NORTH AMERICAN MARSH BIRDS 79 



Tarious mollusks, dragon flies, grasshoppers, and other insects. 

 Fish and other small creatures are gulped down whole, but the larger 

 vertebrates and crustaceans are more or less crushed and broken 

 before they are swallowed. Mr. Gabrielson (1914) describes its 

 feeding habits as follows: 



The bittern soon came flying from the direction of the nest and dropped into 

 the grass a short distance from me and immediately became stationary. The 

 frogs, which were as thick here as on the other shore, soon forgot her presence 

 a.nd began to swim about or climb over the bogs. When one came within 

 reach, out shot the long neck and beak and seized him. He was hammered 

 against a bog a few times and swallowed. After securing a number in this 

 fashion she stepped up onto a bog and went to sleep. After a short rest she 

 flew a little way down the shore and went to hunting again. After her hunt and 

 rest this time she flew heavily across the swamp toward the nest. 



Behavior. — When disturbed at its reveries under the cover of its 

 swampy retreat, the bittern surprises the intruder by a sudden but 

 awkward spring into the air; with wings flopping loosely and feet 

 dangling, it utters a croak of disgust, discharges a splash of excrement, 

 and then gathers itself for a steady flight to a place of safety. When 

 well under way its flight is firm and even, somewhat like th^t of the 

 other herons, but stronger and with quicker beats of its smaller wings. 

 Its flight is so slow that it is easily hit and easily killed, even with 

 small shot; when wounded it assumes a threatening attitude of 

 defense and is able to inflict considerable damage with its sharp beak, 

 which it drives with unerring aim and with considerable force. 



The bittern is not an active bird. It spends most of its time 

 standing under cover of vegetation, watching and waiting for its prey, 

 or walking slowly about in its marsh retreat, raising each foot slowly 

 and replacing it carefully; its movements are stealthy and noiseless, 

 sometimes imperceptably slow, so as not to alarm the timid creatures 

 which it hunts. When standing in the open or when it thinks it is 

 observed, it stands in its favorite pose, with its bill pointed upward 

 and with its body so contracted that its resemblance to an old stake 

 is ver}'^ striking; the stripes on its neck, throat, and breast blend so 

 well with the vertical lights and shadows of the reeds and flags, that 

 it is almast invisible. Professor Walter B. Barrows (1913) has noted 

 an interesting refinement of this concealing action, which he has 

 described as follows: 



The bird, an adult bittern was in the charaotoristic erect and rigid attitude 

 already described and so near us that its yellow iris was distinctly visible. Then, 

 as we stood admiring the bird and his sublime conttdence in his invisibility, 

 a light breeze ruffled the surface of the previously calm water and set the cat-tail 

 flags rusthng nodding as it passed. Instantly the bittern began to sway gently 

 from side to side with an undulating motion which was most pronounced in the 

 neck but was participated in by the body and even the legs. So obvious was 

 the motion that it was impossible to overlook it, yet when the breeze subsided 

 and the flags became motionless the bird stood as rigid as before and left us 



