— 6- 



was a dog ; and why it was that he had never 

 looked at me that way- 



The conditions under which these Bitterns 

 matured, having- thus been quite abnormal, 

 one can venture no theories regarding- the 

 nesting habits of these birds, from hatching 

 to maturity. I might, however, state my ex- 

 perience with a brood that hatched, three 

 seasons before, about a mile from the site in- 

 dicated, at the top of a rather high, bushy 

 knoll skirting the wooded river. In late June, 

 I found a full-grown young one at the base 

 of this knoll, in a bit of meadow; behaving 

 wandered thither from the nest; which I 

 found, five minutes later, amid dense hazels 

 and at the edge of a path. One full-grown 

 young was still on the nest,— which was^ a 

 mass of excrement and food-remains. This, 

 —I regret to say,— I neglected to examine- 

 Mamma Bittern was close by ; but flushed at 

 once, and flew away. 



But I have not told of my Bittern Bog,— 

 for there WAS a bittern bog. It lay^ in 

 Southern Minnesota, winding, snake-like, 

 amid dense poplar, cherry and black-oak 

 brushland. I found the rude nest, half-way 

 across the narrow belt of coarse grass, in a 

 few inches of water, when there were two 



