2 Torrey, the ‘Booming’ of the Bittern. [ January 
By and by this grew so near that we began to wonder whether 
we might not obtain a sight of its author. We swept the field 
with our opera-glasses, and presently descried the bird’s head 
erect and motionless amidst the grass. Except for the eye, which 
we were near enough to see plainly, it might have been a stick. 
Soon it stirred, and then all at once the fellow commenced pump- 
ing. The action was only partially visible, of course; but after 
ti had been repeated several times, the Bittern started towards the 
remains of a last year’s hay-cock, which was still high enough to 
be entirely above the grass, and while we held our breath he 
mounted it, looking furtively in all directions, and putting one 
foot before the other so slowly that we could barely see it move. 
It was an admirable display of one of the Bittern’s most character- 
istic and useful accomplishments,—the art of imperceptible 
motion. He got fairly upon the hay at last, where we could see 
everything but his toes (these he obligingly showed us afterwards) 
and then he fell again to pumping, and kept at it for at least an 
hour. ‘This operation, as well as I can put it into words, is as 
follows. 
First the bird opens his bill quickly and shuts it with a click; 
then he does the same thing again, with a louder click; and aftez 
from three to five such snappings of the beak, he gives forth the 
familiar trisyllabic pumping notes, repeated from three to eight 
times. With the preliminary motions of the bill the breast is 
seen to be distending ; the dilatation increases until the pumping 
is well under way, and as far as we could make out, does not 
subside in the least until the pumping is quite over. It seemed to 
both of us that the bird was swallowing air,—gulping it down,— 
and with it distending his crop; and he appeared not to be able 
to produce the resonant pumping notes until this was accomplished 
It should be remarked, however, that the gulps themselves, after 
the first one or two at least, gave rise to fainter sounds of much 
the same sort. The entire performance, but especially the pump- 
ing itself, is attended with violent convulsive movements, the head 
and neck being thrown upwards and then forwards,—like the 
Night Heron’s when it emits its gwow, only with much greater 
violence. The snap of the bill, in particular, is emphasized by a 
vigorous jerk of the head. The vocal result, as I say, is in three 
syllables ; of these the first is the longest, and, as it were, a little 
divided from the others, while the third is almost like an echo of - 
the second. ‘The middle syllable is very strongly accented. 
