Notes from Field and Study 



i47 



me and walked up the bank opposite me to 

 a growth of thistles and other pasture weeds, 

 where it suddenly struck the erect, motion- 

 less, slender body attitude so often taken 

 by Bitterns when danger threatens and which 

 so effectively camouflages them. When 

 approached the bird remained quiet till I 



trips, with a loaded reflecting camera, made 

 it possible to get a dozen good pictures of 

 this Bittern, some giving me a good record 

 of its concealing behavior and all making 

 important additions to my wild-life negative 

 collection. — T. L. Hankinson, State Normal 

 College, Ypsilanti, Mich. 



-% 4;.; 





AMERICAN BITTERN POSING 



was within a dozen or so feet of it; then it 

 relaxed and started to walk along the creek 

 bank, always keeping at least this distance 

 ahead of me and making use of every weed- 

 patch for another effort to elude me with a 

 quickly assumed, stationary posture like the 

 one described. Once in a patch of giant rag- 

 weed it very effectively and remarkably 

 eradicated itself, although it was little 

 eclipsed by plant parts. 



The day was quiet and sunny and it was 

 near noon. These conditions, with the fact 

 that I was armed, as I usually am on field 



Bald Eagles on the Hudson 

 For over forty years, Andrew Templeton 

 has watched the winter visits of the 

 Bald Eagles to the Hudson River at New- 

 burgh and Beacon, where the ferry be- 

 tween these cities keeps the water free from 

 ice in the coldest days. When the days begin 

 to soften, great fields of ice break off with 

 the changing tides, and these the ferry cuts 

 into small blocks and eventually a big open 

 space is formed where the Gulls, Mergansers 

 and other Ducks gather and wait the 

 breaking up of the ice. Every year that these 



