THE LEAST BITTERN 69 
was protected. Her bright yellow eyes glared with 
the intensity of a snake’s, and her reptilelike appear- 
ance was increased by the length and slenderness of 
her head and neck. Her courage was admirable ; 
she not only displayed no fear, but was actually 
aggressive, and with a hissing hah struck viciously 
at my hand each time it was placed near the nest. 
As I quickly retreated on each occasion, and at 
length made no further move toward her, she de- 
cided to withdraw, perhaps to join her cautious mate, 
who from the reeds had been uttering a warning tut- 
tut-tut at intervals. Very slowly and watchfully she 
left the nest, and when she had advanced a few feet 
through the reeds I again ventured to touch her 
platform home, putting my hand, however, under 
it; but the motion instantly attracted her attention, 
and, darting back to her post, she was on guard ina 
moment. Then I left her, retiring from the field 
fairly vanquished in my first hand-to-bill encounter 
with a wild bird. I hope she laid a full complement 
of five eggs and from them reared five birds worthy 
representatives of their mother. 
A desire to renew my acquaintance with—or per- 
haps I should say advances toward—this unbird- 
like feathered biped, and to meet it under conditions 
more favorable for the camera hunter, brought me 
the following year (June 17, 1899), to the Montezuma 
marshes at the head of Cayuga Lake. Here are 
endless forests of cat-tails in which dwell not only 
Bitterns, Long-billed Marsh Wrens, and Red-winged 
Blackbirds, but also numbers of Pied-billed Grebes 
and Florida Gallinules. aenee 
