. Natural history. Zoology. 284 AVES-ORDER Fig, 44.—The Boat biilrd Heron {Canchroma cochlearia). the bird ia an exaggerated form of Night-Heron, its plumage also suggesting the propriety of this alliance. The genus stands, in fact, between the true Night-Herons (Nyctieorax) and the Mottled Night-Herons {Gursachius) of the Indian Region. Two species of Boat-billed Herons are known—the South American species C. cochlearia, which is found from Brazil to Guiana, Colombia, and Ecuador, and the Central American species, 0. :.eledoni, which takes its place from Panama to Mexico, and ha
. Natural history. Zoology. 284 AVES-ORDER Fig, 44.—The Boat biilrd Heron {Canchroma cochlearia). the bird ia an exaggerated form of Night-Heron, its plumage also suggesting the propriety of this alliance. The genus stands, in fact, between the true Night-Herons (Nyctieorax) and the Mottled Night-Herons {Gursachius) of the Indian Region. Two species of Boat-billed Herons are known—the South American species C. cochlearia, which is found from Brazil to Guiana, Colombia, and Ecuador, and the Central American species, 0. :.eledoni, which takes its place from Panama to Mexico, and has a tawny-coloured breast instead of a white one. They are nocturnal birds, and Mr, Richmond says that in Costa Rica he found G. zeledoni in colonies, and the note of the species was a "squawk," something like that of the Night-Heron. The Bitterns have ten tail-feathers pnd the end of the bill serrated. In this group are contained the Little Bitterns {Ardetta), the Dwarf Tiger Bitterns uf South America (Zebriliis), and the Asiatic Bitterns (Ardeiralhts and Uupetor), as well as the True Bitterns {Botaiirus). Of the Little Bitterns ten species are known, and the distribution of the genus is almost cosmopolitan. The most tyoical species is the Little Bittern of Eurone {Ardetta minuta), a bird which still occasionally finds its way to England, and doubtless formerly bred in the British Islands. One of the most remarkable of the Little Bitterns ' is, however, the Argentine species {Ardetta involitcris), concerning which Mr. W. H. Hudson tells a remarkable story, one of the most interesting of all histories of bird-life. Most of the Bitterns have the curious faculty of concealing themselves from observation by their faculty of "reed- simulating," and many of our readers must have noticed some of these birds in the Zoological Gardens standing stock- still, and evidently imagining that by so doing they were invisible to the intruder. The Common Bittern {Botaurus
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