110 
LITTLE BITTEBK. 
very expert in catching flies. The young birds are fed with 
food from the crops of their parents, which the latter are said 
to place on the edge of the nest. Tf the young brood continue 
undisturbed they remain long in the nest, but if they are 
molested they hurry out and cling to the rushes, being 
fully capable of climbing up and down in the same manner 
as the parent birds. As soon as the young can help themselves 
the parents leave the breeding-place, and are no more seen 
in the neighbourhood for the remainder of the season. 
While the female sits on her eggs she can hardly be driven 
away, and remains not only close to the spot, but runs up 
and down the rushes in the greatest excitement, continually 
uttering her alarm note, while the male bird watches the 
scene from his hiding-place. 5 
The note is a harsh croak; that which expresses alarm 
being likened, by Meyer, to the word ‘gaek, 5 repeated two 
or three times. Yiellot compares it to the barking of a 
large dog, when heard at a distance. 
The nest is generally to be found where flags grow, sometimes 
near, but at other times farther off from water. It is placed 
on hummocks in the marshes, or on strewed reeds or flags, 
a little above the usual rise of the water, and in some 
instances on the low boughs of an overhanging tree: a few 
have been found in bushes about a yard from the ground. 
It is made of such materials as the dry twigs of the willow, 
grass, reeds, rushes, and flags; and is a shapeless structure. 
The eggs, four and occasionally five, in number, or even 
six, according to Mr. Hewitson, are of a pale whitish green 
colour. Their incubation occupies sixteen or seventeen days. 
Male; length, one foot one or two inches; bill, rich yellow, 
the point dusky; iris, bright yellow, over it is a yellow 
streak. Head on the crown, black, reflected with green or 
blue; neck on the back and sides, dull yellowish buff, tinged 
with lilac purple; on the lower part of the neck in the front 
the feathers are elongated on the sides, and at that part 
a few of the feathers have dark centres with buff-coloured 
margins. Nape, almost bare of feathers, but those of the 
sides of the neck passing obliquely backwards and downwards 
cover the otherwise bare space; chin, white; throat, pale dull 
yellow. The breast has the loose feathers dull yellow, tinged 
with violet, some of them margined with dusky and rich 
brownish yellow; below, the breast is yellow; back, black, 
with green reflections. 
