394 THE BITTERN. 



nests are often found in large numbers in the same locality, 

 the greater part of them being unoccupied. "This has 

 occasioned the surmise that more nests are built than are 

 actually used; the idea being that the nervous, energetic 

 little creatures keep on building, while the females are incu- 

 bating, to amuse themselves, or because they have nothing 

 particular to do and cannot keep still." (Coues.) It has 

 been well suggested, however, that the durability of the 

 old nests may largely account for the many unoccupied 

 tenements. The eggs, some five or six, about .60X-45, are 

 a reddish or chocolate-brown, with still darker brown spots 

 and specks clouded and wreathed around the large end. 

 The eggs are laid late in May or early in June, and again 

 late in July. 



The food of these birds consists of such insects as inhabit 

 their aquatic haunts, and ''diminutive mollusks." "Win- 

 tering along our southern borders and southward," their 

 breeding habitat is from the Southern States to Massachu- 

 setts. They are not reported from Northern New England, 

 nor did I see any in the many marshes of the Manitoulin 

 Islands. Reaching Western New York in May, they leave 

 late in September or in October. 



THE BITTERN. 



Standing still in the border of the sedges, and surveying 

 a large space of lily-pods, I spy a Bittern {Botaiiriis minor). 

 Standing stock-still in a clump of cat-tails, with body, head 

 and neck in a nearly perpendicular position, he is almost 

 as straight as a stake, and perfectly motionless. In this atti- 

 tude he continues for many minutes, no doubt enjoying one 

 of those contemplative turns of mnnd, or profound reveries, 

 for which his shady and silent ways have given him such a 

 reputation. His present attitude is scarcely more common 



