48 
ARDEA MINOR. 
sound for which the European bittern is so remarkable 
This circumstance, with its ffreat inferiority of size 
and difl'erence of markino-, sufficiently prove them to t>* 
two distinct species, althou'th, hitherto, the present h** 
been classed as a mere variety of the European bitterf’ 
These birds, we are informed, visit Severn river, 
Hudson’s Bay, about the bcijinninrf of June ; mak' 
their nests in s^^•amps, layinji four cinereous screen effiT 
amouat fke long grass. The young are said" to be, i' 
first, black. 
Those birds, when disturbed, rise with a hollow /or* 
and are then easily shot down, as they ily heavil/’ 
Like other night birds, their sight is most acute durii^ 
the evening twilight ; but their hearing is, at all timc-‘ 
exquisite. 
The American bittern is twenty-seven inches loni; 
and three leet four inches in c.xtcut; from the point 
the bill to the extremity of the toes, it measures thr<* 
feet; the bill is four inches long; the upper mandibk' 
bback ; the lower, greenish yellow ; lores and evcli'**' 
yellow; iridcs, bright yellow; upper part of the' hea^ 
flat, and remarkably depressed; the plumage there is 
a deep blackish brown, long behind and on the neck, thj 
general colour of which is a yellowish brown shade* 
with darker ; this long plumage of the neck the bit* 
can throw forward at will, when irritated, so as to gi^ 
him a morn formidable appearance; throat, whitish 
streaked with deep brown ; fi-om the posterior an* 
lower part of the auricnlars, a broad patch of di’^! 
black passes diagonally acrn.ss the neck, a distinguish**^ 
characteristic of this si)ecies ; the back is deep brow'* 
barred and mottled with innumerable specks and streak* 
of brownish yellow; quills, black, with a leaden glo-‘* 
and tipt with yellowish brotvn ; legs and feet, yHlo"' 
tinged with pale green ; middle claw, peclinate’d ; bell.'*' 
light yellowish brown, streakc<l with darker; ve>''i 
plain ; thighs, sprinkled on the outside w ith 
dark brown ; male .and female, nearly alike, the latt*^ 
somewhat les.s. According to Bewick, the tail of 1*“' 
European bittern contains only ten feathers ; the 
