64 WADING BIRDS. 



are unknown in the remote and colder parts of Canada. 

 Many winter in the swamps of the Southern States, though 

 others retire in all probability to the warmer regions of the 

 continent, as they are observed at that season in the large 

 islands of Hayti and Jamaica. 



In common with other species, whose habits are princi- 

 pally nocturnal, the Green Bittern seeks out the gloomy 

 retreat of the woody swamp, the undrainable bog, and the 

 sedgy marsh. He is also a common hermit, on the inun- 

 dated, dark willow and alder shaded banks of sluggish 

 streams, and brushy ponds, where he not only often asso- 

 ciates with the kindred Kwa Birds and Great Herons, but 

 frequently with the more petulant herd of chattering Black- 

 birds. When surprised or alarmed, he rises in a hurried 

 manner, uttering a hollow guttural scream, and a Ichu, 'k\o, 

 ^k^w, but does not fly far, being very sedentary, and soon 

 alighting on some stump or tree, looks round with an out- 

 stretched neck, and balancing himself for further retreat, 

 frequently jets his tail. He sometimes flies high, with his 

 neck reclining, and his legs extended, flapping his wings, 

 and proceeding with considerable expedition. He is also 

 the least shy, of all our species, as well as the most numer- 

 ous and widely dispersed, being seen far inland, even on 

 the banks of the Missouri, nearly to the river Platte, and 

 frequent near all the maritime marshes, and near ponds, and 

 streams in general. He is also particularly attracted by 

 artificial ponds for fish, not refraining even to visit gardens 

 and domestic premises, which any prospect of fare may ofler. 

 He is, at the same time, perhaps as much in quest of the 

 natural enemy of the fish, the frog, as of the legitimate 

 tenants of the pond. These bold and intrusive visits are 

 commonly made early in the morning, or towards twilight, 

 and he not unfrequently, when pressed by hunger, or after 

 ill success, turns out to hunt his fare by day, as well as dusk, 



