American Bittern. 313 



swamp in numbers, the nests may not be widely scat- 

 tered, so that in some instances the bitterns appear to nest 

 somewhat in community. If there are only a few pairs 

 inhabiting a swamp of any extent, they usually choose 

 sites in different parts of the area, well apart from the 

 other families. 



The nests are generally situated among tlie reeds on or 

 near the ground or above water. Sometimes they are 

 placed on low bushes or " buck brush " growing in the 

 swamp. They are found in the most secluded and inac- 

 cessible places in the swamp, or near the edge of a lake or 

 small body of water inhabited by the birds. The bitterns 

 make their nests like the coots, using coarse, thick rushes, 

 piled in the tuft or clump of reeds selected to a height 

 varying from eight to fourteen inches. Unlike the coots, 

 the bitterns usually line their nests with dried grass. 

 Frequently small sticks are used to give additional 

 strength and stability to the nests. The structures vary 

 from one to two feet in diameter, though they are very 

 shallow, the depression for the eggs being about the size 

 and capacity of a saucer. Often the nest is well pro- 

 tected by the over-arching tops of the surrounding stems. 

 The eggs number four or five, sometimes only three. 

 They are brownish drab or coffee colored, measuring from 

 1.9.0 to 2.00 inches in length, and from 1.40 to 1.50 in 

 breadth. 



The female broods her eggs very closely, and is not 

 easily induced to leave them. She generally suffers the 

 observer to pass quite near her home without making its 

 location known by lumbering into the air, and it is 

 frequently necessary to stumble almost upon the nest be- 

 fore she will rise. Sometimes she will not even then leave 

 her nest, but remains with her charge until she is re- 

 moved by force. Often she displays considerable pug- 

 nacity, ruffling her feathers until she resembles an angry 

 turkey gobbler, facing the intruder at every turn, ready 

 with her long, sharp bill, which she darts fiercely at her 

 enemy. Like the herons, she is mostly all bill, neck, legs, 

 and feathers. As she thus valiantly defends her home, 

 we are afforded the opportunity to note her chief charac- 

 teristics. The prevailing color of her upper parts is yel- 



