41 4 ARDEID^. 



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

 ception, 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 Bittern the drumming of a 

 Snipe. 



In Sir Thomas Brown's time, it was common in jS'orfolk. 

 and was esteemed a better dish than the Heron. 



Willughby, who wrote about the same time, 1G76, 

 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 the breeding season. The common peo})le 

 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 

 rashes 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^t all resembling the characteristic 

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

 known by the name Tlie Night RavenP 



It is called Botaurus, because it imitates hoatum tauri, 

 the bellowing of a bulk 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 Eor- 

 drum. 



Of late years, so unusual has the occurrence become of 

 Bitterns breeding in this country, that the discovery of an 



