BITTERNS 127 



Drown, more or less bordered and mottled with buffy, reddish brown or dark- 

 ish ; below pale buff, the feathers streaked with buffy brown, and margined 

 with brownish gray. Immature plumage : differs in the deeper more 

 ochraceous color of the buffy markings. Wing 10.00 to 11.50 ; culmen 2.90 ; 

 tarsus 3.60. 



Geog. Dist. — Temperate North America, breeding usually north of the 

 latitude of Virginia ; wintering from Virginia to Guatemala, Cuba, Jamaica, 

 and Bermuda ; occasional in the British Isles. 



County Records. — Androscoggin ; common summer resident, (Johnson). 

 Aroostook ; local summer resident, (Knight). Cumberland ; common summer 

 resident, (Mead). Franklin; common summer resident, (Lee & McLain). 

 Hancock ; local summer resident, (Knight). Kennebec; (Hamlin, R. S. Me. 

 B. Agr. 1865, p. 172). Knox ; summer, (Rackliff). Oxford ; breeds commonly, 

 (Nash). Penobscot: a local summer resident, occurring in pairs in many 

 suitable marshes, (Knight). Piscataquis ; common, breeds, (Homer). Saga- 

 dahoc ; common, (Spinney). Somerset ; common summer resident, (Morrell). 

 Waldo; local summer resident, (Knight). Washington; very common in 

 summer, (Boardman). York; breeds, (Adams). 



The actual number of individuals occurring in Maine is not 

 large, and if an accurate census could be obtained it seems 

 probable that nobody would then call the species common. It 

 is a species of the marshes and mere, and in such localities may 

 usually be found breeding throughout the State, generally only 

 one pair of birds to each meadow or marsh. They arrive from 

 the south in late April or early May and remain until late 

 October. 



The nest is composed of reeds, rushes and sedges, and is 

 placed on the ground well concealed among the rushes and 

 sedges in a meadow or marsh. Three to five brownish drab 

 eggs are laid in early June, or sometimes even in late May. 

 Four found June 6, 1893, measure 1.81x1.46, 1.80x1.45, 

 1.86x1.40, 1.85x1.44. 



The love note of the bird sounds much as follows: — "chunk- 

 a-bunk-chunk, chunk-a-bunk-chunk," resembling the sound 

 made by a person driving a stake with a mallet. The bird 

 when about to utter this note moves its head back and forth 

 several times with a pumping motion and finally after a few 

 gurgles the call is uttered while this motion continues. Another 

 cry is a hoarse croak and still another is a mere "quack." 



