THE LEAST BITTERN AND SOME OTHER REED 
INHABITANTS 
A Y experience with the Least Bittern 
{ leaves the eerie little creature a 
( half-solved mystery, and I think of 
| | it less as a bird than as a survivor 
| of a former geological period, when 
birds still showed traits of their 
eee ial not distant reptilian ancestors. 
The Bittern’s home is in fresh-water, cat-tail 
marshes, and he wanders at will through the thickly 
set forest of reeds without of necessity putting foot 
to the water below or flapping wing in the air above. 
His peculiar mode of progression constitutes one of 
his chief characteristics. The reeds in which he 
lives generally grow in several feet of water, far too 
deep, therefore, to permit of his wading; while his 
secretive disposition makes him averse to appearing 
in the open, except after nightfall. It is impossible 
to fly through the cat-tails, and so the bird walks 
and even runs through them, stepping from stem to 
stem with surprising agility. I had heard of this 
habit, but the description conveyed as little idea of 
the bird’s appearance as it is feared this one will, 
and when for the first time a Least Bittern was seen 
striding off through the reeds about three feet above 
the water, the performance was so entirely unlike 
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