82 BULLETIN 135^ UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



A regular visitor in the autumn, and occasionally in March, frequenting the 

 sedgy patches on the edge of the mangrove swamps. To show how plentifully 

 they arrive in certain years, I may mention (though a cold shudder passes 

 through me as I do so) that no less than 13 were shot by one officer, who shall 

 be nameless, in the autumn of 1875. 



Dr. Charles W. Townsend (1920) has found the bittern in Massa- 

 chusetts in winter; he writes: 



In the severe winter of 1917-18, on December 16, I flushed a bittern from the 

 salt marsh near my house at Ipswich. It flew several hundred yards and alighted 

 in a clump of tall grasses where I found it and again flushed it. There was 

 snow on the ground and the temperature that morning was 2° Fahrenheit. 



DISTRIBUTION 



Breeding range. — North America from Florida and Southern Cali- 

 fornia to Ungava and the Arctic Circle. East to Newfoundland 

 (Humber River and St. Johns) ; Nova Scotia (Halifax) ; Maine 

 (Bangor and Calais) ; Massachusetts (vicinity of Boston and Cape 

 Cod); New Jersey (Trenton and Cape May); North Carolina 

 (Raleigh) ; South Carolina (near Charleston) ; and Florida (Mi- 

 canopy). South to Florida (Thonotosassa) ; Kansas (Witchita) ; Colo- 

 rado (Barr and Alamosa); New Mexico (Lake Burford, probably); 

 Arizona (Mormon Lake); and California (Alamitos, Los Angeles 

 County). West to California (Buena Vista Lake and Stockton); 

 Oregon (Klamath Lake, Salem, and Portland); Washington (Douglas 

 County); and British Columbia (Vaseaux Lake, Okanagan Valley). 

 North to Mackenzie (Willow River and Fort Rae); Manitoba (Fort 

 Churchhill, York Factory, and the Severn River); Ungava (Fort 

 George); and northeastern Quebec (Paradise). 



Winter range. — Principally the southern and Pacific coast States, 

 but also, Mexico and Central America, south to Panama. East to 

 North Carolina (Pea Island and Fort Macon) ; Georgia (Savannah 

 and St. Mary's) ; Florida (Gainsville and Kissimmee) ; the Bahama 

 Islands (Nassau); and Cuba (Isle of Pines). South to Panama 

 (Panama Railway) ; Costa Rica (Reventazon and Laguna de Ocho- 

 mogo); Honduras (Swan Island); and Guatemala (Cohan). West to 

 western Mexico (Mazatlan); Lower California (San Jose del Cabo, 

 Colnett, and La Paz) ; California (Santa Barbara, and Napa) . North 

 to Oregon (Klamath Lake); British Columbia (Pitt Meadows near 

 Vancouver); and Idaho (Minidoka); in the Mississippi Valley (cas- 

 ually) to Illinois (Anna and Canton) and Indiana (Knox County and 

 Greensburg) ; and on the Atlantic coast (rarely) to the District of 

 Columbia (Washington) and Virginia (Virginia Beach). Stragglers 

 or belated individuals from regions north of the usual winter range 

 have been reported from New Jersey (Haddonfield, January 21, 

 1912); New York (Port Jefferson Harbor, January 26, 1912); and 



