bling the bark of a dog, or more nearly the grunt a paviour
gives when dropping his rammer” (Zool. p. 2498). The
female, when disturbed from her nest, utters a sound like
gett, gett. The nest is a solid structure of flag-leaves and
bits of grass, attached to upright growing reeds, very little
above the water; and sometimes, according to Gloger, a
deserted Magpie’s nest in some low bush near a swamp is
utilized. The eggs are usually four or five in number, but
nine are said to have been found ; they are of a uniform
dull white, averaging in measurements 1-4 by 1 in. Incubation
is said to last sixteen or seventeen days.
In the adult male, the beak, lore, and irides are yellow;
the top of the head, occiput, shoulders, wing-primaries, and
tail-feathers, are of a shining greenish-black; all the wing-
coverts buff-coloured; the cheeks and sides of the neck,
throughout its whole length, buff; the back of the neck
almost bare, as in the true Bitterns, but the feathers of the
sides of the neck passing obliquely backwards and downwards
hide the almost naked space; the chin and the neck in front
white, partially tinged with buff; the feathers at the bottom
of the neck in front are elongated, but there is no true
occipital plume, or elongated feathers, on the back, as in
the Herons; on the lower part of the neck on each side,
just in advance of the carpal joint of the wing, when the
wing is closed, a few of the feathers have dark centres with
bufit-coloured margins ; breast, belly, thighs, and under tail-
coverts, buff, with a small patch of white about the vent;
under wing-coverts and the axillary plume pale buff; the
legs, toes, and claws, greenish-yellow.
ihe adult female differs from the male in having a brown
tinge on the black feathers of the occiput; the side of the
head and the back of the neck are rufous ; the feathers of
the throat and front neck have brown shaft-streaks and huff
edges; the wing-coverts are brownish-buff; the back dark
brown, margined with buff; and the breast and flanks are
much streaked with brown.*
In former Editions it was stated that “ males and females, when adult, are
alike in plumage ” [Ed.].
The whole length of the male is about thirteen inches.
From the carpal joint to the end of the wing, five inches and
three-quarters. The female is a trifle smaller.
A young bird in its first plumage, and with some down
still remaining upon it,—in which state it has been obtained
on the banks of the Lea Kiver, near Enfield,—has the top
of the head of dark brown ; the feathers of the neck white
at the base, pale yellow-brown towards the end, with a
streak of dark brown in the line of the shaft; the feathers
of the back dark brown, with buff-coloured edges ; the wing-
primaries and tail-feathers greyish-black; the outer web of
the first quill-feather chestnut; the carpal surface of the
wing and the tertials reddish-brown ; the wing-coverts buff;
breast pale buff, with long streaks of dusky-brown in the
line of the feather; thighs in front pale buff, without
streaks, but varied with brown streaks behind ; vent, under
tail-coverts, and under wing-coverts, pale buffy-white; legs,
toes, and claws, reddish-brown. The dark-coloured streaks
on the neck and breast, and the broad light-coloured margins
of the feathers on the upper surface of the body, are lost by
degrees.
A nestling in the collection of Mr. E. Bidwell is covered
with a soft ochreous-yellow down, longer on the back.