THE HERONS 



1231 



penetrating and can be heard for a distance of half a 

 mile or more. The first part of the performance which 

 sounds like the tapping of a wooden stake with a mallet 

 is made by the bird snapping its long bill. Then follow 

 some deep liquid notes that sound like the "working of 

 an old fashioned wooden pump or "pouring water out of 

 a huge jug ;" ooble-oob, ooble-oob, ooble-oob. The sound 

 is accompanied by curious gulping contortions but the 

 bill is not held in the water nor is it filled with water as 

 was once supposed. 



The bittern nests on the ground, usually in the sedges 

 fringing the marsh, but occasionally it builds its nest 

 where the water is deeper. The eggs are about the size 

 of small hens eggs and look as though they were stained 

 uniformly with cofifee. 



The least bittern looks like a fair sized bird when seen 

 on the wing or when sneaking through the flags, btit it is 



Photograph by O, E. Baynard 



SCENE IN A PLUME HUNTER'S CAMP 



Egret feathers mean the death of hundreds of birds and the starving of 

 thousands of young. 



mostly neck and legs and its body is relatively small. It 

 has much the same habits of concealment as its larger 

 cousin but its notes are very diiYerent, resembling the 

 distant croaking of a frog or the slow cooing of a dove. 

 Its nest is a platform of rushes built above the water, 

 usually in the cat-tails or reeds, and its three to seven 

 eggs are more like those of other herons, being pale 

 bluish-white. 



The writer once had the experience of tramping 

 through a marsh and discovering one of the nests of 

 this bird and actually counting the eggs before he realized 

 that the bird itself was standing on the back of the nest, 

 so completely did it simulate the dead stubs of cat-tails 

 all about it. This particular bird seemed not to know 

 fear and when it finally realized that it had been seen, it 

 assumed an entirely different, threatening attitude and 

 prepared to defend its nest with vigorous blows from its 

 sharp bill. 



A third species, the Cory least bittern, is practically 

 identical with the common least bittern except that all 



of the parts which are buff in the least bittern are a rich 

 chestnut in the Cory bittern. It is a very rare bird as 

 only about thirty specimens have ever been found and 

 inasmuch as these have been scattered over a large part 

 of the range of the common least bittern, from Florida 

 to Ontario, many ornithologists now believe that it is 



COFFEE COLORED EGGS OF THE AMERICAN BITTERN 



They are laid on a platform of reeds, usually, in the dryer parts of the 



marsh. 



merely a color phase of the least bittern similar to the 

 red phase of the screech owl. The term erythronism has 

 been applied to this phenomenon where an excess of red 

 pigment is developed. 



Of the true herons, the little green heron is undoubted- 

 ly the commonest and most widely distributed. It is a 



"BE IT EVER so HUMBLE" 



A Green Heron approaches its crude nest of sticks in the willows fringing 



a pond. 



bird about the size of a crow and indeed at a distance, 

 when on the wing, looks not very different, for, like 

 other herons, it carries its head back on its shoulders and 

 conceals its length of neck. It furthermore makes up for 



