bittern 
dealing -1th 
s nail 
Horned Pout 
morsel. Then she would resume her slow, measured stalk 
around the edge of the lagoon. At length a male Bittern 
appeared on sing, alighted near her and pumped twice* 
Boon after this she appeared from "behind a mass of dead 
grass and other rubbish,hearing in the tip of her bill a 
K pm- -'out about five inches in lerigth. Just how or where 
she(had)captured it we failed, unfortunately, to observe 
but we had a rare opportunity of seeing exactly how she 
finally dealt with it. After carrying it a distance of 
perhaps twenty yards over watery or very boggy ground, she 
came to a stretch Of Pm Or-/ tvrf and stepped t.v-re, V 
Placing it on the ground, she struck downward at it with 
her -bill dozens of times, not excitedly or even vigorously 
but in a curiously cool and deliberate way, making only 
one or two thrusts each minute and causing after them as 
if to tch the effeot. Probably this was done for the 
purpose of killing the Pout ' ut so f r an we could see it 
did not once show any signs of life. After a few minutes 
spent- in this way the- bittern began to lift he fish well 
above the ground and to. shake -it violently,always holding 
it by the head. e now saw that it a whitish throat v/as 
loo p; a. d somewhat lacerated, After one or two rhakes, 
■he Pit tern ■ r Xtl, a tab it again and again as it lay on 
the gr und, always, however, deliberately and-in whatseemed 
a rather nerveless, futile way. This, with .-.any brief 
periods of inaction on the p rt of the bird, comtinudd for 
nearly twenty minutes. All the while we, in our three 
