64 



day, as we had found on previous trips that fresh Terns' eggs 

 made a most dehcious addition to our bill of fare. 



While pushing through a mass of dead cat-tails in a small 

 marsh near our camp, Mr. Wilcox was greeted with a pro- 

 longed hissing. On investigating the cause, he had the good 

 fortune to find an American Bittern on her nest within 

 twenty feet of him. Since the bird showed no inclination 

 whatever to leave, I hastened to the high land after the 

 camera and, returning, took an instantaneous exposure at a 

 distance of some twenty-five feet. I then moved the camera 

 very cautiously and gradually forward until the lens was not 

 more than six feet from the nest. The bird still remained 

 perfectly quiet, and I was enabled to take a splendid time 

 exposure. We then attempted to drive her from the nest, in 

 order to see what she was sitting upon. Much to our surprise, 

 she fluffed up her feathers in a defiant attitude, and hissed at 

 us most savagely. Mr. Wilcox thrust at the Bittern first with 

 a cat-tail stalk and then with a cigar box, but she refused abso- 

 lutely to leave the nest; she backed off and made rapid lunges 

 at the box, in one instance driving her bill almost through the 

 cover. I had now set up the camera within three feet, and 

 was fortunate in getting a photograph just as she was drawing 

 back and preparing to strike. 



Meanwhile, Brest had been scurrying around another part 

 of the swamp and had found the nest of a Carolina Rail, con- 

 taining eight well-marked and heavily incubated eggs. From 

 here we continued our exploration down the point, and pres- 

 ently came to a wide, flat meadow lying between a marsh on 

 the one side and the sand dunes on the other. Here we hoped 

 to find Semipalmated Sandpipers, and started to drag the 

 meadow with a rope. While we were thus engaged, Brest 

 had wandered off to the edge of the marsh and, standing on a 

 high hillock, began firing his gun. We saw him motion violently 

 for us, and hastened over to join him. He pointed out a little 

 island in one of the ponds, covered with gooseberry bushes 

 and high grass, and told us that the report of the gun had 

 ''jumped one of them Owls." We immediately surmised that it 

 was a Short-eared Owl, one of the last things we had expected 

 to find on our trip. Wading out to the islet through icy water 



