CONCORD 
1910 
April 21 
Whit e 
nuptial 
plumes of 
the Bittern 
Spent almost entire day watching Bitterns. There 
were two males pumping in Great Meadow, sometimes within 50 
yards of one another, sometimes 200 to 300 yards apart. 
Whenever they approached one another within 100 yards, they 
acted like the two seen on the 17th and 18th, crawling 
about over the meadow and showing the white ruffs more or 
less conspicuously. One appeared to have small yellowish 
ruffs, the other large pure white ones. When the latter 
bird was facing away from me, the ruffs looked exactly like 
a pair of white wings shaped much like those of a Domestic 
Pigeon but smaller (perhaps two-thirds as large). They seemed 
to lie nearly flat on the back, with the tips pointing 
straight backward, thus: 
But whenever the Bittern turned his side toward me, 
the ruffs seemed to stand almost straight up on each side 
of the neck, just above the shoulders, thus: 
When he faced me, the effect was like this: — 
When in the last mentioned position, the ruffs made much 
less show than those seen on the 18th, which were more like 
this: 
