ZOOLOGICAL DEPARTMENT. 237 



I 



79-190-(666 ). Botaurus lentiginosus (Montag.). *American Bittern; Stake 

 Driver; Shitepoke; Indian Hen; "Thunder Pumper;" "Barrel Maker;" 

 Plum Pudden. 



Common; throughout the state ; Ajiril to August ; "common in Monroe county " 

 (jeromeTrombley); "breeds in great numbers in the marshes along the St. Joseph and 

 Paw Paw rivers, but not common at Albion" (O. B. Warren); "rare at Mackinac Island, 

 where one specimen was taken by T. G. White" (S. E. White); " common at Sault Ste. 

 Marie " (A. H. Boies); " Keweenaw Point " (Kneeland); Mr. E. W. Durfee reports find- 

 ing a nest^^with five eggs in Allegan county, May 28, 1891, and seeing two young not 

 able to fly on Keweenaw Point ; reported from Kent county and Ann Arbor ; "breeds 



Bittern, reduced. 



on Black River, Sanilac county. I have taken several specimens at Port Sanilac " (W. 

 A. Oldfield) ; breeds, nests, but not in colonies, on the ground, usually in marshes and 

 often surrounded by water ; " breeds in great numbers about marshes in Shiawassee 

 county " (Dr. W. C. Brownell); occasionally in meadows ; nest elaborate ; eggs three 

 to seven, drab or mud color ; the males make as a love note a sound like " plum pud- 

 den," also another like a ringing or pumping sound, as if pounding a barrel (see article 

 by Bradford Torrey in The Auk for January, 1889); a very common bird in nearly all 

 parts of Michigan ; destroys field mice. For interesting articles on this bird by Dr. M. 

 <j!ibbs, describing notes and contortions in uttering them, see O. and O., Vol. XIV, 1889, 

 p. 21, and Oologist, Vol. X, 1892, p. 73. 



80-191-(667). Botaurus exilis [Gmel). Least Bittern. 



Common throughout Southern Michigan ; summer resident ; " abundant at Ann 

 Arbor, where twenty -six specimens were shot in 1892, and half as many early in 1893. 

 False nests are often built near the true nests. I found five nests at Ann Arbor in 

 1893. The male incubates, as I shot one as it rose from the nest. It is also abundant 

 at Grand Rapids" (R. H. Wolcott); "common in Oakland County, where it breeds" 

 (Dr. W. C. Brownell); "occasionally seen at Port Sanilac, and breeds below Detroit, 

 where I have taken eggs" (W. A. Oldfield); "common in Monroe county" (Jerome 

 Trombley); "common summer resident at St. Joseph and Albion" (O. B. Warren); one 

 in collection of C. E. Holmes at Grand Rapids taken in Muskegon County ; "all South- 

 ern Michigan" (A. H. Boies); breeds; nests in June, on the ground, in marshes on a 



