WATKINS ON BIRDS THAT NEST IN MEADOWS. 67 



that fat pigeons in the markets of the east were in demand at a good 

 price, and they were rendered practically extinct in a short time. The 

 Ruffed Grouse is now confined within fenced wood lots and is often found 

 to wander into great cities and upon our lawns in absolute bewilderment. 



Human beings have pushed their way into nearly every nook and 

 corner of this continent and with them have been taken' all the revolu- 

 tionizing influences of civilization. Changes have been and are now 

 taking place before our very eyes, iu all the forms of life, as profound as 

 any already chronicled in the great epochs of geological history. Cer- 

 tainly this is the age of man's absolute supremacy among the living 

 things. He has destroyed whole species of birds and mammals and 

 driven others to the verge of extinction; he has conquered the forests and 

 wrought havoc with the wild flowers. 



To make more plain and limit the scope of this treatise, which, of nec- 

 essity must be longer than I hoped, I will include in my list only such 

 species as I have found nesting upon the ground or in the open fields and 

 meadows, excluding those found nesting upon the boundary fences or 

 in the border shrubbery and brush piles or in lone trees in the open 

 ground; also those nesting in the open marsh lands which are undrained 

 and boggy to the extent of being unfit for hay or pasture. 



As a further aid in clearness, I will separate meadows into two 

 classes, namely, the typical upland hayfield or pasture and the so called 

 "marsh" meadow which is drained and pastured or grown to its native 

 grasses and sedges for hay. 



We will first consider the upland nesters: 



The American Bittern, Botaurus lentiginosus, is included among the 

 nesters of the upland fields from one instance only, which came under 

 my personal observation. I have never heard of a like case in connec- 

 tion with this species and it was to me a very interesting one. 



On June 27 1892, I received a letter from a friend in Bridgewater, 

 Washtenaw county, telling that "a bittern had its nest in his clover 

 field" and if I wanted the eggs to come at once. As the location was 

 a peculiar one I lost no time and arrived to find the nest undisturbed 

 in a small bunch of standing hay which had been skipped in mowing 

 on its account. This nest was a mere platform, upon the ground, of the 

 surrounding clover stems bent down with some plucked and carried to the 

 spot. The American Bittern almost invariably builds its nest either 

 very near the border of sloughs and lakes, composed of rushes and flags 

 made into a rude platform raised slightly above the water in the bogs 

 and reeds, or situated in the wet marsh lands, made up of grasses and 

 sedges. Of the many nests which I have observed, all were so situated 

 save in this one instance. In the spring of 1892, the marshes were 

 flooded from continuous rains until the bogs and wet flats became sheets 

 of open water, entirely uninhabitable by birds which usually nested 

 therein, and this fact I will venture as a possible reason for this nest 

 being located in the clover field upon a hill, within twenty rods of a 

 farm house and nearly one-half mile from any water. The four or five 

 eggs are slate color or mud color. The food of this species consists of 

 frogs, fishes, pollywogs and grasshoppers. Arriving before or by the 

 middle of April, it at once begins its odd and unaccountable notes which 

 give it the name of Thunder Pumper and Stake Driver. The American 

 Bittern is probably of little economical importance and does no harm, 



