on the American bittern in captivity.



89



The difficulty was to find food for it, there being' no fish to be

had owing to the rough weather. We tried mealworms and snails

with no effect, finally limpets off the rocks, and these it ate with

joy, and then some small conger eels were caught for it at low tide,

also fresh water eels in the pools, and then it began to recover its

strength, and on this food and also tench, caught in the fresh-water

pool, it thrived for six years, with occasional mice and rats. It

became very tame after its long starvation and remained so always.

Limpets were only given it when other fish were not forthcoming,

as it would only eat them when there was nothing else for it. It

had the most extraordinary long thin tongue, which it stuck out

like a long hat pin when it was hungry, and also made a strange

croaking noise, which seemed to be its only sound, and never the

booming noise of the common bittern.


The American bittern is a smaller bird than the common

bittern and a more chocolate colour on its back, with a long dark

patch on each side of its neck. It had a wonderful habit of stand¬

ing as if it was stuffed, with its eyes fixed as if contemplating

making a dart at one’s own; indeed it did one day at the boy who

fed it, but luckily without hurting him. It also had a most sedate

walk, picking up its feet very carefully at each step, and, like the

common bittern, had a wonderful power of elongating its neck like

a telescope and then hunching its shoulders and looking as if it had

no neck at all. It died the death so many birds seem to die, eating

heartily but getting thinner and thinner, till at last they drop off.

I was very sorry indeed to lose him as he was such a curiosity and

a bird with much character. He is now stuffed and in a glass case,

but he looks so natural I expect to hear his croak and see his long

tongue come out asking for food.


One day he had escaped from the aviary he was kept in, the

door having been somehow left unfastened, a tremendous hue and

cry took place as soon as the empty aviary was discovered ; the

bird not being pinioned nor its feathers cut, but having been in

captivity for some time it, could not fly well. My brother rushed

for a gun, but I was determined to catch it alive somehow, and as

it attempted to rise at the edge of the fresh water pool I just



