76 WILSON'S PLOVER.
shorter, the rest rapidly graduated; outer secondaries very short, inner
elongated so as to extend as far as the second primary. Tail of moderate
length, straight, rounded, of twelve feathers.
Bill black. Edges of eyelids grey ; iris reddish-brown. Feet light
flesh-coloured; claws dusky. The general colour of the plumage above
is light brownish-grey. Lower part of forehead and a broad streak over
the eyes white ; throat white, that colour extending narrow behind so as
to form a collar, below which is another of the general tint of the back
across the fore neck. The rest of the lower parts white. Quills and
tail of a deeper greyish-brown, the shafts white, the two lateral tail-feathers
whitish.
Length to end of tail 7T
8
5 inches, to end of wings 71
7
5 f , to end of claws
8S
; extent of wings 14£; wing from flexure 5; tail 2£; bill along the
T
2 back along the edges 1 ; tarsus 1 2
2 ; middle toe }§, its'claw 2
.
T
T
5Young Male in winter plumage. Plate CCIX. Fig. 1.
The Adult Male which is represented in Plate 284, is similar in
colouring to the female as described above, but the lore is dusky, the
white band on the forehead is surmounted by one of brownish black, and
there is a half collar of the same colour across the neck in front.
THE LEAST BITTERN
ARDEA EXILIS, GMEL.
PLATE CCX. MALE, FEMALE, AND YOITNG.
ONE morning while I was at the Cincinnati Museum in the State of
Ohio, a woman came in holding in her apron one of this delicate species
alive, which she said had fallen down the chimney of her house under
night, and which, when she awoke at daybreak, was the first object she
saw, it having perched on one of the bed posts. It was a young bird.
I placed it on the table before me, and drew from it the figure on the
left of my plate. It stood perfectly still for two hours, but on my touching
it with a pencil, after my drawing was done, it flew off and alighted
on the cornice of a window. Replacing it on the table, I took two books
and laid them so as to leave before it a passage of an inch and a half,
through which it walked with ease. Bringing the books nearer each
other, so as to reduce the passage to one inch, I tried the Bittern again,
and again it made its way between them without moving either. When
dead, its body measured two inches and a quarter across, from which ii
is apparent that this species, as well as the Gallinules and Rails, is enabled
to contract its breadth in an extraordinary degree.
While I was in Philadelphia, in September 1832, a gentleman presented
me with a pair of adult birds of this species, alive and in perfect
plumage. They had been caught in a meadow a few miles below the
city, and I kept them alive several days, feeding them on small fish and
thin stripes of pork. They were expert at seizing flies, and swallowed
caterpillars, and other insects. My wife admired them much on account
of their gentle deportment, for although on being tormented, they would
spread their wings, ruffle their feathers, and draw back their head as if
to strike, yet they suffered themselves to be touched by any one without
pecking at his hand. It was amusing to see them continually attempting
to escape through the windows, climbing with ease from the floor to
the top of the curtain by means of their feet and claws. This feat they
would repeat whenever they were taken down. The experiment of the
books was tried with them, and succeeded as at Cincinnati. At the aj)-
proach of night they became much more lively, walked about the room,