Class II. BITTERN. 



marfhy places. It is with great difficulty provoked 

 to flight, and when on wing has fo dull and flag- 

 ging a pace, as to acquire among the Greeks the 

 title of ov@" * or the lazy. It has two kinds of 

 notes ; the one croaking, when it is difturbed : 

 the other bellowing, which it commences in the 

 fpring and ends in autumn. Mr. Willughby fays, 

 that in the latter feafon it foars into the air with a 

 fpiral afcent to a great height, making at the fame 

 time a Angular noife. From the firfl obfervation, 

 we believe this to be the fpecies of heron that Virgil 

 alludes to among the birds that forbode a tempeft, 



In ficco ludunt fulicas, notafque paludes 

 Defgrit, at^ue altam fupra volat Ardea nubem f . 



For the antients mention three kinds J ; the 

 LeucGti) or white heron ; the Pellos, fuppofed to 

 be the common fort ^ and the Afierias^ or bittern ; 

 which feems to have acquired that name from this 

 circumflance of its afpiring flight, as it were at- 

 tempting, at certain feafons, the very ftars; though 

 at other times its motion was fo dull, as to merit 

 the epithet of lazy. 



Some commentators have fuppofed this to have 

 been the Taurus of Pliny -, but as he has exprefsly 

 declared that to be a fmall bird, remarkable for 



* Arift. hiji. an. 1 05 6. 



f Georg. I. 363. 



J Arijl. hijl. an. 1006. PHn. lib.. X. C 60. 



Ff4 imitating 



4*5 



