C. IT. Merriam — Birds of Connecticut. 113 



219. Ardetta exiliS (Gmelin) Gray. Least Bittern. 



The Least Bittern^eems to be, at present, a pretty regular summer 

 resident, though formerly regarded as an accidental visitor. Linsley 

 gave it from Northford, Conn., without comment. It has certainly 

 bred here for several years past, and on June 27th, 1870, Mr. Nichols 

 found its nest at Branford, Conn., containing one fresh egg. Have 

 seen it in September. They were particularly abundant throughout 

 the State during the season of I 875. Mr. W. W. Coe, who has seven 

 beautiful specimens in his cabinet, showed me five eggs which he 

 took from a nest at Portland, Conn., June 14th, 1873, and says that 

 they breed regularly in that vicinity. Mr. Geo. Bird Grinnell also 

 tells me that he takes two or three every year (generally in August 

 or September). They follow up the Connecticut Valley to Massa- 

 chusetts (Sufriehl, Conn., July, E. I. Shores). 



Note.— The Sand-hill Crane, Grus Canadensis (Linne) Tevnm., 

 though not occurring in New England at the present time, even as a 

 rare Straffffler, was once common here. Thomas Morton, writing of 

 the birds of New England, in 1632, says, of "Cranes, there are greate 

 store, that even more came there at S. Davids day, and not before : 

 that day they never would misse. These sometimes eate our corne, 

 and doe pay for their presumption well enough ; and serveth there in 

 powther, with turnips to supply the place of powthered beefe, and is 

 a goodly bird in a dishe, and no discommodity."* The fact that 

 they ate corn, and were themselves, in turn, eaten by the inhabitants, 

 clearly shows, as Prof. J. A. Allen has said, ''that the Crane, and not 

 a Heron, is the bird to which reference is made."f Moreover, Samuel 

 Williams, more than an hundred and fifty years later (in 1794), says 

 that the Sand-hill Crane (" Ardea Canadensis''') was among the 

 commonest of the "Water Fowl" found in Vermont at that time.J 

 Belknap also gives it, in 1 702, as one of the birds of New IIarupshire.§ 

 And even so recently as 1842, Zadock Thompson wrote that the 

 Whooping Crane, Grus Americana (Liune) Temminck, was " occa- 

 sionally seen during its migrations,"! in Vermont. 



*New English Canaan. Printed by Charles Greene, 1 632. Reprinted in Force's 

 Historical Tracts, vol. ii. Tract 5, pp. 47-8. 



f Bull. Nutt. Ornith. Club, vol. i, No. 3, p. 58. Sept., 1876. 



% The Natural and Civil History of Vermont, p. 119. 1794. 



§ The History of New Hampshire, vol. iii. By Jeremy Belknap, p. 169. 1792. 



|| History of Vermont, p. 103. 1842. 



Trans. Conn. Acad., Vol. IV. 15 Aug., 1877. 



