“
Now reading
Audubon Examines a Bittern
A lady brought me a Least Bittern wrapped in her skirt. She woke this morning to find it perched on her bedpost. It stuck its beak up in the air and tried to pretend it was a reed, a trick that works well on the marsh but not so well in a lady's bedroom. "Td only left my window open a crack," she said, "but there it was." It didn't struggle much, scream, or foul the cloth. (They usually do.) It posed, beak up, and didn't budge for ninety minutes while I sketched it. Then, an experiment of sorts: I set up books two inches apart and jabbed the bird with a pencil. Between my Gray's Anatomy and a large red book about Brazil, it strolled like a lord on his way to town. I moved them closer-an inch apart. The bird was wonderful! It marched right through! When I killed it, I found its breast two and a quarter inches wide. Bedamned if I know what to make of that.