1893  May 18 (No 10)    
East Lexington, Mass.

Faxon and I today heard two Least Bitterns                                                                                                       
cooing in the Arlington reservoir where the
Greebes breed. Both were among cat-tails, one at the
inlet, the other on an island in the pond about 300
yards from the inlet. the latter day. When? in
first heard him he was near the southern extremity
of the island covered an area only a few yards square.
After fixing the spot from where the sound came
with all possible accuracy and most satisfactorily I
sculled the boat to it slowly and silently and
just as the bow was on the point of crashing
into the flags the Bittern, a beautiful male with
steel blue back & crown, rose from a bunch of flags
within 15 or twenty feet of us and directly ahead of
the boat.  The island was  [?] only a few yards across
and almost the only shelter it afforded was the
cluster of cat tail [?] the Bittern sprang. We
could find no other bird near except a Florida
Goll [?] which swam out of the bushes twenty
or thirty yards from where we found the Bittern
& which we had previously heard separately making
its own characteristics cries. Faxon & I were both
perfectly satisfied with the strong evidence obtained
of this occasion that the Least Bittern is  [?] 
author of the cooing. this, to-day, when [?]
were near (ie within 40 yds. of the [?]) had the
same deep, hollow , somewhat [?] quality that I noted
last year at Ball's Hill. to-day our bird usually uttered
five notes co-co-co-co-co with a slight pause after the third
and a distinct account on the fourth.
[margin]Least Bitterns[/margin]

[margin]
Previous to to-day Faxon had no knowledge of the  presence of
Least Bitterns in this pond. As he has spent many days ??? during
the past two seasons without either seeing or hearing them
it seems possible that they are recent acquisitions to the place. [/margin]