AMERICAN BITTERN. 507 
It is not known that the American Bittern has ever occurred on the 
continent of Europe. It is found throughout the continent of North 
America south of Alaska and Greenland, being a resident in the southern 
States, but further north it is only a summer visitor, and further south 
only a winter visitor. 
The American Bittern closely resembles its larger Kuropean congener in 
its habits. Its haunts are in the wildest and most secluded bogs, mm impene- 
trable swamps, and dismal morasses. Dr. Coues * thus graphically depicts 
this singular and interesting bird :—‘‘The Bittern, as has been said, is 
essentially ‘ wild, shy, and solitary.’ We oftener start one from his lonely 
vigils in the bog than find several or even a pair together, excepting in 
the breeding-season. No doubt he enjoys life after his own fashion ; but 
his notions of happiness are peculiar. He prefers solitude, and leads the 
-eecentric life of a recluse, ‘ forgetting the world, and by the world forgot.’ 
To see him at his ordinary occupation one might fancy him shouldering 
some heavy responsibility, oppressed with a secret, or labouring in the 
solution of a problem of vital consequence: He stands motionless, with 
his head drawn in upon his shoulders, and half-closed eyes, in profound 
meditation, or steps about in a devious way, with an absent-minded air ; 
for greater seclusion he will even hide in a thick brush-clump for hours 
together. Startled in his retreat, whilst his thinking-cap is on, he seems 
dazed like one suddenly aroused from a deep sleep; but as soon as he 
collects his wits, remembering unpleasantly that the outside world exists, 
he shows common sense enough to beat a hasty retreat from a scene of 
altogether too much action for him. Some such traits have doubtless led 
to the belief that he is chiefly a nocturnal bird; but such is not the case. 
He may migrate by night; but so does the Killdeer, and the Bobolink, and 
many other birds not in the least nocturnal. Nor is the Bittern either 
lazy or stupid, as some may suppose. He is simply what we call a shady 
character—one of those non-committal creatures whom we may invest, if 
we please, with various attributes, and perhaps consider very deep, without 
sufficient reason, the fact being that we make the mystery about him. 
There is nothing remarkable in the fact that he prefers his own company, 
and dislikes to be bored. He lives in the bog, where he finds plenty to 
eat that he likes best, and is satisfied to be simply let alone. 
*“ When the Bittern is disturbed at-his meditation he gives a vigorous 
spring, croaks at the moment in a manner highly expressive of his disgust, 
and flies off as fast as he can, though in rather a loose, lumbering way. 
For some distance he flaps heavily with dangling legs and outstretched 
neck ; but when settled on his course he proceeds more smoothly, with 
regular measured wing-beats, the head drawn in closely, and the legs 
stretched straight out behind together, like a rudder. He is very easily 
* € Birds of the North West,’ p. 527. 
