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Additional Notes on the Bittern. —Mr. Torrey’s notes on the ‘Booming 
of the Bittern’ interested me very much, and while in most respects my 
observations agree closely with his, I hope to be able to throw light on 
some particulars. 
For many years I had been familiar with the hiccoughing noise which 
precedes the booming notes, and had often tried to find out how it was pro¬ 
duced ; but although many times able to get within a few yards of Bitterns, 
the grass and bushes among which they stood always prevented my seeing 
plainly. At last fortune gave me the long-desired opportunity. One day 
while quietly paddling my canoe up a crooked stream, on turning a short 
bend in the stream, I came in sight of a Bittern caught by the toe in a 
muskrat trap. As I was approaching him he commenced pumping, and 
by taking time and working cautiously I was able to draw the stern of the 
canoe within a paddle’s length of him, where he allowed me to observe 
him as much as I chose. This was in April before the grass had begun to 
grow and he was in perfectly plain view. His motions in making the 
noise were those described in the article referred to, but the first noise 
was not made by snapping the beak. The bill was opened with every 
noise; but the sound, which resembled the retching of a seasick person, 
came from within, not from snapping the bill. The movements of the 
bird were almost exactly such as the bird might be expected to make if 
sick at the stomach and trying to vomit. When this noise was made 
there was not much distention of the throat, but when the pumping sound 
began the gullet was greatly enlarged at each noise. The idea that the 
breast is expanded, is erroneous, as the breast cannot be distended. This 
notion doubtless arises from the fact that the Bittern, like all the Heron 
family, has long plumes which overhang the breast and by the motion of 
the throat are raised with every expansion of the gullet. Between each 
fit of pumping the Bittern assumed its various well-known attitudes. How 
the different noises were produced I can no more tell than I can tell how 
a Dusky Grouse ‘booms,’ though I have seen them do it within a very few 
feet of me, and think they also open their bill with each noise. 
I can fully corroborate all Mr. Torrey says of the fearlessness of the 
Bittern in allowing cars to pass him, as I once saw one near Sacramento 
stand in the tul^s at the edge of the ditch and allow our train to pass 
within twenty feet of him. In this case the bird stood with his bill 
pointing directly upward, and doubtless trusted to his resemblance to the 
dry tule stalks for escaping observation. 
There is one point on which I should like information. How do Bitterns 
kill the frogs which they eat? Once in the spring of the year I took from 
a Bittern’s gullet, where they lay contracted into the smallest possible 
space, three large-sized frogs, all perfectly dead, and none showing any 
mark of violence either by piercing or pinching. Did the bird kill the 
frogs first, or swallow them alive ? If he killed them first, how could it be 
done without leaving some mark upon them? If, as it is often reported, 
frogs have been found in rock where they have been imbedded hundreds 
of years without air, how could they be killed by suffocation ? Besides, if 
they lived only a few moments it would seem that they must tear the bird’s 
gullet in their struggles to escape. I hope some one may be able to give 
information on this point.— Manly Hardy, Brewer , Maine. 
Auk, TL. April, 1889. p, 
