392 Least Bittern 



The home of the Least Bittern is in the fresh-water marshes. Rarely, 

 along the Atlantic coast and down along the Gulf of Mexico, I have seen 

 the bird in salt-water marshes, but all search for its nest in these localities 

 has been in vain. One characteristic of the Herons is their habit of 

 coming together in numbers for the purpose of laying their eggs. Very 

 often hundreds, or even thousands, of several different species will be 

 thus congregated. The bird we are discussing, however, does not have 

 this habit. In a growth of buttonwood bushes, in the shallow waters of 

 a small Florida lake, I once found five nests of the Least Bittern within a 

 few yards of one another, but such occurrences, in my opinion, are rare. 

 Usually, the birds seem to prefer to be alone. On a few occasions I have 

 found them nesting in bushes in the midst of a colony of Boat-tailed 

 Crackles, but I suspected that they chose the locality because it seemed 

 especially suitable for their nesting purposes and not because they sought 

 the society of their large black neighbors. 



Enemies the Least Bittern certainly has. Water-snakes capture the 

 young and perhaps at times eat the eggs. Muskrats, found in nearly 

 every marsh, are to be dreaded, as are Minks and Hawks. Fish Crows 

 p are ever on the lookout for eggs, and perhaps this is 



the reason why the birds bend downward the tops of 

 . . , the rushes to shield the eggs from above. The drain- 



ing of marshes, which thus destroys their feeding and 

 nesting places, has caused these birds to become scarce in many parts of 

 the country. 



The Least Bittern ranges over a large part of North America, being 

 found in summer from Oregon and the southern Canadian provinces 

 southward throughout the United States, West Indies, Central America 

 and northern South America. When winter comes, the birds in Canada 

 and the United States retire southward, and none are known to pass the 

 winter north of the region immediately bordering the Gulf Coast. 



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