Vol. x.w 



jg 13 ' J Allen, Cory's Least Bittern at Ithaca, N. Y. o59 



COIN'S LEAST BITTERN AT ITHACA, N. Y. 



BY ARTHUR A. ALLEN. 



Plate XXI. 



On the afternoon of May 17, while trudging through the marsh 

 that lies at the head of Cayuga Lake, I flushed a strange bird from 

 the eat-tails about fifteen feet before me. Its size and manner of 

 flight were those of the Least Bittern, but it had none of the buffy 

 markings so characteristic of that species. Instead its neck and 

 breast appeared rich chestnut, and the wings uniformly dark. 

 After the usual manner of the Least Bittern, it flew about one 

 hundred yards and dropped again into the flags. Proceeding 

 toward the spot, I called to Mr. Francis Harper, who was tramping 

 through an adjoining part of the marsh, and we advanced together 

 searching the waist-deep cat-tails for the bird. For a time we 

 looked in vain, but finally it flushed about twenty feet from where 

 we were standing. Despairing of finding it again in the flags while 

 alive, I took a parting shot at it with a collecting pistol and suc- 

 ceeded in bringing it down. Upon picking it up, we found that it 

 was a ( Dry's Least Bittern (Ixobrychus exit is). No vital spot had 

 been touched by the shot, so we resolved to keep it alive as long 

 as possible, or at least until Mr. Fuertes could find time to make 

 sketches of the living bird, an opportunity not frequently occurring 

 with this species. Returning to the Field Station, we placed the 

 Bittern in an empty pail and left it alone for several minutes. 

 When we returned, it fluttered excitedly and gave a hoarse cry 

 very similar to that of the Least Bittern which Chapman has de- 

 scribed as "a low frightened qua." It struck me, at the time, as 

 somewhat harsher than that of the Least Bittern, but not having 

 heard the latter recently, I might have been mistaken. This was 

 the only sound emitted during its three days of capitivity. 



The bird proved a most interesting though untamable pet. 

 One exercised care in approaching the box in which it was kept, 

 for the long neck and spear-like bill were darted out with alarming 

 rapidity, and with force sufficient to draw blood. Its usual atti- 



