Least Bittern. 331 



bitterns in even greater retirement than that which char- 

 acterized their mating and nesting season. The chief 

 incentives to animation are gone. Their younglings have 

 become independent and are scattered over the reedy area 

 in quest of food supplies. The lily pads over which they 

 stepped so lightly in the earlier days have become ragged 

 and brown, and the snowy petals and golden stamens of 

 the blossoms long ago ceased to attract their insect prey. 

 The clear waters in which their handsome colors were 

 imaged in the springtime have become green with moss 

 and foul with the decaying vegetation of the summer. 

 The flags have changed their vernal robes of living green 

 into garbs of somber brown, and have become bent and 

 tangled and. matted. These are the "melancholy days" 

 for the birds of the swamp-lake. Is it a matter of wonder 

 that uneasiness fills the minds of the birds of passage at 

 the approach of colder weather? Early in September 

 the bitterns leave their resorts, and by the end of the 

 month they have disappeared from the locality, maintain- 

 ing to the last their usual silence, yet even in their seclu- 

 sion having given additional interest to the bird-life of 

 the swamp-lakes. 



[the end.] 



