AMERICAN BITTERN. 
53 
The American Bittern is twenty- seven inches long, and three 
feet four inches in extent; from the point of the bill to the extre- 
mity of the toes it measures three feet; the bill is four inches long, 
the upper mandible black, the lower greenish yellow; lores, 
and eyelids yellow; hides bright yellow; upper part of the 
head flat, and remarkably deprest; the plumage there is of a 
deep blackish brown, long behind and on the neck, the general 
colour of which is a yellowish brown shaded with darker; this 
long plumage of the neck the bird can throw forward at will, 
when irritated, so as to give him a more formidable appearance; 
throat whitish, streaked with deep brown; from the posterior 
and lower part of the auriculars a broad patch of deep black 
passes diagonally across the neck, a distinguished characteristic 
of this species; the back is deep brown barred and mottled with 
innumerable specks and streaks of brownish yellow; quills 
black, with a leaden gloss, and tipt with yellowish brown; legs 
and feet yellow, tinged with pale green ; middle claw pectinated; 
belly light yellowish brown streaked with darker, vent plain, 
thighs sprinkled on the outside with grains of dark brown; male 
and female.nearly slike, the latter somewhat less. According to 
Bewick, the tail of the European Bittern contains only ten 
feathers; the American species has invariably twelve. The in- 
testines measured five feet six inches in length, and were very 
little thicker than a common knitting-needle; the stomach is 
usually filled with fish or frogs. 
This bird when fat is considered by many to be excellent 
eating. 
