402 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



rankfesl grasses, but more frequently it is attached to the 

 stems several inches above it. It is flat, and composed of 

 dried or rotten weeds. In two instances, I found the nests 

 of the Least Bittern about three feet above the ground, in a 

 thick cluster of smilax and other briery plants. In the 

 first, two nests were placed in the same bush, within a few 

 yards of each other. In the other instance, there was only 

 one nest of this bird, but several of the Boat-tailed Grakle, 

 and one of the Green Heron, the occupants of all of which 

 seemed to be on friendly terms. When startled from the 

 nest, the old birds emit a few notes resembling the syllable 

 qua, alight a few yards off, and watch all your movements. 

 If you go towards them, you may sometimes take the female 

 with the hand, but rarely the male, who generally flies off, 

 or makes his way through the woods. 



" The food of this bird consists of snails, slugs, tadpoles 

 or young frogs, and water lizards. In several instances, 

 however, I have found small shrews and field-mice in their 

 stomach. Although more nocturnal than diurnal, it moves 

 a good deal about by day in search of food. The flight of 

 this bird is apparently weak by day ; for then it seldom re- 

 moves to a greater distance than a hundred yards at a time, 

 and this, too, only when frightened in a moderate degree, 

 for, if much alarmed, it falls again among the grass, in the 

 manner of the Rail : but in the dusk of the evening and 

 morning, I have seen it passing steadily along, at the height 

 of fifty yards or more, with the neck retracted, and the legs 

 stretched out behind in the manner of the larger Herons." 



The eggs of this species are usually four in number: 

 they are nearly oval in form, and are of the size, and almost 

 exactly the form, of eggs of the Yellow-billed Cuckoo, ex- 

 cept with regard to color; the present species being con- 

 siderably paler. It has been found to breed in all the 

 New-England States, but seems to be more of a southern 

 species, and it is not abundant anywhere north of the 

 southern portions of the Middle States. 



