1230 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



young. The process is rather difficult to describe in a 

 few words but a glance at the accompanying photo- 

 graph of the least bittern feeding its young should make 

 it clear. 



Three members of the heron family in North America 

 are called bitterns and they inhabit the reedy marshes 



Photograph by Verdi Burtch 



SKY SCRAPERS 



Great Blue Herons nest in the tallest trees of big swamps — Single trees 

 sometimes contain from five to ten nests. 



to the branches using their wings and even their necks to 

 assist them. If they drop into the water below, they are 

 able to swim, using their wings as well as their feet for 

 propulsion, but their heavy bodies sink until only the 

 head shows above the surface. When alarmed in the 

 nest or on the branches, the young herons stretch up 

 their long slender necks and remain perfectly quiet so 

 that they look more like sticks than like birds. They 

 are fed in an unusual way. The old bird, having swal- 

 lowed the fish or frogs whiCh it has caught, returns to 

 the nest with them in its crop. The young bird then 

 seizes, with a scissor-like action, the base of the bill of 

 the old bird which turns its head on one side and vigor- 

 ously but deftly disgorges the food into the throat of the 



Courtesy of National Association 



Audubon Societies 

 THE COST OF A PLUME 

 Thi» pathetic picture tells its own tale and needs no enlargement. 



NOT IN HIS ELEMENT 



Young herons are not meant to swim like ducks but they get there just 

 the same when they fall from their nests into the water. 



rather than the tree covered swamps that are the favorite 

 nesting places of the other herons. The American bittern 

 is the larger of the two, being about the size of a large 

 fowl, but of a very different shape, although some people 

 call it the "mud hen." Its streaked brown coloration 

 matches so closely the dead vegetation in the marsh that 

 when quiet it is almost impossible to see. 

 This camouflage is furthered by a habit 

 which the bird has when alarmed, of 

 pointing its bill toward the sky and pre- 

 senting only its broadly streaked neck 

 and breast toward the intruder. As one 

 circles about the spot where he knows 

 the bittern is hiding, the bittern also slow- 

 ly rotates so as to present always the 

 same color pattern which matches exact- 

 ly the lights and shadows of the reeds, 

 and when the wind blows over the marsh, 

 causing the reeds to sway, the bittern 

 seems to perfect the simulation by sway- 

 ing with them. Early in April when the 

 bittern returns from the south and con- 

 cealment in the marsh is scarce, it is 

 easily overlooked because it resembles 

 some broken snag projecting from the 

 water. One of the most striking charac- 

 teristics of the bittern is its call which has 

 given rise to the names "stake driver" 

 and "plum puddin." Though not actual- 

 ly very loud the sound is remarkably 



