BIRDS OF THE SALT MARSHES 



long neck in the endeavor to reach its tor- 

 mentor. 



John Shaw wrote in 1635 " that the heron 

 or hernsaw is a large fowle that liveth about 

 waters," and that " hath a marvellous hatred 

 to the hawk, which hatred is duly returned. 

 When they fight above in the air, they labour 

 both especially for this one thing — that one 

 may ascend and be above the other. Now, if 

 the hawk getteth the upper place, he over- 

 throweth and vanquisheth the heron with a 

 marvellous earnest flight." 



In the spring and early summer one of the 

 most characteristic sounds of the marsh is the 

 booming or pumping of the bittern, a sound 

 that always recalls to me many pleasant mem- 

 ories of a camp in the fresh water marshes of 

 the Ipswich River, where bitterns are more 

 abundant. The curious sound, which seems 

 to come from nowhere in particular, is in 

 reality the love song of the bittern, and it so 

 exactly resembles the working of an old pump 

 that one expects to hear the grateful sound of 

 gushing water. The unk-a-chunk is repeated 

 from three to eight times. At a considerable 

 distance the last syllable only is audible, and 

 this chunk so closely resembles the driving of 



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