62 LAKES AND RIVERS. 



CHAPTER IV. 



AQUATIC AND MARSH BIRDS. HERONS, PLOVERS, 



STORKS, SANDPIPERS, SNIPES, RAILS, DIVERS, 

 GREBES, GEESE, DUCKS. 



THESE birds are less abundant in Britain than for- 

 merly, for if they swim on or wade in the water, their 

 especial home in the breeding season is the marsh, 

 which decreases as civilization increases. " The 

 Bittern (A. stellaris. Linn.), in the good old times, 

 when cornfields were marshes, and market-gardens 

 yielded only the bulrush and the sedge, often uttered 

 its wild, peculiar note in the Eastern Counties ; but 

 now the bird is rare a chance visitor from Holland or 

 the north of Europe. When ' the bittern possessed 

 the land ' it was laid waste, for this bird cannot exist 

 in the midst of civilization; yet when we see it in the 

 midst of woe, and hear its wail among ruins, we con- 

 trast its cry with the sweet warblers that enliven the 

 pleasant garden. The Bittern's melancholy cry does 

 not cheer us, but it tells of the rise and fall of cities 

 and empires, and of the wail of those led into 

 slavery, and teaches us a lesson that none of the 

 song-birds can do, although their melody may carry 

 our ears captive the whole summer, for they speak 

 in simple accents of bright days, present or to 

 come." x 



1 * Book of Nature and Book of Man/ page 242. 



