4.
158
1897.
June 22.
Concord, Mass.
with our glasses and then approached nearer. He took no no -
tice of us and soon we were stooping over him. Then he began
to move away, but his actions were slow. He was evidently
trying to find a hole or cover of some sort. We even put our
fingers on his soft dark fur, and I pressed a stick on him to
keep him still while we examined his star nose and short stout
feet. He struggled a little at first, uttering a cry that
consisted of a succession of squeaks, but he became perfectly
quiet in a few seconds. When I let him go he scrambled off
trying to escape. At last he got under two or three dead
leaves, and we left him in his fancied security.
  We rowed back to the boathouse in just an hour, and two
or three times heard the "pumping" of a Bittern on the Great
Meadows. The Bank, Eave, Barn, and White - bellied Swallows
were skimming over the water, and Green Herons flew over our
heads. We took the 6 o'clock train at the Lowell Depot for
home, and got back by 7 o'clock, after a most delightful day.
[margin]Botaurus
lentiginosus[/margin]
Walter Deane.