AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 141 



rushes, they will extend their long neck and small head in a straight 

 line pointing towards the zenith in an attempt to imitate their 

 surroundings, and when standing among the brown colored dead reeds, 

 the markings of their breast harmonize beautifully. So perfect is their 

 belief in their invisibility that they will allow themselves to be almost 

 touched before they will take flight, either by wing or on foot. 



Very few birds display the courage in the defence of their homes 

 that the Least Bitterns do; the female will often stand on guard and 

 savagely peck at the hand that attempts to molest her nest, and a 

 thrust from the long, pointed beak of one of these birds is not a matter 

 to trifle with. 



Several years ago I found a pair of these birds at the lower end of 

 Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester; it was in July and undoubtedly they 

 were breeding but I made no search for the nest. For years I have 

 been through this same place but have not seen them, either before or 

 since, although probably one or two pairs are there each year. 

 Equally elusive and inhabiting the same places, are the Sora or 

 Carolina Rails which I occasionally find in this same spot. 



Their food consists chiefly of aquatic insects, small fish, shell fish and 

 frogs, the latter being their favorite. While these birds have little or 

 no real economic value, I wish that we in the north might meet with 

 them oftener and in the numbers that some of our southern friends for 

 they are very interesting birds to study. 



CORY LEAST BITTERN. 



A. O. U. No. 191,1. (Ardetta neoxena.) 



This peculiarly colored Least Bittern is found in eastern United States 

 and Ontario. About seventeen specimens are known, most of them 

 being taken in the Everglades of Florida and in Ontario, Canada. 

 Individuals have been taken in several other states and«one is recorded 

 from Massachusetts. These were formerly considered by many, and 

 probably a few still do, to be simply a color phase of the common 

 Least Bittern, but nearly everyone now concedes it to be a distinct 

 species. Very little is known of their habits, for all who have observed 

 them have been naturalists whose only desire was to add them as 

 specimens to their collection. They are found in the same places, and, 

 as far as is known, their habits do not differ at all from those of the 

 common kind. 



Mr. C. W. Crandall has a set of five eggs which are supposed to 

 belong to this species. They were taken on the Caloosahatchee River 

 in Florida. They do not differ in size or coloration from many of 

 those of the common Least Bittern. The nest was made of grass and 

 rushes placed in the cane, two feet above the water. 



