414 ARDEID.E. 



whether any of our modern English poets, with the ex- 

 ceptfon, perhaps, of Sir Walter Scott, ever heard what they 

 describe so circumstantially. 



Macgillivray, who was as well acquainted as most orni- 

 thologists with birds haunting moors and swamps, admits 

 that he never heard one, and thinks that a brother 

 naturalist, who describes what, no doubt, he heard, mis- 

 took for the booming of the 13ittern the drumming of a 

 Snipe. 



In Sir Thomas Brown's time, it was common in l!^orfolk, 

 and was esteemed a better dish than the Heron. 



Willughby, who wrote about the same time, 1670, 

 says : — " The Bittern, or Mire-drum, it is said, makes 

 either three or five boomings at a time — always an uneven 

 number. It begins to bellow early in February, and con- 

 tinues during tiie breeding season. The common people 

 believe that it thrusts its beak into a reed, and by the 

 help of this makes its booming. Others maintain that it 

 imitates the lowing of an ox by thrusting its beak into 

 water, mud, or earth. They conceal themselves among 

 rushes and reeds, and not unfrequently in hedges, with 

 the head and neck erect. In autumn, after sunset, they 

 are in the habit of rising into the air with a spiral ascent, 

 so high that they are lost sight of. Meanwhile they utter 

 a singular note, but not at all resembling the characteristic 

 'booming.' Without doubt, this is the bird popularly 

 known by the name The Night Raven.'^ 



It is called Botaurus, because it imitates hoatiim tauriy 

 the bellowing of a bull. Of "Botaurus," the names 

 " Bitour " and Bittern are evident corruptions ; and the 

 following names, in different languages, are all descriptive 

 of the same peculiar note : Butor, Eordump, Myre- 

 dromble, Trombone, Rohrtrummel, Rohrdommel, and Ror- 

 drum. 



Of late years, so unusual has the occurrence become of 

 Bitterns breeding in this country, that the discovery of an 



