98 



GREEN HERON 



ness. But the capturing of frogs requires much nicer management. 

 These wary reptiles shrink into the mire on the least alarm, and 

 do not raise up their heads again to the surface without the most 

 cautious circumspection. The Bittern, fixing his penetrating eye 

 on the spot where they disappeared, approaches with slow stealing 

 step, laying his feet so gently and silently on the ground as not 

 to be heard or felt; and when arrived within reach stands fixed, 

 and bending forwards, until the first glimpse of the frog's head 

 makes its appearance, when, with a stroke instantaneous as light- 

 ning, he seizes it in his bill, beats it to death, and feasts on it at 

 his leisure. 



This mode of life, requiring little fatigue where game is so 

 plenty, as is generally the case in all our marshes, must be parti- 

 cularly pleasing to the bird; and also very interesting, from the 

 continual exercise of cunning and ingenuity necessary to circum- 

 vent its prey. Some of the naturalists of Europe, however, in their 

 superior wisdom, think very differently; and one can scarcely re- 

 frain from smiling at the absurdity of those writers, who declare, 

 that the lives of this whole class of birds are rendered miserable 

 by toil and hunger; their very appearance, according to BufFon, 

 presenting the image of suffering anxiety and indigence.^ 



When alarmed, the Green Bittern rises with a hollow OTttu- 

 ral scream ; does not fly far, but usually alights on some old stump, 

 tree or fence adjoining, and looks about with extended neck; tho 

 sometimes this is drawn in so that his head seems to rest on his 

 breast. As he walks along the fence, or stands gazing at you with 

 outstretched neck, he has the frequent habit of jetting the tail. He 

 sometimes flies high, with doubled neck, and legs extended behind, 

 flapping the wings smartly, and travelling with great expedition. 

 He is the least shy of all our Herons; and perhaps the most nume- 

 rous and generally dispersed; being found far in the interior as 



* Hist. Nat. ties Oiseau, tome xxii, p. 3i3. 



