


BITTERNS. 178 
stances, such as the inundation of their marshes. Certain it 
is that I have never found them so associated. “Le butor,” 
says M. Holandre, “est trés sauvage, farouche, solitaire.” 
One tiger's den to a jungle, one eyry to a mountain, and one 
pair of bitterns to a bog seems to be the rule. 
In the place where I have found them, there is retired 
feeding ground for a thousand, dense cedar swamps exten- 
sive enough for as many nests if they only chose to congre- 
gate, like their social cousins, the herons; and yet two by 
two they live, their next neighbors nobody knows how far 
away,—not in the same swamp at any rate; and on the 
ground, the bare ground, they lay their four or five eggs, 
among low laurel, tufts of grass, or, as in the case of the 
first nest I ever found, at the foot of a swamp huckleberry 
(from which the four callow young, unable yet to stand, 
tried to drive me away by repeated tumbling charges, mena- 
cing me by clumping their soft mandibles, and by sending 
angry hisses from their wide-yawning, yellow throats). 
I have been surprised to find the general uncertainty 
which pervades ornithological works, upon the subject of 
the color of the bittern’s eggs. These really are of a dark 
` drab color in the case of our own bird as well as of the 
European; in fact I could find no distinguishing marks 
between these two species when examining a large number 
of both, which I was enabled to do by the kindness of Mr. 
Samuels. I have not been able to find any variation in the 
color of those of our species, though I have inspected eggs 
from all parts of the Union. Hear now what a few of the 
authorities say: Audubon declares that he never found the 
ittern’s nest, nor, apparently, did he ever see its eges, for 
he says nothing of them. Nuttall writes, "the bittern is said 
to lay cinereous green eggs.” Wilson, “they breed at Hud- 
 Son's Bay in swamps, and lay four cinereous green eggs, 
we are informed." Richardson, "they lay, according to 
Mr. Hutchins, four eges of a cinereous green color." La- 
tham, "breeds at Hudson's Bay, and lays four cinereous 
