THE BITTERN 71 



he was fairly out of the grass, standing in plain 

 sight upon his hay platform. 



Once in position he fell to pumping in earnest, 

 and kept it up for more than an hour, while two 

 enthusiasts sat upon the railway embankment, 

 twelve or thirteen rods distant, with opera-glasses 

 and note-books, scrutinizing his every motion, 

 and felicitating themselves again and again on 

 seeing thus plainly what so few had ever seen at 

 all. What would Thoreau have given for such 

 an opportunity ? 



" The stake-driver is at it in his favorite 

 meadow," he writes in his journal, in 1852. " I 

 followed the sound, and at last got within two 

 rods, it seeming always to recede, and drawing 

 you, like a will-o'-the-wisp, farther away into the 

 meadows. When thus near, I heard some lower 

 sounds at the beginning like striking on a stump 

 or a stake, a dry, hard sound, and then followed 

 the gurgling, pumping notes fit to come from a 

 meadow. 



" This was just within the blueberry and other 

 bushes, and when the bird flew up, alarmed, I 

 went to the place, but could see no water, which 

 makes me doubt if water is necessary to it in 

 making the sound. Perhaps it thrusts its bill so 

 deep as to reach water where it is dry on the 

 surface." 



