94 BIRD LIFE ON ISLAND AND SHORE 
Only in the second place perhaps has the attitude 
been utilised to mislead and beguile. This belief 
is based on an incident once witnessed by me at 
Tutira, where half a dozen hens and a rooster had 
been caught in the open by a sudden sharp sunlit 
downpour of warm rain. In their tepid tropical 
shower-bath, before my astonished gaze they 
stretched themselves into what seemed twice 
their natural length, the rooster specially trans- 
mogrifying himself into one long line from beak 
to tail, a line exactly adjusted to the slant of the 
almost vertical downpour. Other species, then, 
when so minded, can assume the Bittern pose. 
In that bird only has it become habitual when 
immobility is desired. Devised originally to deflect 
the rains of the open marsh, of the unsheltered 
fen, the posture has at length become used on any 
occasion requiring statue-like stillness. 
About estuaries, swamps, and marsh lands the 
booming of the Bittern may be listened for in 
early October. Breaking through the roaring 
frog chorus may be heard the occasional “ sphit- 
tock” of the Shoveller Duck, the long cheep of 
the Banded Rail, the rapid purr of its smaller 
relative the Swamp Rail, the petulant cry of the 
wakeful Pukeko, the wing vibration of flighting 
Grey Duck, but most remarkable of all the deep 
sibilant drum of the Bittern, its fainter inhalation, 
and then again the resonant musical boom. 
