332 BRITISH BIRDS. 



arises from lack of opportunity for an intimate study of 

 the bird in its breeding haunts, or from confusing the 

 sound with the bellowing of a bull. Certain it is that the 

 bird booms in the daytime almost as much as after dusk. 

 Observations, extending over many years, both in Holland 

 and Hungary, sometimes taken throughout the entire 

 night, show that the note is heard both in daylight and at 

 dusk. Full sunshine does not check the bird's call, which 

 in April and May is often repeated in twilight, but in 

 early June is more seldom heard at nightfall than during- 

 the day. In the hoiu-s of absolute darkness one hears it 

 very little. 



On one occasion, at 6.30 p.m., we were fortunate enough 

 to flush a Bittern, apparently near the nest, for it flew 

 circling round above us for twenty minutes, uttering now 

 and then a single note " Kauw," which was answered by 

 the boom of its mate (presumablj^ the cock bird) from the 

 reed-beds, he having previously been silent and becoming- 

 so again when we left the place and the female ceased to 

 cry. 



The mystery attaching to this bird, so seldom seen but 

 so often heard, always made its nest a special object of 

 search, but it was not till after years of hard work and 

 watching, until in fact we went to live amongst the Dutch 

 marshmen, spent long days with them, talking their 

 language and questioning them about the ways of the 

 marsh birds, that we came to understand and find out its 

 secrets. The marshmen say that each pair of birds keeps 

 to its own ground, and that the cock bird sits booming to 

 his mate as she is engaged in nesting duties somewhere in 

 the neighbourhood. Obviously, therefore, the best guide 

 to tlie locality of the nest is the note of the bird. 



One day, as my friend and I were wading in the marsh 

 at some distance apart, he shouted to me, and on looking- 

 up I saw a large greyish-brown bird flying slowly from the 

 place where he stood ; its neck, which wa s stretched out 

 straight, appearing disproportionately large compared to 

 the body. The ground was intersected by numerous 



