LEAST BITTERN 



By T. GILBERT PEARSON 



THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF AUDUBON SOCIETIES 

 Educational Leaflet No. 98 



One morning, early in May, I pushed an old flat-bottomed boat 

 through the reeds growing along the shore of a shallow southern lake 

 until reaching an open place, I dropped my baited hook among the lily- 

 pads. The sun had but recently risen, and the plant-life on every hand 

 was glistening with dew. The morning was very still, and the squawk 

 of a slow-flying Heron came dis- 

 tinctly across the water from a 

 distance of a quarter of a mile. 

 On a nearby bush a Red-winged 

 Blackbird balanced and saluted 

 with song the new day. Kong- 

 qucr-rcc, kong-qucr-rcc,came his 

 musical voice over and over 

 again. In the woods along the 

 shore Cardinals called inces- 

 santly, and a Carolina Wren 

 threw to the air a tempest of 

 melody. A Woodpecker some- 

 where was tapping on a dead 

 limb, and a Fish Crow flew over 

 without a sound. 



It was good to be on this 

 quiet lake, where no farmhouse 

 was within sight and into whose 

 solitude the shriek of a locomo- 

 tive whistle never entered. 

 While sitting here enjoying the 

 tranquil surroundings, I sud- 

 denly noticed a movement 

 among the tops of a clump of 

 rushes, perhaps fifty feet away. 

 Three or four of them appeared 

 to be swaying ever so gently, 

 and yet they surely were in mo- 

 tion. A moment later there ap- 

 peared an object just coming 

 into view from below, indistinct 

 and yet real. It appeared the 

 same color as its surroundings 



as though a small portion of the PE1IALE T . FA?T TUTTERX -FREEZING- 

 denser rush clump had quietly UPO .\ri-Ko.\rii OF I.NKMV 



moved upward into view. And Photographed by Arthur A. Alien 



