34 
THE BIRDS OF WISCONSIN. 
birds as they are flushed from the grass and along the shores 
of lakes has gradually reduced their numbers until they are not 
nearly as numerous as formerly. We have reared the young 
from the nest and kept them through the winter, and we only 
regret that Elliott Coues did not have our experience with 
them to add to his incomparable article on the life history of the 
species in his ''Birds of the Northwest." 
Ardetta exilis (Gmcl.J. LEAST BITTERN. 
Very abundant summer resident on all reedy swamps and 
lakes. This delicate little bittern, apparently so weak that it is 
a wonder it holds its own as it seems to do, does not remain 
after severe frosts in the autumn. A common breeding species, 
depositing its five to seven eggs (not three or four as often 
stated) on its frail nest among the tall rushes. A summer 
resident even to the shores of Lake Superior, but much more 
common in the southern counties. 
Ardetta neoveiia Cory. CORY'S LEAST BITTERN. 
In June, 1845, Thure Kumlien found some Indian children 
playing with a small headless heron, using it as a target for 
dow and arrow practice. This was at an Indian encampment 
on Black Hawk Island, Lake Koshkonong. The bird w r as 
new to him and he secured it and later sent a color sketch to 
Dr. T. M. Brewer. Brewer pronounced it probably some 
southern species or a different plumage of the least bittern. 
A copy, or in fact the original sketch, is still in our possession, 
and it plainly shows the specimen to have been a typical 
Ardetta neo.rcna. No others were found and the matter was 
lost sight of by both Dr. Brewer and Kumlien. Neither was 
the bird ever found by L. Kumlien during many years of care- 
ful marsh collecting in the same locality. Its claim to a place 
in the present list, therefore, rests principally on the capture 
of a full plumaged male by Mr. C. E. Akeley on Lake Kosh- 
konong, May 22, 189*>, and preserved in the Field Columbian 
Museum, Chicago (1). 
Ardea lierodias JAnn. GREAT ULIE HERON. 
Rather common spring migrant. Nests in communities in 
different sections of the state, less frequently of late years than 
formerly, however. Breeding rookeries are found usually in 
large tamarack swamps, but at times in second-growth oak. 
Breeds from the southern tier of counties northward. The 
largest rookery we have ever visited was a short distance west 
1. Cherrie, Auk, XIII, p. 79. 
