74 BULLETIN 135, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



white on their backs, between the shoulders. This made them highly conspicuous 

 and led me to conclude at first that they must be something quite new to me and 

 probably because of their attitudes and swift gliding movements pheasants of 

 some species with which I was unfamiliar. Thus far I had been forced to view 

 them with unassisted eyesight, but when I had reached the cabin and they the 

 edge of our boat canal directly opposite it, I got my opera glass and by its aid 

 quickly convinced myself that despite their unusual behavior and the white on 

 their backs they could be nothing else than bitterns. 



The white first appears at or very near the shoulders of the folded wings and 

 then expands, sometimes rather quickly (never abruptly, however) but oftener 

 very slowly until, spreading simultaneously from both sides, it forms two ruffs 

 apparently almost if not quite equal in length and breadth to the hands of a 

 large man but in shape more nearly resembling the wings of a grouse or quail 

 held with the tips pointing sometimes nearly straight upward, sometimes more 

 or less backward, also. As they rise above the shoulders these ruffs spread 

 toward each other at right angles to the long axis of the bird's body until, at 

 their bases, they nearly meet in the center of the back. Sometimes they are 

 held thus without apparent change of area or position for many minutes at a 

 time, during which the bird may move about over a considerable space or 

 perhaps merely stand or crouch in the same place. We frequently saw them 

 fully displayed when the bitterns were "pumping" but not then more conspicu- 

 ously, or in any different way, then at other times. When the bird was moving 

 straight toward us with his l^ody carried low and his ruffs fully expanded he 

 looked like a big, white rooster having only the head and breast dark colored, 

 the breast often looking nearly black. For in this aspect and and at the distance 

 at which we viewed him (perhaps 200 yards) the broad ruffs, rising above and 

 reaching well out on both sides of the back and shoulders, completely masked 

 everything at their rear while the head and the shortened neck, being carried so 

 low that they were seen onh' against the breast, added little or nothing to the 

 visible area of dark plumage. When he was moving away from us in the same 

 crouching attitude the ruffs looked exactly like two white wings — nearly as broad 

 as those of a domestic pigeon but less long — attached to either side of the back 

 just above the shoulders. When we had a side view of him the outline of the 

 ruffs was completely lost and there seemed to be a band of white as broad as 

 one's hand, extending between the shoulders quite across the back. Thus 

 whichever way he moved or faced the white was always shown, most conspicu- 

 ously, however, when he turned toward us. 



I was now joined by Miss E. R. Simmons, Miss Alice Eastwood, (the Cali- 

 fornia botanist), and my assistant, R. A. Gilbert, all of whom became at once 

 deeply interested in the birds which had stopped and were standing erect by the 

 canal about 20 yards apart. Suddenly both rose and flew straight at one another, 

 meeting in the air at a height of 4 or 5 feet above the marsh. It was difficult to 

 make out just what happened immediately after this but we all thought that the 

 birds came together with the full momentum of rapid flight and then, clinching 

 in some way, apparently with both feet and bills, rose 6 or 8 feet higher, mounting 

 straight upward and whirling around and around, finally descending nearly to the 

 ground. Just before reaching it they separated and sailed (not flapped) off to 

 their former respective stations, .\fter resting there a few minutes the mutual 

 attack was renewed in precisely the same manner as at first only somewhat less 

 vigorously. It was not repeated after this. Although a most spirited tilt (espe- 

 cially on the first occasion), by antagonists armed with formidable weapons (the 

 daggerlike bills), we could not see that any harm resulted from it to either bird. 

 When we crossed the river in a boat some 15 minutes later both bitterns were 



