XQ2 THE LEAST BITTERN. 



off, and watch all your movements. If you go towards them, you may some- 

 times take the female with the hand, but rarely the male, who generally flies 

 off, or makes his way through the woods. Its ordinary cry, however, is a 

 rough croak, resembling that of the Great Blue Heron, but much weaker. 



The flight of this bird is apparently weak by day, for then it seldom re- 

 moves to a greater distance than a hundred yards at a time, and this, too, 

 only when frightened in a moderate degree, for, if much alarmed, it falls 

 again among the grass, in the manner of the Rail; butj in the dusk of the 

 evening and morning, I have seen it passing steadily along, at the height of 

 fifty yards or more, with the neck retracted, and the legs stretched out be- 

 hind, in the manner of the larger Herons. On such occasions it uttered, at 

 short intervals, its peculiar cry, and continued its flight until out of sight. 

 Several individuals were together, and I imagined them to be proceeding in 

 search of breeding-grounds, or on a migratory expedition. When disturbed 

 by day, they fly with extended neck and dangling legs, and are easily shot, 

 as their course is generally direct and their flight slow. When walking, it 

 shoots its head forward at every step, as if about to thrust its bill into some 

 substance; and, if you attempt to lay hold of it when disabled, it is apt to 

 inflict a painful wound. 



The food of this bird consists of snails, slugs, tadpoles, or young frogs and 

 water-lizards. In several instances, however, I have found small shrews and 

 field-mice in their stomach. Although more nocturnal than diurnal, it moves 

 a good deal about by day in search of food. About noon, being doubtless 

 much fatigued, they are not unfrequently observed standing erect on one 

 foot, and so soundly asleep as to be easily knocked down or even caught by 

 the hand, if cautiously approached. This very remarkable habit of both our 

 species of Bittern has brought upon them the charge of extreme stupidity, 

 whence the name of Butor given to them by the Creoles of Louisiana. 

 Whether or not this term be appropriate to the case, I leave for you to de- 

 termine; but, my opinion is, that the animal truly deserving to be called 

 stupid, yet remains to be discovered, and that the quality designated by that 

 epithet occurs nowhere else than among the individuals of that species which 

 so thoughtlessly applies the opprobrium. 



At Cayo Island, Oppelousas, 13th April, 1837, Mr. Harris saw a flock 

 of about twenty individuals of this species arriving from the westward, be- 

 fore a heavy gale from that quarter, all of which plunged, as it were, into 

 the marsh, and hid themselves so closely, from fatigue or otherwise, that 

 neither he nor the dog could raise one of them. We have now observed 

 several species of Herons arriving in the same manner from the westward, 

 and it seems that their stay in their roosting places continues only for a 

 night, as on going to the same spot on the next day, none have been found. 



