Concord, Mass.
1910.
April 18
(No 11)
[April 18, 1910]

Bitterns

must have had plumes more than double
the size of these in my skins and pure,
not yellowish, white. When I gave an
account of the matter at a meeting of 
the Nuttall Club this evening one of the
members (Mr. Freeman) suggested that the
Bittern may increase the effectiveness of
the display of those feathers by inflating 
the skin to which they are attached and
thus causing them to stand out much
further than they otherwise would. Even
if this be so I doubt its feathers no larger
or more numerous than those possessed by
my specimens could be expanded into the
broad, full, snowy ruffs shown by the
Bitterns seen yesterday & to-day at Concord.