354 



INTEODIJCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 



Fig. 278.— BiTTEKJf. 



resque effect of the scene. Nor less striking is its appearance 

 on -the wing, the long outstretched legs acting as a counter- 

 poise to the head and neck. It is a singular spectacle to 

 behold these birds collecting in spring at their building sta- 

 tions, occupying, like Eooks, the upper branches of high trees, 



and beginning once again the 

 important business of incuba- 

 tion. They do not invariably 

 choose such situations, but oc- 

 casionally select precipitous 

 rocks near the coast, as at the 

 Great Orme's Head. On the 

 Scotch coast, near Cromarty, 

 Mr. St. John describes a he- 

 ronry at which some of the 

 nests were built in clusters of 

 ivy, and others on the bare 

 shelves of the rocks.* It seems 

 strange, when possessed of 

 ample power to range and 

 choose at pleasure, that the 

 same bird shoiild select situations so very dissimilar. 



The Common Bittern (Botaurus stellaris, Fig. 278) is no 

 longer a common bird, and is every year, as waste lands are 

 reclaimed, becoming more rare. During the breeding season 

 it utters a loud booming or bellowing noise,t to which some 

 of our poets have alluded. 



"But the Lark's shrill fife shall come 

 At the day-break from the fallow, 

 And the Bittern sound his drum, 

 Booming from the sedgy shallow." 



Ladt of the Lakk. 



Thomson, in his notice of the bird, has embodied an erro- 

 neous but current opinion, as to the manner in which the 

 booming noise is produced : — 



" So that scarce 



The Bittern knows his time, with bill ingulph'd, 

 To shake the sounding marsh." — Spkikg. 



Living remote from human haunts, on the marsh, the bog, 



* Wild Sports of the Highlands, p. 123 

 f This bellowing may have 

 BulL 



suggested 



the term Botaurus, meaning a 



