V 



Order HERODIONES. 



Family ABDEID^. 



BOTAURUS LENTIGINOSUS (Montagu). (190.) 

 AMERICAN BITTERN. 



Variously called Bittern, Shidepoke, Pumper, Stakedriver, 

 &c., &c., according to local custom, this familiar Heron is relat- 

 ively as well represented here as any other of its family. 

 They reach us as early as the first week in April. By the 25th, 

 they have become paired and their nests are constructed soon 

 afterwards. They consist of small sticks, coarse grass, with 

 more or less leaves of sedge brush and are placed directly on 

 the ground in the most inaccessible bog marshes and sloughs. 

 Preferably a tuft of willowy sedge is chosen that gives the nest 

 a slight elevation, yet not uniformly so, for I find them not in- 

 frequently placed between the bogs in the marshes that are de- 

 void of all kinds of brush. A rank bunch of grass that springs 

 up in these places, will most naturally be the place to look for 

 them first, however. The eggs are usually four in number, of 

 a striking drab color, with more or less olivaceous. Sometimes 

 their nests are found in small communities but as a general 

 thing that custom is locally disregarded. The notes of the 

 Bittern are remarkable and are heard only during the period 

 of pairing and nesting. They have been variously described 

 by writers as they sound to their ears and have been rendered 

 into dunk-a-doo, pump-ah-gah, ponka-gong, kunk-a-ivhulnk, 

 chunk-a-lunk, and quank-chunk-a-lunk-chunk, all of which seem 

 to me to convey as nearly a correct idea as may be obtained, as 

 I have heard them at different times. But one must have 

 heard them to understand how well any of them really de- 

 scribes their "song." 



The attitude of the prairie-hen cock in booming, the turkey 

 gobbler in gobbling is no more extreme or characteristic than 

 is that of the Bittern in the act of disgorging himself of his in 



