112 
AMERICAN BITTERN. 
FRECKLED HERON. MOKOIIO BITTERN. DUNKADOO. 
Ardea minor, 
“ lentiginosa , 
“ tnokoho, 
“ stellaris , vai\. 
Botaurus freti hudsonis , 
Bator americana , 
Wilson. 
Montagu. Leach. 
Viellot. 
Latham. 
Brisson. 
SWAINSON. 
Ardea— A Heron. 
Minor— Lesser. 
The native country of this species of Bittern is indicated 
by its name. It is a native of the whole of North America, 
and occurs in plenty in the Fur Countries, regions which 
for true sporting are to he preferred to any others in the 
world, even to the jungles of sultry India, or the vast and 
rarely-trodden wilds of the distant interior of Southern Africa. 
Of these birds Mr. Yarrell speaks of one as having been 
met with in the Isle of Man; one in Cornwall; one in 
Hampshire, near Christchurch, in 1836; one in Devonshire, shot 
at Mothecombe, near Plymouth, December 22nd., 1829; and 
one, the specimen recorded by Montagu, shot by a Mr. 
Cunningham, in the parish of Piddletown, or Puddletown, 
near the River Froome, in the county of Dorset, in the 
autumn of 1804. 
These birds are sold in the markets of New Orleans as 
an article of food, though of inferior estimation, to make 
gombo soup, a composition of the ‘cuisinier’ with which I 
am not acquainted. When fat, however, they are said by 
Wilson to be excellent eating. 
The flight is said to be rather rapid. 
It feeds on fish and frogs. 
