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A very common sound, coming in every direction from among 

 the bleached tracts of sedges, standing from the previous year 

 like large fields of ripened grain, is the boom of the bittern, 

 heard throughout the morning and evening. Every now and 

 then the bird is seen in its elegant flight, or standing like a stake 

 among the rushes. Though well hidden away in the thick sedges 

 its nest is frequently found ; consisting of a slight matting 

 together of the green marsh-grass over the water, so frail that 

 one can scarcely conceive how it can contain the eggs ; or flatly, 

 but substantially built on the water among the sedges, not unlike 

 that of the coot. Very reluctantly indeed does it leave its three 

 to five clear drab-colored eggs, sometimes sitting so closely that 

 it may almost be touched before leaving its treasures. The 

 nearly callow young, with erect and branching tufts of yellow 

 down, are odd-looking enough. 



The least bittern and the Virginia rail no doubt breed spar- 

 ingly on the Flats ; and the night heron, constantly seen there 

 in summer, sometimes in large flocks, no doubt breeds in woods 

 not far away. 



The maniac call and the merry laugh of the loon are common 

 sounds along the channels throughout the Flats ; and its nest is 

 often found arranged on the tops of the muskrat-houses. The 

 large greenish-drab eggs, with dark brown spots, are generally 

 two in number. 



On the higher marshes the bobolinks are most abundant and 

 musical ; while throughout the sedges and marsh-grass the 

 long-billed marsh-wrens and the red-winged blackbirds and the 

 swamp sparrows abound, breeding in immense numbers. Their 

 spring melodies, too, are very agreeable amidst the numerous and 

 harsher notes of the water-fowl. On a tall tree on the Island 

 and in full sight from the tent, was a nest of the white-headed 

 eagle ; and the woods resounded with the songs of our most 

 delightful birds of the forest. 



