THE LEAST BITTERN AND SOME OTHER REED 

 INHABITANTS 



Y experience with the Least Bittern 

 leaves the eerie little creature a 

 half -solved mystery, and I think of 

 it less as a bird than as a survivor 

 of a former geological period, when 

 birds still showed traits of their 

 not distant reptilian ancestors. 

 The Bittern's home is in fresh-water, cat-tail 

 marshes, and he wanders at will through the thickly 

 set forest of reeds without of necessity putting foot 

 to the water below or flapping wing in the air above. 

 His peculiar mode of progression constitutes one of 

 his chief characteristics. The reeds in which he 

 lives generally grow in several feet of water, far too 

 deep, therefore, to permit of his wading ; while his 

 secretive disposition makes him averse to appearing 

 in the open, except after nightfall. It is impossible 

 to fly through the cat-tails, and so the bird walks 

 and even runs through them, stepping from stem to 

 stem with surprising agility. I had heard of this 

 habit, but the description conveyed as little idea of 

 the bird's appearance as it is feared this one will, 

 and when for the first time a Least Bittern was seen 

 striding off through the reeds about three feet above 

 the water, the performance was so entirely unlike 



