WILDLIFE OF THE ATLANTIC COAST SALT MARSHES 



The blue-winged teal takes about seven-tenths vegetable and three- 

 tenths animal food. Sedges, pondweeds, grasses, and smartweeds 

 furnish most of the vegetable food, and snails, insects, and crusta- 

 ceans the bulk of the animal. These birds rarely cause damage to 

 man's interests through their feeding habits, and they are important 

 representatives of the wild-fowl group that almost as a whole has 

 been so reduced in numbers in recent years as to demand the most 

 careful protection. 



BITTERN 



The common bittern (Botaurus lentiginosus) seems to be the only 

 one of the heron tribe that nests in the Atlantic coast salt marshes. 

 An obvious reason is that it regularly nests on the ground, while 

 the others usually build in trees. A rude platform of matted vegeta- 

 tion suffices for a nest, into which are deposited usually four to six pale- 

 brownish eggs. The 

 bittern is light brown 

 above and streaked 

 with that color and 

 white below. It has a 

 habit of "freezing" in 

 an erect position when 

 surprised, thus look- 

 ing quite sticklike. Its 

 strange notes in the 

 mating season have 

 earned it some inter- 

 esting names, as dunk- 

 a-doo, thunder-pump, 

 and s t a k e-d river. 

 During spring eve- 

 nings, when heard 

 distinctly, this call 

 sounds like plunk-a- 

 lunlc, but when com- 

 ing from a distance, or 

 when indistinctly per- 

 ceived, seems like 



Junk, lunk, suggesting the name "stake-driver." The bittern does not 

 depend on fishes for food to so great an extent as commonly supposed 

 but takes considerable numbers of crawfishes and other crustaceans, 

 and even a good many mice. It breeds from the Carolmas north and 

 winters from Massachusetts south, though uncommonly at the extremes 

 of these seasonal ranges. 



WILLET 



Of the group of shore birds that includes the snipes, sandpipers, 

 plovers, and their allies, relatively few nest in the salt marshes, and 

 of those, only one, the willet (Oatoptrophorus semipalmatus) (fig. 

 2), is conspicuous enough to attract much attention. It is above 

 average size for a shore bird, being 14 to 16 inches long and having 

 a wing spread of 24 to 29 inches. Though of plain colors, gray 

 above and white below, the bird is recognizable on the wing and 

 as it alights with upraised wings, by a broad white band extending 



111331°— 39 2 



■■33: 



Figuke 2.— Willet. 



