234 BIRDS 



light next to an excellent feeding ground. At low tide he 

 walks about sedately on the muddy flats treading out a 

 dinner. Kingfishers rattle up and down the creek, cack- 

 ling rails hide in the sedges behind it, red-winged black- 

 birds flute above the phalanxes of rushes on its banks: 

 but the bittern makes more noise, especially toward even- 

 ing during the nesting season, than all the other inhabi- 

 tants of the swampy meadows except the frogs, whose 

 voices he forever silences when he can. Frogs, legs and aU, 

 are his favorite delicacy. 



