by day as well as by night, while each twenty-four hours
found it some 300 miles further on its way across. It could
probably exist without food for far longer than such a passage
would require.
This species is stated by Messrs. Baird, Brewer, and
Ridgway, to have a distribution almost co-extensive with
the Northern Continent itself. Richardson says, “ It is a
common bird in the marshes and willow thickets of the
interior of the Fur-countries up to the 58th parallel. Its
loud booming, exactly resembling that of the Common
Bittern of Europe, may be heard every summer evening,
and also frequently in the day. When disturbed it utters a
hollow, croaking cry.” The term mokoho, applied to this
species by Vieillot, Wagler, and others, has reference, prob-
ably, to the name by which this bird is known among the
Cree Indians. The specimen from which Edwards drew
the representation given in his Gleanings, plate 136, came
from Hudson’s Bay. Mr. Bernard Ross states that its range
on the Mackenzie River extends even to the Arctic Ocean,
but the bird is probably rare so far north. It breeds, as a
rule, wherever it is found, from the Fur-countries, Labrador,
and Newfoundland, to Texas. It has various names in
different States; such as Indian Pullet, Indian Hen, and
Dunkadoo,—a word, says Wilson, probably imitative of its
common note. It is an autumnal visitor to the Bermudas,
in varying, but sometimes considerable, numbers; it has
occurred in Cuba, Jamaica, and probably some other West
Indian islands ; and Mr. Salvin obtained it in Guatemala.
Westwards, it is found in Vancouver’s Island.
The nest of the American Bittern is a slight structure of
reeds and grass when situated on dry ground, but in places
where there is a liability to inundations it is sometimes considerably
elevated. The eggs, usually four in number, but
sometimes, according to Capt. Bendire, from five to seven,
are equally obtuse at either end, and of a uniform brownish-
drab colour: average measurements 1-9 by 1-45 in.
The usual food of this species consists of frogs, lizards,
and small mammals ; but as an instance of its omnivorous
habits, Mr. Hurdis, of Bermuda, mentions that the stomach
of one contained an eel six inches long, a mouse, a dragonfly,
a grasshopper, and a portion of a small golden carp.
Wilson says that the bird, when fat, is considered by many
to be excellent eating; and in the markets of New Orleans,
Audubon tells us, it is bought in autumn by the poorer
classes to make gombo soup; but Dr. Elliott Coues says that
as an article of food the Bittern is not a success, although
he has seen it brought to table several times under favourable
culinary circumstances.
The note of the male in the early part of the breeding-
season is a deep choking croak, resembling the syllables
pomp-au-gor, or like the noise made by driving a stake in
boggy soil ; whence its common name of “ Stake-” or
“ Post-driver.” Mr. Samuel likens it to cliunk-a-lunk
chunk, quank chunk-a-lunk-chunk; and says that he has
often, when in the forests of Northern Maine, been deceived
by this note into believing that some woodsman or settler
was in the neighbourhood, and discovered the mistake only
after toiling through swamp and morass for perhaps half a
mile. Dr. Coues says that “ besides this peculiar call-note,
the bird has another, its ordinary cry, when its breast is not
in the least swelling with the tender passion. This is a
single, abrupt, explosive syllable, something like quark or
hank, delivered with a rough, guttural intonation. It is
always uttered when the bird is surprised while feeding, or
when its haunts are invaded. As it lives so much among
reeds and rushes, very often the first intimation one has of
its presence is the energetic utterance of this note, to be
followed in an instant by the heavy form of the bird itself,
as it tops the tall reeds. Ordinarily, however, the Bittern
is decidedly a silent bird.”
In the adult the beak is lemon-yellow; the upper mandible
dark brown along the upper ridge, and at the point:
the lore greenish-yellow ; the irides yellow; crown of the
head brown, tinged with red ; from the forehead, before,
over, and behind the eye, a streak of light yellow-brown ;
occiput and nape brown ; all the back of the neck below the
VOL. IV. F F