50 
ARDEA VIRESCENS. 
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 instan- 
taneous as lightning, 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 particularly pleasing to the bird, and also very 
interesting, from the continual exercise of cunning and 
ingenuity necessary to circumvent its prey. Some of 
the naturalists of Europe, however, in their superior 
wfisdom, think very differently ; and one can scarcely 
refrain 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 
guttural scream ; does not fly far, but usually alights 
on some old stump, tree, or fence adjoining, and looks 
about with extended neck ; though, 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 
numerous and generally dispersed, being found far in 
the interior, as well as along our salt marshes ; and 
every where about the muddy shores of our mill ponds, 
creeks, and large rivers. 
* Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux, tome xxii, p. 843. 
