312 Sketches of Some Common Birds. 



the residents of the regions in which it is conimon. The 

 deep bass notes are so peculiar that they are readily recog- 

 nized after being once identified. To me they suggest the 

 syllables "boo-hoo," accented on the first, and uttered in 

 a rumbling tone, not unlike the deep bellowing of a bull 

 at a distance. 



If the bird-gazer can espy one of these birds in a 

 poetic mood, standing among the flags on one foot, in the 

 attitude peculiar to the heron and cranes, the other foot 

 drawn up well under the body, and the head drooping 

 forward on the breast in drowsy indifference, and then 

 watch the same bird suddenly alter his whole mien in the 

 execution of his notes, the sight is worth remembering for 

 its ludicrous features. The bird first adjusts his ungainly 

 members into a more compact form, and then apparently 

 attempts to disgorge something which his stomach rejects. 

 In the act of throwing forward his head, he utters with 

 this apparently painful effort the low, rumbling, bellow- 

 like notes with which he expresses the depth of his affec- 

 tion for his lady-love. It is no wonder that this bittern is 

 vulgarly called the " bog-bull " and the "thunder-pumper," 

 for the rumbling notes and the contortions exhibited in 

 their execution suggest these expressive titles. It also has 

 a peculiar call which at a distance sounds like the driving 

 of a stake with a maul. The notes represent the sound of 

 the stroke, followed by its echo in the woods, and hence 

 the species is frequently called the " stake-driver." The 

 voice of the bittern is heard chiefly toward the close of 

 the afternoons, when the dreamer emerges from his 

 lonely retirement, and desires the companionship of some 

 congenial spirit. Through the twilight and into the early 

 part of the night the notes can be heard at irregular in- 

 tervals, for the bitterns are like the bats and the whip- 

 poor-wills in their crepuscular habits. 



The nesting period begins about the first of May in 

 ordinary seasons, though in advanced seasons nidification 

 begins correspondingly earlier. The nests can be found 

 through May and June, and even into the early part of 

 July, though only after freshets have caused the water to 

 rise and destroy early nests do we find their habitations so 

 late in the season. When the birds are living in an}' 



