BIRDS OF MINNESOTA. 87 



Length, 27; wing. 11: tarsus. 3.60; bill, 2.75. 



Habitat, Temperate North America. 



The Bittern is almost universally distributed wherever the 

 food supply is found. In an hour's ride within my own county, 

 a half dozen may be readily seen by any one acquainted with 

 their habits, by overlooking a meadow a quarter of a mile away. 

 He will notice what seems to be a stake in the ground rising 

 but little above the grass. If he has a field glass, he will at 

 once be able to make out the head and neck of his bird, but let 

 him not think to see that head go down, or even move, should 

 he wait half an hour, and how much longer I cannot say, for 

 my time for observing the habits of birds has ever been too 

 precious to stay his attitude out, but if he has a friend with 

 him, or better a trained bird dog. the observer may send him 

 forward, while he holds his game under his lens and he will 

 soon see how the stake sinks out of sight and then he may 

 trace the stealthy movements to another spot whence the stake 

 will again appear. 



BOTAURUS EXILIS (Gmelin). (191.) 

 LEAST BITTERN. 



It is not a little remarkable that a species like this can 

 remain so long unrecognized or supposably so rare when 

 actually so common. For long years I watched for the Least 

 Bittern before I had the pleasure of having it in my hands, and 

 when I was rewarded I had the additional pleasure of knowing 

 how and w^here to look for more of them. I have of late years 

 found them common in their favorite haunts about ponds em- 

 braced in high reeds and flags, portions of which stand in the 

 water. Not half a mile from the business center of my city is 

 a pond of this character, where this species has been a regular 

 summer resident since first I observed it nearly twenty years 

 ago. An early visit to this pond long before sunrise, has 

 always resulted in the catching of a glimpse of one or more of 

 them along the borders of their covert. \nd I could add a 

 score to the number of different localities where these birds 

 may be found in their season, within three or four miles of the 

 first. They come to the State a little later than the Greater 

 Bitterns, generally the second week in April, and have begun 

 building their nests by the 10th of May following. These are 

 more commonly suspended from the reeds above high water 

 mark. Fairly within the mass are frequent clusters or tussocks 

 of the same, that afford the chosen supports for the nest while 

 augmenting the concealment. Several coarse stalks are em- 

 braced in the platform, which consists of dried grass so wound 

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