^"^'o"'] PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 489 



Straight up at full leugtb. Theu, having satisfied himself that all is 

 right, he touches a hidden spring, and instantly the preposterous ueck 

 is tucked away somewhere in a surprising way, and so effectually that 

 the head looksas though stuck on the shoulders without any intervening 

 structure at all. 



lu taking its prey the bird either waits until the rash victim comes 

 within reach of its spear-like bill or goes stalking about after it among 

 the rushes. Its food is of such a varied character that one only has to 

 collect the stomachs of about a score of bitterns to have an extensive 

 natural history museum. The specimen taken yesterday contained, as 

 already stated, a garter-snake, a mouse, an amblystoma or water liz- 

 ard, sundry crawfish, and an innumerable company of various insects; 

 and to this list may safely be added every kind of small animalism 

 that may be secured about the marshy home of ihe bird. Misled by 

 sundry printed statements, I once cooked an individual of this species, 

 but will not be so misled any more. It is sufficient to say that it tasted 

 of all the creatures it feeds on. 



I have somewhere read that this bird is strictly diurnal. This I have 

 long doubted. Indeed, I begin to doubt that any bird is strictly any- 

 thing. When we find a hawk gorging itself with choke cherries, a night- 

 owl hunting by sunlight, and sandpipers that never pipe or go near 

 sand, one is prepared to give up, on behalf of the birds, all rules of life 

 and conduct, and expect the strictly "diurnal" bittern to be up and 

 stirring during the hours of darkness and gloom, as, indeed, the fore- 

 going notes lead me to suspect he does. 



Contrary to the usually expressed opinion, this bird is strictly diurnal in its hab- 

 its; quitting its resting places in the reedy bogs early in the morning, feeding out 

 along the margins of ponds, streams, etc., during the day, and returning to its close 

 cover at night. When alarmed, the bittern, instead of rising, frequently erects its 

 head and neck and depresses its tail between its legs, until the whole body i8.a.lmost 

 vertical, and so stands perfectly still until the danger is past ; when in this position 

 it so closely resembles a dead branch that it requires a practiced eye to detect it. 

 Bitterns are most frequently heard to boom or pump in the spring, but I have also 

 heard them all through the summer ; the latest date being in August. (Nash.) 



54. Botaurus exilis. Least Bittern. 



Accidental visitant. Winnipeg: Summer resident : only one speci- 

 men in 10 years in Manitoba (Hine). 



55. Ardea herodias. Great Blue Heron. 



resident in all Eed River Valley ; not noted by me anywhere in the 

 Assiuiboine region ; observed daring our passage down the Red River 

 to Pembina (Coues). Pennawa River, September, 1887 (Hind). Win- 

 nipeg: Summer resident; tolerably rare (Hine). Red River Valley: 

 Summer resident; common at Shoal Lake, township 16, range 3, east 



