1 SS Babsows, Concealing Action of the Bittern. [ April 



draws down its head and neck into the more graceful position of a 

 feeding heron and proceeds to walk about deliberately in search 



of food. 



A few years ago I had an opportunity of observing closely one 

 of these birds which exhibited a refinement of this concealing action 

 winch 'was entirely new to me and seemed indeed so remarkable 

 that 1 hesitated to publish it until the literature of the subject had 

 been searched with some care, and effort hail been made to detect 

 other individuals using the same device. The observation referred 

 to was made on the campus of the Agricultural College, in [ngham 

 County, Michigan, in August, 1905, on a Bittern which was found 

 in an artificial pond in which water lilies, wild rice, narrow leaved 

 cattails, sedges and some other water plants were growing. The 

 pond was something less than one hundred yards in length and of 

 irregular form, the widest parts, however, not more than fifteen 

 or twenty yards across. 



While at work in my office, in the middle of the afternoon, Mr. 

 I'. P. Hedrick, then professor of horticulture, came in breathlessly 

 with the information that a large water bird had alighted in the 

 lily pond and could be collected readily if wanted for the museum. 

 Hurrying back with him to the edge of the pool the bird was no- 

 where to be seen, although we looked carefully in the place where 

 it had been standing less than five minutes before. Skirting the 

 water with some care and scanning every cluster of water plants 

 on the way. we passed completely around the pool, returning at 

 length to the point where we had first reached it, still without dis- 

 covering the bird. The afternoon was bright and warm with a 

 rather fitful brec.e. there were few shrubs about our end of the 

 pond, the water plants were not thick enough to hide a blackbird; 

 it seemed certain that the bin! had flown away. 



As we stood talking about its disappearance, however, and while 

 1 was questioning my friend who is not an ornithologist as to its 

 size, color and action, it suddenly appeared standing motionless 

 and in plain sight at a distance of less than fifty feet, in water only 

 a few inches deep and among scattered cattail flags which were 

 nowhere close enough together to offer any real concealment. 

 The bird, an adult Bittern (Botcturus lentigmorus) was in the char- 

 acteristic erect and rigid attitude already described ami so near 

 to us that its yellow iris was distinctly visible. 





