64 THE RIVER-SIDE NATURALIST. 



Goldsmith (" Animated Nature ") says : " I remember, in 

 the place where I was a boy, with what terror the bird's 

 note affected the whole village ; they considered it the 

 presage of some sad event, and generally found one, or 

 made one to succeed it. ... If any person in the neigh- 

 bourhood died, they supposed it could not be otherwise for 

 the night-raven had foretold it." (Willoughby considers 

 the bittern and the night-raven the same bird). Another 

 writes : " Those who have walked on an evening by the 

 sedgy sides of unfrequented rivers must remember a variety 

 of notes from the different water-fowl the loud scream of 

 the wild goose, the croaking of the mallard, the whining 



HEAD OF BITTERN. 



of the lapwing, and the tremulous neighing of the jack- 

 snipe ; but of all those sounds there is none so dismally 

 hollow as the booming of the bittern. It is impossible for 

 words to give to those who have not heard this evening- 

 call an adequate idea of its solemnity ; it is like the in- 

 terrupted bellowing of a bull, but hollower and louder, 

 and is heard at a mile distance as if issuing from some 

 formidable being that resided at the bottom of the 

 water." 



This booming was formerly supposed to be produced by 

 the bird putting his bill into the mud and then blowing 

 through it ; hence the provincial name, " Mire-Drum." 



Chaucer writes (" Wife of Bath ") : 



" And as a Bittore bumbleth in the mud." 



