NORTH AMERICAN MARSH BIRDS 85 



flags, which grow in water from 1 to 3 feet deep, rarely the latter. 

 The nest is placed from a few inches to three or four feet, very rarely 

 five feet, above the water. A foundation is made by bending down 

 and interlacing the tops of the flags, on which a flimsy, flat nest of dry 

 flags, grass, or reeds is built; this is so small, flat and apparently in- 

 secure that it seems as if it would hardly hold the eggs, but it usually 

 proves to be quite sufficient to hold both eggs and young as long as 

 necessary. The nest is usually placed where the flags or reeds grow 

 very thickly and the tops are often interlaced above it for additional 

 concealment; the nest is not conspicuous, but it can generally be 

 recognized as a thick bunch in the reeds. 



Dr. B. R. Bales (1911) gives a very good account of the nesting 

 habits of the least bittern in an Ohio pond, as follows : 



This pond, or swamp, is from one-fourth to one-half mile across and the water 

 is from one to three feet deep. It is thickly dotted with buttonwood bushes. 

 Wild rose thickets fringe the shores; saw grasses, tall water grasses, and calamus 

 or sweet flag (from which the pond receives its name) are found in its shallower 

 places and cat-tails further out. It is an ideal nesting place for this species ; in 

 June, 1907, I found 14 nests between the fourth and the twenty-first. The nests 

 are mainly placed among the saw grasses in shallow water and are situated from 

 6 inches to 2J^ feet above water; 18 inches is the average height. The nests are 

 composed of saw grass blades, short lengths of smartweed stalks, slender twigs 

 from the buttonwood, and about half the nests examined are lined with finer 

 grasses; at the best the nests are very flimsy, frail, and loosely put together. 

 Occasionally a nest is found composed almost entirely of a tall round water 

 grass, but nests so composed are always built in a clump of this variety of grass. 

 Saw grasses are usually bent over to form a platform on which to build the nest; 

 these grasses are often bent over a small branch of buttonwood to give stability 

 to the platform. An occasional nest is built among the diverging twigs of the 

 buttonwood bush, much in the manner of a green heron nest, but nesting sites 

 of this type are rare. 



Dr. Clinton G. Abbott (1907) mentions a nest found in the marshes 

 of Now Jersey which "was situated in the top of a tuft of sedges which 

 was growing on a large floating bog. It was open to the sky and 

 almost surrounded by open water." Dr. Paul Harrington tolls me of 

 a nest, found near South Georgian Bay, which was composed entirely 

 of small sticks, no rushes being used in its construction, and placed 

 in a clump of rushes 3 feet above the water. I have seen nests in 

 Texas which were made partially or wholly of fine twigs and simi- 

 hirly placed in cat-tail flags. Julian K. Potter has sent me several 

 photographs of least bitterns' nests, taken near Camden, New Jersey; 

 one of these was in a buttonbush (Cephalanthus) and was made of 

 sticks, laid radially, like the spokes of a wheel; another was prettily 

 situated in a clump of arrow head lily {SagiUaria). 



In Florida we found the least bittern fairly common, nesting in the 

 big saw-grass marshes and in the smaller bogs and sloughs, where the 

 ])ig, sleek boat-tailed grackles, in thoir glistening black plumage, were 

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