124 Bird -Lore seen my bird of the year previous, and there, seated upon the rail- road embankment, as before, I watched a Bittern pump at short inter- vals for more than an hour. Most of the time he was more or less hidden by the low grass, through which he was slowly traveling down the meadow ; but once, coming near the remains of a last year's haycock, he went a little out of his way, mounted it, and boomed in full sight. The Bittern is a wader and a recluse, but once in a while, it appears, he has no objection to a clear platform and dry feet. I felt myself highly favored. Twice within three days I had been admitted to "assist" at mysteries of which Thoreau, who spent his life in the best of Bittern country, had never obtained so much as a glimpse. Exactly a year afterward (May 4, i8go) I was strolling along a road near home, when from a meadow beside it came the now familiar pumping notes. I made toward the spot, and by the help of a clump of alder bushes approached within a very short distance of the bird, who stood in short grass, quite unconcealed. A migra- tory visitor only, he must have been, for I am certain that no Bittern ever summered in that place during my years of residence near it. I watched him at his work till I was tired. Then, bethinking myself of a friend and neighbor who knew nothing about birds, but had once expressed to me a curiosity about the 'Stake-driver,' I walked to the village, rang his doorbell, and invited him to go back with me to see the show. The showman was still rehearsing, and we stole upon him without difficulty, and saw as much as we wished of his doings. Though it was Sunday morning, and the bird was as serious as any parson, we took the liberty of laughing a little at his absurd contortions. Since then I have heard the Bittern's music on sundry occasions, but never have found it possible to come within sight of him in the act of making it. Once, I remember, I was sitting upon a road- side fence, reading, when a carriage stopped and an unrecognized feminine voice said: "Do you see that Heron behind you, Mr. Tor- rey ? " The "Heron" was Botaunts Icntigiuosiis, in a bit of low ground close by a house. I shut my book and gave him my attention, which he presently rewarded by catching and swallowing a snake. This was in autumn, when Bitterns, like lesser birds, are liable to turn up in unexpected quarters. The reader may take the incident, if he will, as a warning against the reading of print out of doors. As a general thing, we may safely say, Nature's page is better than a book. One season a friend and myself became much interested in the qiiestion as to the relative "carrying power' of the three notes or
