AMERICIAN BITTERN. 
47 
their neighbours, as if each inhabited a separate 
luarter of the globe. 
tb heron is twenty-three inches in length, and 
^ eee feet in extent ; the hill is black, but from the 
ostnl to the eye, in both mandibles, is of a rich light 
r •tplish blue ; iris of the eye, gray ; pu])il, black, sur- 
unded by a narrow silvery ring ; eyelid, light blue ; 
^ ® " hole head, and greater part of the neck, are of 
deep purplish brown ; from the crested hiudhead 
six • narrow pointed feathers that reach nearly 
inches beyond the eye; low'er part of the neck, 
*^***y’ w hole body, a deep slate colour, w'ith 
an I fetlectious ; the back is covered with long, flat, 
ana feathers, some of which are ten inches long, 
^ n extend four inches beyond the tail ; the breast is 
{• ni'namented with a number of these long slender 
; legSj blackish green ; inner side of the middle 
Uud^ I'eetiiiated. The breast and sides of the rump, 
W'h't*^ ^l*e plumage, arc clothed with a mass of yellowish 
of ti ’'^elastic cottony down, similar to that in most 
ond t''il*e, the usi^s of which are not altogether 
Ofstood. Male and female alike in colour. 
Pur yduug birds of the tirst year are destitute of the 
pie plumag^e on the head and neck. 
209. ARDEA MZA'OB, WII.SON. AMERICAN BITTERN. 
WILSON, rL.\TE I.XV. FIG. III. 
rp ^ 
Sea a nocturnal species, common to all our 
I'lVer marshes, though nowhere numerous; it 
(ii,jtuij'*®7' among the reeds and rushes, and, unless 
aotne*^”l ’ feeds only during the night. In 
Coast ^ I?®®* called the Indian hen ; on the sea 
dunk I .Tersey it is known by the name of 
a word probably imitative of its common 
iPvsBif 1 -n ^ ® found in the intciior, having 
Oct 1 “1^ llic inlet of the Seneca lake, in 
an, If utters, at times, a hollow guttural note 
o? the reeds, but has nothing of that loud booming 
