224 THE BIRDS ABOUT Us. 



rather nocturnal ways, is better known by name than 

 by personal observation. Still, the bittern is not dif- 

 ficult to approach, and when it gains a little confi- 

 dence, or has its young to look after, may be seen to 

 advantage if you are not too demonstrative. Why is 

 it, by the way, that women are never content with ob- 

 serving a sitting bird ? Even if it is a thrush in the 

 middle of his song, the chances are she will scream 

 and " shoo !" Queer things. The bittern in the Mid- 

 dle States is both resident and migratory. It builds 

 a nest of sticks and grass, the sticks being the foun- 

 dation, in the marsh, where the bird lives the greater 

 part of the time ; and if you pass by at mid-day, the 

 chances are you will not know that such a bird is 

 anywhere near you. If you do flush it, you see a pair 

 of brown wings lazily flapped, see an awkward neck 

 thrust out ahead and a pair of long legs that almost 

 dangle. You hear a kwok, very like the gag pre- 

 liminary to vomiting, and then, settled to work, a 

 graceful flight, if the bird intends to go any distance. 

 I remember one bittern that spent the summer on my 

 meadows that invariably, when flushed, flew to the 

 hill-side near by, a distance of about seven hundred 

 yards, and alighted on the same tree always. When 

 I passed by, and was nowhere near the nest in the 

 marsh, the bird would promptly return. This bittern, 

 from March to November, remained, I think, daily 

 in the one small tract of marshy meadow. 



At night the bittern makes a most curious sound, 

 which has been described as " booming." I was 

 always of opinion that the sound was made while the 

 bird had its beak in water, but it seems not, and 



