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GENUS 69. ARDEA. HERON.
              SPECIES 1. R. MINOR.
                AMERICAN BITTERN.
                  [Plate LXV.-Fig.- 3.]
Le Butor de la Baye d'Hudson, BRISS. v, p. 449. 25.-BUFF. VI1,
  p. 430.-.EDW. 136. var. .1.-LATH. Syn. III, p. 58.-PEALE'S
  JIuseum, JVo. 3727.
  THIS is a nocturnal species, common to all our sea and
river marshes, though no where numerous; it rests all day
among the reeds and rushes, and unless disturbed, flies and
feeds only during the night. In some places it is called the In-
dian Hen, on the sea coast of New Jersey it is known by the
name of Dunkadoo, a word probably imitative of its common
note. They are also found in the interior, having myself killed
one at the inlet of the Seneca Lake, in October. It utters at
times a hollow guttural note among the reeds; but has nothing of
that loud booming sound for which the European Bittern is so
remarkable. This circumstance, with its great inferiority of
size, and difference of marking, sufficiently prove them to be
two distinct species, although hitherto the present has been
classed as a mere variety of the European Bittern. These
birds, we are informed, visit Severn river, at Hudson's Bay,
about the beginning of June; make their nests in swamps, lay-
ing four cinereous-green eggs among the long grass. The young
are said to be at first black.
  These birds, when disturbed, rise with a hollow kwa, and
are then easily shot down, as they fly heavily. Like other night
birds their sight is most acute during the evening twilight; but
their hearing is at all times exquisite.