The blue-winged teal takes about seven-tenths vege‘able and ti ve- 
gs animal food. Sedges, pondveeds, grasses, and smarsweeas, furnish 
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vUellbvilL 
most of the vegetable food, and snails, insects, and crustaceans the bulk 
of the animal subsistence. These birds rarely cause damage to man's 
interests through their feeding habits, and they are important representa- 
tives 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 seems to be the only one of the heron tribe that 
nests in salt marshes of the Atlantic coast. An obvious reason is that it 
regularly nests on tne ground, while the others usually build in trees. A 
rude platform of matted vegetation suffices for a nest, and in this the hen 
bittern deposits usually 4 to 6 vale 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 looking quite stick- 
like. Its strange notes of the mating season have earned it some interest- 
ing names as dunk-a-doo, thunder-vump, end stake-driver. This call given 
during spring evenings, when heard distinctly, sounds like plunk-a-lunk, 
but when coming from a distance, or when indistinctly perceived, seems like 
lunk, 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 Carolinas north and winters from Massachusetts 
south, though uncommonly at the extreme of these seasonal ranges. 
Willet 
The willet is a rather large bird of its group, that of shore birds, 
which includes the snipes, sandpipers, plovers, and allies. It is 14 to 
16 inches long and has a wing spread of 24 to 29 inches. It is gray above 
and white below, very plain colors, but is recognizable on the wing, and 
with upraised wings as it alights, by a broad white band extending the 
whole length of each wing. The bird is sometimes noisy, and one of its 
common calls, an oft-repeated pil-willet, shows that it is one of the 
birds that have named themselves. The nest is a slight hollow lined with 
grass; the number of eges is 4 (the standard number for shore birds), and 
their color variable, white to olive, spotted with brown to purplish. The 
willet breeds from New Jersey, and winters from South Carolina, southward. 
Its food is reported to be insects, mollusks, and crustaceans, and small 
fishes, together with a slight admixture of vegetable material. 
Marsh Hawk 
The marsh hawx is easily recognized, being the only member of its 
group Likely to be seen in Atlantic-coast salt marshes that has the rump 
white, This character has given e related European species the name of 
ring-tailed hawk. The marsh hawk appears to fly somewhat lazily about, 
usually not far above the cover it is beating, and into which it drops at 
any chance of catching prey. It msy be seen in all Atlantic-coast salt 
marshes at all seasons. It feeds in about equal proportions on mice and 
