on more about Bitterns and Spoonbills.



7



or three years ago. On perceiving itself watched by three people,

it rose considerably, but soon dropped again to its original level,

some fifteen feet above the reeds, among which we eventually saw it

settle. I should have liked at once to have searched for the nest,

but the owner was obdurate, fearing that the birds might forsake it,

a feeling with which one could not but sympathise. The return of

the Bittern to Norfolk of late years has been accompanied by a

general desire to protect it on the part of the Broad owners, and it

is hoped that this good action will have the support of the public

who use our Broads in summer. The “ boom ” of a Bittern is a

curious sound, not often to be heard ; it is hushed in the middle of

the day, but towards evening this nocturnal “ Butter-bump,” as it

has been called in allusion to its note, becomes more lively. By

listening carefully, we could easily distinguish five successive “gasps,”

rising in crescendo , and terminating in the deep “ bump,” whence its

name, but sometimes there were only three “ gasps,” which agrees

with the statement of Francis Willughby that the number is always

uneven.* Whether it goes on serenading its mate all night is hard

to say ; on the present occasion I can testify that its “ boom ” could

be heard up to 11 p.m. and again at 4 a.m. the next morning— i.e.

sixteen minutes after sunrise—breaking forth about once in four

minutes, and this went on with clock-like regularity until past six

o’clock. I believe it is not yet settled whether the female Bittern

can boom or not, but at any rate she does not do it nearly as loudly

nor as often as the male. Mr. W. P. Pycraft, in a recent article (‘ The

British Bird Book,’ iv, p. 338), leaves the question open, merely

remarking that the syrinx, which is usually considered to be the

voice organ in birds, presents no modification. An old eighteenth

century naturalist, Dr. Lamb, however, mentions having found in

repeated dissections a loose membrane on the inner side of the

windpipe in the male, wdiich the female does not possess (‘ Zoologist,’

1880, p. 318). It is through the nostrils, which are distinctly larger

than a Heron’s, that the sound is believed to come.



Boatus numero impari vel tres simul, vel quinque edit, ut aiuot ” (‘Ornitho-

logicse Libri Tres,’ p. 208).



