78 EVERYDAY BIRDS 
first syllable. It seemed contrary to reason, but 
such was unquestionably the truth, and later 
experiments confirmed it. 
This was in the spring of 1888. In May of 
the next year, if all went well, we would see the 
show again. So we said to each other; but a 
veteran ornithologist remarked that we should 
probably be a good many years older before we 
had another such piece of good fortune. 
It is a fact familiar to all naturalists, however, 
that when you have once found a new plant, or 
a new bird, or a new nest, the experience is 
likely to be soon repeated. You may have spent 
a dozen years in a vain search, but now, for 
some reason, the difficult has all at once become 
easy, and almost before you can believe your 
eyes the rarity has grown to be a drug in the 
market. Something like this proved to be true 
of the bittern’s boom. 
On the afternoon of the 2d of May, 1889, I 
went to one of my favorite resorts, a large cat- 
tail swamp surrounded by woods. My particu- 
lar errand was to see whether the least bittern 
had arrived, — a much smaller, and in this part 
of the country, at least, a much less common 
bird than his relative of whose vocal accomplish- 
ments I am here treating. ; 
I threw myself down upon the cliff overhang- 
