6 g GREEN HER<3N. 



wary reptiles shrink into the mire on the least alarm, and do not 

 raise up their heads again to the surface without the most cau- 

 tious circumspection. The Bittern, fixing his penetrating eye on 

 the spot where they disappeared, approaches with slow stealing 

 step, laying his feet so gently and silently on the ground as not 

 to be heard or felt; and when arrived within reach stands fixed, 

 and bending forwards, until the first glimpse of the frog's head 

 makes its appearance, when, with a stroke instantaneous as light- 

 ning, he seizes it in his bill, beats it to death, and feasts on it at 

 his leisure. 



This mode of life, requiring little fatigue where game is so 

 plenty, as is generally the case in all our marshes, must be par- 

 ticularly pleasing to the bird; and also very interesting, from the 

 continual exercise of cunning and ingenuity necessary to cir- 

 cumvent its prey. Some of the naturalists of Europe, however, 

 in their superior wisdom, think very differently; and one can 

 scarcely refrain from smiling at the absurdity of those writers, 

 who declare, that the lives of this whole class of birds are ren- 

 dered miserable by toil and hunger; their very appearance, ac- 

 cording to Buffon, presenting the image of suffering anxiety and 

 indigence.* 



When alarmed, the Green Bittern rises with a hollow guttu- 

 ral scream; does not fly far, but usually alights on some old 

 stump, tree or fence adjoining, and looks about with extended 

 neck; though sometimes this is drawn in so that his head seems 

 to rest on his breast. As he walks along the fence, or stands 

 gazing at you with outstreached neck, he has the frequent habit 

 of jetting the tail. He sometimes flies high, with doubled neck, 

 and legs extended behind, flapping the wings smartly, and trav- 

 elling with great expedition. He is the least shy of all our He- 

 rons; and perhaps the most numerous and generally dispersed: 

 being found far in the interior, as well as along our salt marshes; 

 and every where about the muddy shores of our mill-ponds, 

 creeks and large rivers. 



*HisT. Nat. desOiseaux, tome xxii, p. 34S. 



