BRITISH BIRDS. 
9 
THE FRECKLED HERON, 
( Ardea lentiginosa.) 
The length is about twenty-three inches ; the bill is 
rather slender, two inches and three-quarters long to 
the feathers on the forehead, and both mandibles 
equally turned to form the point ; the upper mandible 
dusky ; the lower one greenish yellow ; the head is 
very small ; the crown is chocolate brown, fading into 
a dull yellow at the nape, where the feathers are elon- 
gated ; the chin and throat white, with a row of brown 
feathers down the middle; the cheeks are yellowish, 
with an obscure dusky line at the corner of each eye; 
the fore part and sides of the neck are of a pale dull 
yellow, with large chesnut coloured spots, the feathers 
long and hanging pendent over the breast; the hind 
neck is bare, and the feathers that fall over it are of a 
deeper hue than those on the other parts of the neck ; 
the breast, belly, and sides are marked with large cho- 
colate coloured spots, some of which are glossed with 
purple, and margined with dull yellow, while others 
are speckled with brown ; the vent and under tail co- 
verts are yellowish white ; the back and scapulars are 
chocolate brown, with paler margins, minutely speck- 
led; the coverts of the wings dull yellow, darkest in 
the middle of each feather, and are also prettily speck- 
led on their margins ; the first and second order of 
quills, and their greater coverts are of a dusky lead 
colour; the primaries and secondaries more or less 
tipped and speckled with brown ; the tail is short, and. 
