill. Enc. Meth. 1121 (based on Garza roxa y negra, Azara, Apunt. 
III. 182). 
Ardcola erythromelas, Bonap. Consp. II. 1855, 134. 
Ardea variegata, Vieill. t.c. 1127 (based on Garza varia, Azara). 
