Herons, RaAIts, Etc. 225 
when I have seen a bird in this position I have heard 
another “booming.” The sound is made by forcing 
the air from its crop through the throat, and is ex- 
pelled with a curious noise that sounds like #-dah 
when heard at a distance, but has a different sound 
and a not readily described one when you hear it near 
by. Indeed, the sound is not a uniform one, and 
even varies at times with the same bird. This “ boom- 
ing” is kept up until pretty late, but is very rarely 
heard except after sundown. I have never heard it 
in the winter. 
Of all our water-birds, I have always had the 
strongest liking for the Least Bittern. It is beautiful, 
gentle, readily tamed, and has when in its own haunts 
a quiet, winning way about it that is captivating. 
They are abundant every year in a tract of marshy 
meadows along the Delaware, and there are not at all 
shy. It has a habit, that I have often noticed, of 
walking out into the open meadow and picking up 
grasshoppers with a dexterity that is very marked, 
and when apparently no longer hungry, it throws its 
head back and rests it between its wings so that the 
beak is pointed directly upward. Is this to aid diges- 
tion? The position is maintained but for a minute 
or two, and then the bird runs off to the marsh and 
is out of sight. When startled, the bird will often 
raise its wings and give perhaps half a dozen strokes, 
and then drop again into the weeds; but the dis- 
charge of a gun near will rouse all its energy, and 
the bird will dart off with rapidly vibrating wings 
and sometimes pursuing an erratic snipe-like course. 
Except when disturbed, it is a silent bird, but utters 
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