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Common summer resident in all extensive marshes; apparently rather common on Mouse River, at the boundary, in September (Coues). Dufferin: Arrives between April 25 and 30 (Dawson). Morris: Often seen April 29, 1887 (Christy). Winnepeg: Summer resident; abundant (Hine). A specimen in Smithsonian Institution, from Nelson river (Blakiston). Ossowa: Breeds (Wagner). Oak Point: 1884, arrived May 15 (Small). Portage la Prairie: Common summer resident; first seen May 17, 1884; May 22, 1885; April 19, 1886; last seen October 16, 1884 (Nash). Abundant in all marshes throughout the country; shot June 11, 1881 (Macoun). South slope of Riding Mountain, on Little Saskatchewan, August 28, 1858; in the marshes, herons, cranes, and bitterns were distributed in groups (Hind). Carberry: Common; southern slope of Riding Mountain, abundant; Portage la Prairie; Sewell; Fort Ellice; Rat Portage, 1886 (Thompson). Shell river 1885, first seen, one on May 4, afterwards seen every day; is common all summer and breeds here (Calcutt). Qu’Appelle: Common summer resident; breeds; arrives May 21 (Guernsey). Severn House (Murray).

On May 23, 1884, at Sewell Plain, heard a bittern pumping in the slough after dark; the sound has been very aptly likened to the syllables “pump-o-ga;” the first two notes are like the stroke of a pump, the last is exactly like the swish and gurgle of water in a deep pipe. This sound is not at all ventriloquial, as is that of the European Bittern according to many accounts, and I had no difficulty in following and flushing the bird, but it was too dark to shoot, as I could only see the dim form against the sky when it rose after flying, apparently 50 yards, and presently he was heard again working his pump in the distance.

On June 2, on the south slope of the Riding Mountain, I was led to a bittern, after sundown, by its pumping; I watched it catching insects until dark, and then shot it, and found in its stomach a most miscellaneous collection of insects, etc. Same day, near the Fingerboard, I traced a bittern by his note in the evening, and shot him; ♂ adult; stomach contained crawfish, insects, a garter-snake, a mouse, and a menobranchus.

June 3, at Rapid City Trail, south slope of Riding Mountain. The bittern is one of the commonest of the large birds that are to be found in this region. Its long brown form on flagging wing, with beak pointed one way and legs another, is to be seen flying over nearly every extensive slough of this region. Suddenly, in the midst of his flight, he may be seen to dangle his legs, “reverse action” his wings, and drop into the marsh. There, for a moment, he stands, not deigning to notice the blackbirds that are trying to terrify him into a retreat, his long neck straight up at full length. Then, having satisfied himself that all is right, he touches a hidden spring, and instantly the preposterous neck is tucked away somewhere in a surprising way, and so effectually that the head looks as though stuck on the shoulders without any intervening structure at all.

In taking its prey the bird either waits until the rash victim comes within reach of its spear-like bill or goes stalking about after it among the rushes. Its food is of such a varied character that one only has to collect the stomachs of about a score of bitterns to have an extensive natural history museum. The specimen taken yesterday contained, as already stated, a garter-snake, a mouse, an amblystoma or water lizard, sundry crawfish, and an innumerable company of various insects; and to this list may safely be added every kind of small animalism that may be secured about the marshy home of the bird. Misled by sundry printed statements, I once cooked an individual of this species, but will not be so misled any more. It is sufficient to say that it tasted of all the creatures it feeds on.

I have somewhere read that this bird is strictly diurnal. This I have long doubted. Indeed, I begin to doubt that any bird is strictly anything. When we find a hawk gorging itself with choke cherries, a night-owl hunting by sunlight, and sandpipers that never pipe or go near sand, one is prepared to give up, on behalf of the birds, all rules of life and conduct, and expect the strictly “diurnal” bittern to be up and stirring during the hours of darkness and gloom, as, indeed, the foregoing notes lead me to suspect he does.

Contrary to the usually expressed opinion, this bird is strictly diurnal in its habits; quitting its resting places in the reedy bogs early in the morning, feeding out along the margins of ponds, streams, etc., during the day, and returning to its close cover at night. When alarmed, the bittern, instead of rising, frequently erects its head and neck and depresses its tail between its legs, until the whole body is almost vertical, and so stands perfectly still until the danger is past; when in this position it so closely resembles a dead branch that it requires a practiced eye to detect it. Bitterns are most frequently heard to boom or pump in the spring, but I have also heard them all through the summer; the latest date being in August. (Nash.)