Least Bittern. 327 



cat-tails, and other aquatic plauts among which it dwells 

 often permitting itself to be almost brushed against before 

 it will take wing." 



The habitat of the least bittern is almost co-extensive 

 with that of the Florida gallinule, as it is found through- 

 out the whole of temperate North America, north to the 

 British Provinces, south to the West Indies, and through 

 middle America to Brazil. The first migrant bitterns 

 reach the swamps of central Illinois toward the end of 

 April, and their numbers gradually increase until early in 

 May. As the bird-seeker makes his progress through their 

 resorts soon after they are established, he can flush them 

 from their coverts generally when within twenty feet of 

 them. They arise from the short flags with labored 

 movements in unsteady flight, with the jerky carriage 

 peculiar to the short flight of the herons, as their long 

 neck and legs and their lack of a strong tail to guide their 

 flight make their first movements in air unsteady and of 

 varying direction. They usually fly in a straight course 

 or in a slight arc, preparing for aerial progress by ex- 

 tending the legs backward and crouching the neck back 

 over the body; they point the bill forward, and move 

 with strong, steady, rather rapid flappings, dropping 

 abruptly at the end of their course like rails, or like the 

 grasshopper sparrow. Yery early in the morning, and 

 especially toward evening, they are thus easily flushed 

 from the flags. As night comes on they can be seen flying 

 from one part of the swamp to another, evidently seeking 

 their feeding grounds, for they seem to be chiefly noc- 

 turnal in their habits, or at least crepuscular, like the bats. 

 If we are careful ia our movements, and conceal our- 

 selves where the birds are flushed most frequently, we 

 may be so fortunate as to see something of their move- 

 ments. We may see one now and then walking over the 

 broad, circular leaves of the lilies, advancing with buoyant 

 step and the contemplative air characteristic of the family, 

 thrusting forward its long bill with every impulse of its 

 thin, fragile body. While among the lilies, it often ex- 

 amines the culms of adjacent sedges, glancing leisurely up 

 one side of the blade and then up the other, frequently 

 finding some tidbit. At other times it extends its head 



