AMERICIAN BITTERN. 47 
of their neighbours, as if each inhabited a separate 
quarter of the globe. 
The blue heron is twenty-three inches in length, and 
three feet in extent; the bill is black, but from the 
nostril to the eye, in both mandibles, is of a rich light 
purplish blue ; iris of the eye, gray ; pupil, black, sur- 
rounded by a narrow silvery ring; eyelid, light blue; 
the whole head, and greater part of the neck, are of 
a deep purplish brown ; from the crested bindhead 
shoot three narrow pointed feathers that reach nearly 
six inches beyond the eye; lower part of the neck, 
breast, belly, and whole body, a deep slate colour, with 
lighter reflections ; the back is covered with long, flat, 
and narrow feathers, some of which are ten inches long, 
and extend four inches beyond the tail ; the breast is 
also ornamented with a number of these long slender 
feathers ; legs, blackish green ; inner side of the middle 
claw pectinated. The breast and sides of the rump, 
under the plumage, are clothed with a mass of yellowish 
white unelastic cottony down, similar to that in most 
of the tribe, the uses of which are not altogether 
understood. Male and female alike in colour. 
The young birds of the first year are destitute of the 
purple plumage on the head and neck. 
209 . ARBEA MINOR , WILSON. — AMERICAN BITTERN. 
WILSON, PLATE LXV. FIG. III. 
This is another nocturnal species, common to all our 
sea and river marshes, though nowhere numerous ; it 
rests all day among the reeds and rushes, and, unless 
disturbed, flies and feeds only during the night. In 
some places it is called the Indian hen ; on the sea 
coast of New Jersey it is known by the name of 
dunkadoo , a word probably imitative of its common 
note. They are also found in the interior, having 
myself killed one at the inlet of the Seneca lake, in 
October. It utters, at times, a hollow guttural note 
among the reeds, but has nothing of that loud booming 
