RETURN OF THE BITTERN. 95 



safet}^ of the bird which now began to " bubble " in a w^ay 

 Hkely to attract his parents, we gave up the search and 

 left him in peace. 



His method of defence was curious. He would crouch 

 low down as in Fig. 3, fluffing out his feathers into a 

 kind of ruff, then suddenly strike upwards, rising to his 

 full height as in Fig. 4. This heaving up and down 

 Avas not unlike that of a young Cuckoo when molested. 

 Except for the undeveloped wing-coverts and quills, the 

 young Bittern seemed to be fully feathered, though, of 

 course, unable to fly. In general coloration he was 

 perhaps rather brighter than the adult bird, but the barred 

 markings on the wings were not so distinct. We tried 

 to feed him by opening his bill, and thrusting food into 

 his capacious pouch. This, however, he promptly 

 disgorged ; and as we saw no actual food carried by 

 the parent, it is probable that the young are fed by 

 regurgitation. 



On July 17th we made a thorough search for the nest. 

 There were then five of us, and by working abreast 

 through the reed-bed from dyke to d3^ke, our efforts w^ere 

 soon crowned with success, the lucky finder in this 

 instance being the Rev. M. C. H. Bird. The nest was 

 scarcely a dozen yards away from the spot where Vincent 

 had first discovered the young bird. It was composed 

 almost entirely of broken reed-stalks, and measured only 

 fourteen inches across the top, though much wider at 

 the water's edge ; but no doubt it had been consider- 

 ably reduced and trampled down by the nestlings, for 

 judging from the inch-deep debris of discarded feather- 

 sheaths, more than one inmate must have been 

 successfully reared. In addition the nest contained 

 bits of down, two or three small striped feathers, and a 

 few fish-scales (Fig. 5). 



We saw nothing of either old or young birds in the 

 nesting-area until about 6 p.m., when one of the adult 

 birds rose from, a neighbouring reed-bed and dropped once 

 more into the old feeding-ground ; being disturbed by a 



