effected in a corresponding manner. With the help and under 
the criticism of Purdie and Gilbert, and with the birds 
showing it conspicuously at the time, I made a model of it 
cut from a sheet of brown paper as we stood by the river 
in front of the cabin. This model I now paste on this 
sheet of the journal, folding it of necessity. When opened, 
it shows the ruffs fully expanded and of their actual size 
as they looked to us; i.e. making no allowance for the 
distance at which they were seen. 
On reaching home, late this afternoon, I at once 
examined all the Bitterns in my collection. Most of them 
unfortunately were females or males killed in autumn, none 
of which have white or whitish anywhere save on the throat. 
But two or three adult males taken in spring possess tufts 
of yellowish-white feathers of peculiar and apparently 
somewhat specialized structure which are attached to the 
sides of the breast just under the shoulders. By erecting 
and spreading them I have been able to produce something 
resembling what we saw at Concord, only very much smaller 
and not pure white. Gilbert, who has just looked at them, 
agrees with me that the Concord birds (he saw them showing 
again on the morning of the 19th) must have had plumes 
more than double the size of these in my skins; and pure, 
not yellowish, white. 
4f 
13 
