THE BITTERN 77 



The boy evidently took us for a pair of igno- 

 ramuses from the city. 



" I guess it 's a frog," he answered. But when 

 the sounds were repeated he shook his head and 

 confessed honestly that he did n't know what 

 made them. 



It was too bad, I thought, that he did not 

 stick to his frog theory. It would have made so 

 much better a story! He appeared to feel no 

 curiosity about the matter, and we allowed him 

 to pass on unenlightened. 



Not all Wayland people are thus poorly in- 

 formed, however, and we shortly learned, to our 

 considerable satisfaction, that they have a most 

 felicitous local name for the bird. They call 

 him " plum-pudd'nY ' which is exactly what he 

 himself says, only that his u is in both words 

 somewhat long, like the vowel in "full." To 

 get the true effect of the words they should be 

 spoken with the lips nearly closed, and in a deep 

 voice. 



A few days after this excursion I found a bit- 

 tern in a large wet meadow somewhat nearer 

 home. At the nearest he was a long way off, 

 and as I went farther and farther away from 

 him, I remarked the very unexpected fact that 

 the last syllable to be lost was not the second, 

 which bears so sharp an accent, but the long 



