LEAST BITTERN 
By T. GILBERT PEARSON 
The National Association of Audubon Societies 
Educational Leaflet No. 98 
One morning, early in May, I pushed an old flat-bottomed boat 
through the reeds growing along the shore of^ a shallow southern lake 
until reaching an open place, I dropped my baited hook among the lily- 
pads. The sun had but recently risen, and the plant-life on eveiy hand 
was glistening with dew. The morning was very still, and the squawk 
of a slow-flying Heron came dis- 
tinctly across the water from a 
distance of a quarter of a mile. 
On a nearby bush a Red-winged 
Blackbird balanced and saluted 
with song the new day. Kong- 
quer-ree, kong-qucr-ree, came his 
musical voice over and over 
again. In the woods along the 
shore Cardinals called inces- 
santly, and a Carolina Wren 
threw to the air a tempest of 
melody. A Woodpecker some- 
where was tapping on a dead 
limb, and a Fish Crow flew over 
without a sound. 
It was good to be on this 
quiet lake, where no farmhouse 
was within sight and into whose 
solitude the shriek of a locomo- 
tive whistle never entered. 
While sitting here enjoying the 
tranquil surroundings, I sud- 
denly noticed a movement 
among the tops of a clump of 
rushes, perhaps fifty feet away. 
Three or four of them appeared 
to be swaying ever so gently, 
and yet they surely were in mo- 
tion. A moment later there ap- 
peared an object just coming 
into view from below, indistinct 
and yet real. It appeared the 
same color as its surroundings — 
as though a small portion of the 
denser rush clump had quietly 
moved upward into view. And 
FEMALE LEAST BITTERN “FREEZING’^ 
UPON APPROACH OF ENEMY 
Photographed by Arthur A. Allen 
