152 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



discovered this habit, and learned its object. I had seen a Bittern fly into an 

 open marsh, and creeping up under cover to within gunshot, I prepared to shoot 

 him. But there was no bird there, only a stake, and it was not until I had 

 rubbed my eyes and looked hard that I discovered that the stake was the 

 Bittern. 



Old Turner,^ in 1544, speaking of the European bird, says that "it sits 

 about the sides of lakes and marshes, where putting its beak into the water it 

 gives utterance to such a booming as may easily be heard an Italian mile 

 away" ; and again,- "so far as I can remember it is nearly of the color of a 

 Pheasant and the back is smeared with mud ; it utters brayings like those of an 

 ass." These statements are not entirely correct, but are suggestive. One of 

 the best ways to observe the interesting performance of the love song of this 

 bird, for so the "pumping " or "stake-driving" must be considered, is to 

 approach the performer in a canoe. By paddling quietly but vigorously during 

 the pumping, and remaining quiet during the intervals, one may sometimes steal 

 within close range of the Bittern. The bird stands with bill pointed nearly 

 straight upwards, and the performance begins with from three to si.x or more 

 gulps as if the Bittern were swallowing air, the neck being held up and the bill 

 opened at each gulp. The gulping sounds are audible vv^ithin a short range 

 only. Then comes the " pumping," sounding so exactly like the working of an 

 old pump that one expects it to be followed by the sound of gushing water. 

 The unk'-a-chiink' is repeated from three to eight times. One bird I found 

 always repeated this either three or four times, another either six or seven 

 times and rarely eight times. The throat is swelled and the head ducked at 

 each pump as if the bird were getting rid of air that had been drawn in. In 

 fact an attempt to imitate the sounds causes almost similar contortions on the 

 part of the imitator. When the bird is a long way off not only the pre- 

 liminary gulps but also the first part of the pumping are inaudible, and one 

 hears only the final syllable, which resembles the driving of a stake in a bog. 



Although the Bittern prefers to breed in the fresh marshes, a few make 

 their nests in or near the salt marshes. On June 26th, 1904, while looking for 

 Sharp-tailed Sparrows in a salt marsh reached only by the high spring and fall 

 tides, I started a Bittern that flew off with a complaining and frequently 

 repeated quacking croak. Soon after I became conscious that a series of four 

 stakes, projecting above the grass, was in reality the motionless necks and bills 

 of four young Bitterns. My companion had noticed them too, but thought they 

 were the remains of a shooting blind. The early age at which this protective 



'A. H. Evans, ed. and tran.sl. : Turner on Birds.. . . first published 1544, p. 125, 1903. 

 ^ A. H. Evans, ed. and transl. : ibid., p. 41. 



