72 BIRD STUDIES WITH A CAMERA 
It was in this island—if a patch of cat-tails grow- 
ing in three feet of water can be called an island— 
that we found the first two of numerous Least Bit- 
terns’ nests, and here our camera studies were made. 
These nests were typical in form and site; one con- 
tained five and the other four*® eggs, from which 
the birds had apparently departed as we pushed our 
boat toward them. 
Less than twenty minutes later we again passed 
these nests and found, to our surprise, that in one 
all four, and in the other two eggs had been punc- 
tured, as if by an awl. Here was a mystery which 
my companion, who was examining the second nest 
while I was studying the first, quickly solved by 
seeing a Long-billed Marsh Wren actually make an 
attack on the remaining three eggs, and a little 
later a bird of the same species—perhaps the same 
individual, since the Bitterns’ nests were not more 
than twenty yards apart—visited the first nest 
to complete its work on the five already ruined 
eggs. 
Our attempt to photograph the energetic little 
marauder failed, nor did we succeed in learning the 
real cause of its remarkable destructiveness. How- 
ever, the fact that in one nest alone it drove its 
needlelike bill into all five eggs without pausing to 
feast on their contents, would imply that it was not 
prompted by hunger, and, much against our will, we 
were forced to attribute the bird’s actions to pure 
viciousness; though, it is true, there may have been 
another side to the story, in which the Bittern was 
the culprit. 
The owners of the four eggs did not return while 
