i^otes from JTtelti anti ^tutip 



Booming of the American Bittern 



With pen sketches by the author 



I have read several accounts of the 

 booming of the Bittern, which I have had 

 the pleasure of witnessing three diiiferent 

 times, but none of them were accom- 

 panied by satisfactory illustrations. As I 

 have heard the notes, they sound like 

 chunk-chunk-a-lunk- plunk, and at a dis- 

 tance very closely resemble the noise 

 produced by driving a large wooden stake 

 in marshy ground with a large iron mall. 



At the first note — chunk — the bird stands 

 erect, with the bill pointed well up. 

 After delivering it, the body seems to echo 

 the effort, with a slight jar. With chunk, 

 the second note, the bill is dropped slightly 

 and a little force added, and the note 

 echoed, as it were, in the body a little 

 harder. At a — the third note — the bill is 

 dropped down a little more, the head 

 drawn slightly back, the whole body 

 thrown very slightly forward, and after 

 the delivery, echoed as before with a most 

 noticeable jar of the body. Lunk, the 

 fourth note, is delivered with about the 

 same force as the last, but with the bill 

 down about level, and head and whole 

 body thrown a little more forward, 

 echoed as before by the jar of the body, 

 which by this time becomes quite violent, 

 accompanied by a very slight ruffling of 

 the plumage. Plunk, the fifth and last 

 note on the bar is delivered with consider- 

 ably more force, and with the whole body, 

 especially the bill and head, thrown, or 

 jerked, violently forward, apparently as 



far as the bird can reach. The echoing of 

 the note in the body is very pronounced, 

 with a return immediately to the first 

 position to repeat the whgle series again, 

 and not only the second time, but, in 

 one case (May, 191 7), six times. As a rule, 

 I think, it is repeated only four times. 



I had discovered a slough in the north- 

 eastern part of Illinois, where I started a 

 Bittern early in April, so I kept watch on 

 the place, and one day, as if in answer to a 

 mental wish, the bird stepped out in 

 plain view and good light, and gave me a 

 real entertainment; in fact, acted as if 

 trying to outdo himself for my especial 

 benefit. After each act he would seem to 

 rest, at least wait two or three minutes, 

 and then give me the next act, and so on 

 until I tired of watching — if that could be. 

 — Geo. W. H. vos Burgh, Columbus, 

 Wis. 



Spring Migration in the 'Ramble,' 

 Central Park, New York City 



Writing of one of his boyhood friends, 

 Henry James says, in 'A Small Boy and 

 Others,' "He opened vistas, and I count 

 ever as precious anyone, everyone, who 

 betimes does that for the small straining 

 vision." In my own case I always re- 

 member gratefully as one who "opened 

 vistas" a frail young woman in a raincoat 

 whom I saw one very stormy day in the 

 spring of 191 7 in the, bird section of the 

 American Museum of Natural History in 

 New York City. We were both looking at 

 birds' nests, and being the only two persons 



BOOMING OF THE BITTERN 



This series of five positions is repeated six times 

 Drawn by Geo. W. H. vos Burgh 



(224) 



