396 GREEN HERON. 



occasions as worthless and contemptible. Yet few birds are 

 more independent of man than this ; for it fares best, and is 

 always most numerous, where cultivation is least known or 

 attended to, its favourite residence being the watery solitudes 

 of swamps, pools, and morasses, where millions of frogs and 

 lizards " tune their nocturnal notes " in full chorus, undisturbed 

 by the lords of creation. 



The green bittern makes its first appearance in Penn- 

 sylvania early in April, soon after the marshes are completely 

 thawed. There, among the stagnant ditches with which they 

 are intersected, and amidst the bogs and quagmires, he hunts 

 with great cunning and dexterity. Frogs and small fish are 

 his principal game, whose caution and facility of escape re- 

 quire nice address and rapidity of attack. When on the look- 

 out for small fish, he stands in the water, by the side of the 

 ditch, silent and motionless as a statue, his neck drawn in 

 over his breast, ready for action. The instant a fry or minnow 

 comes within the range of his bill, by a stroke, quick and sure 

 as that of the rattlesnake, he seizes his prey, and swallows it 

 in an instant. He searches for small crabs, and for the various 

 worms and larva?, particularly those of the dragon-fly, which 

 lurk in the mud, with equal adroitness. But the capturing of 

 frogs requires much nicer management. These wary reptiles 

 shrink into the mire on the least alarm, and do not raise up 

 their heads again to the surface without the most cautious cir- 

 cumspection. The bittern, fixing his penetrating eye on the 

 spot where they disappeared, approaches with slow stealing 

 step, laying his feet so gently and silently on the ground as 

 not to be heard or felt ; and when arrived within reach, stands 

 fixed, and bending forwards, until the first glimpse of the 

 frog's head makes its appearance, when, with a stroke instan- 

 taneous as lightning, he seizes it in his bill, beats it to death, 

 and feasts on it at his leisure. 



This mode of life, requiring little fatigue where game is so 

 plenty as is generally the case in all our marshes, must be 

 particularly pleasing to the bird, and also very interesting, 



