B I T 



471 



B I T 



calcspar is 3, and talcspar 4 to 4'5. The specific gravity is 

 2'8 to 3. It is sometimes colourless, but frequently presents 

 tints of pink, yellow, brown and green, derived from the 

 presence of iron and manganese. It possesses various 

 degrees of transparency, and has a somewhat pearly lustre, 

 whence it has been called pearlspar. 



BITTER SWEET. [See SOLANUM.] 



BITTERN (zoology), Botaurus (Brisson), a subgenus of 

 the family of herons, or Arde'idee. The following are the 

 characters which principally distinguish the bitterns from 

 the rest of the family : Bill strong, about as long as the 

 head, compressed, and higher than it is broad ; mandibles 

 equal in length, the upper being rather the deepest, and 

 slightly curved from the base to the point ; edges of both 

 mandibles somewhat incurved, very sharp, and finely ser- 

 rated towards the point. Legs, as compared with those of 

 others of the family, rather short. Neck also comparatively 

 short, covered on its sides and front with long loose feathers 

 which can be erected at pleasure, and on the back (of the 

 neck) with down, the long loose feathers of the side meeting 

 behind and covering the downy part in certain attitudes, as, 

 for example, when the bird pusses through the reeds and 

 rushes. 



The bitterns comprehended under Bonaparte's subgenus 

 Botaurus are widely diffused, but, being solitary birds, 

 haunting wooded swamps or reedy marshes, where they 

 generally lie hid all day, and coming forth to feed at night, 

 they are seldom seen. There are several species of Bona- 

 parte's subgenus, and of these the Night Heron, or Qua 

 Bird (Ardea Nyciir.orax, Linn., Nycticorax Kuropceus, 

 Stephens), is found both in the old and new world. Bona- 

 parte notes it in his Specchio Comparative as common in the 

 spring and autumn near Rome, and in Philadelphia during 

 the summer. It has been shot in England; and there are 

 not wanting those who assert that it has been recognised in 

 all the quarters of the globe. Le Vaillant states that he saw 

 it in Africa. It occurs in the catalogue of birds which were 

 collected on the Ganges, between Calcutta and Benares, 

 and in the Vindhyian Mountains, between the latter place and 

 Gurrah Mundela, on the Nerbudda, by Major James Frank- 

 lin, and in Colonel Sykes's catalogue of birds observed in 

 the Dukkun (Deccan). [See NYCTICORAX.] 



As an example of the subgenus, the Common Bittern, or 

 Bittour, Botaurus steltaris, Steph., Ardea stellaris, Linn., 

 Ur.ceUo lepre and Trombutto of the Italians, Rohrdommel 

 of the Germans, and Butor of the French, may be taken. 

 The provincial English names of Mire-drum, Bull of the 

 Bog, &c., will occur to many of our readers as being indi- 

 cative, in common with some of the foreign ones, of the 

 bellowing or drumming noise for which the bird is so 

 famous. This deep note of the ' hollow-sounding bittern' is 

 exerted on the ground at the breeding season, about Feb- 

 ruary or March. As the day declines he leaves his haunt, 

 and, rising spirally, soars to a great height in the twilight. 

 Willughby says that it performs this last-mentioned feat in 

 the autumn, ' making a singular kind of noise nothing like 

 to lowing.' Bewick says that it soars, as above described, 

 when it changes its haunts. Ordinarily it flies heavily, 

 like the heron, uttering from time to time a resounding cry, 

 not bellowing, and then Willughby, who well describes the 

 bellowing noise of the breeding-season, supposes it to be the 

 night-raven, at whose 'deadly voice' the superstitious way- 

 farer of the night turned pale and trembled. ' This, without 

 doubt,' writes Willughby, ' is that bird our common people 

 call the night-raven, and have such a dread of, imagining 

 its cry portends no less than their death or the death of 

 some of their near relations ; for it flies in the night, answers 

 their description of being like a flagging collar, and hath 

 uch a kind of hooping cry as they talk of.' Others, with 

 much reason, consider the Qua-bird, above-mentioned (which 



utters a loud and most disagreeable noise while on the 

 wing, conveying the idea of the agonies of a person attempt- 

 ing to vomit), to be the true night-raven. 



The food of the bittern consists, for the most part, as 

 might be suspected from its haunts, of aquatic animals. 

 Pennant says that frogs are its principal food, adding, ' not 

 that it rejects fish, for small trouts have been taken out of 

 its stomach.' In Graves's British Birds it is stated that in 

 one dissected in 18 11, the intestines were completely full, 

 containing the remains of four eels, several water-newts, a 

 short-tailed field-mouse, three frogs, two buds of the water- 

 lily, and some other vegetable substances. 



The rude nest of the bittern is generally formed of reeds, 

 sticks, &c., on some ' tump,' to use Montagu's expression, 

 in a reedy marsh or well-clothed rushy moor, and contains 

 four or five pale-green eggs. The time of incubation is 

 about twenty-six days. 



In the palmy days of falconry the bittern afforded the best 

 of sport. We find it mentioned in the ' Flights to the field, 

 called great flights.' ' There is yet,' says Turbervile, 

 ' another kinde of flight to the fielde, which is called the 

 great flight, as to the cranes, wild geese, bustard, birde of 

 Paradise, bittors, shovelars, hearons, and many other such 

 like.' Accordingly we find it protected by the severe penal- 

 ties of the stat. 25 Hen. VIII. c. 11, confirmed by stat. 3 

 and 4 Edw. VI. c. 7. One year's imprisonment, and a for- 

 feiture of 8rf. for each egg, was the punishment awarded for 

 those who destroyed or took away the eggs of the ' bittour.' 

 When the hawk had ' bound with' the' bittern and brought 

 it down, it was the duty of the falconer to make in apace to 

 rescue her, by plunging the bill of the bittern into the 

 ground, to prevent injury to the hawk; for when wounded 

 the bittern is not daunted, but lies watching his opportunity 

 to dart his spear-like bill at his enemy as soon as he comes 

 within his reach, and, as he generally aims at the eye, he 

 should be approached with the greatest caution. The mo- 

 dern sportsman should beat for these birds with pointers or 

 very close-hunting spaniels ; for they are moved with as 

 much difficulty as a jack-snipe, and, like that bird, will 

 often lie till they are almost trodden on, rather than take 

 wing. 



The bittern was well known to the antients, and there 

 can be little doubt that it is the anripias, asterias, (ipuciof, 

 erodius,) of Aristotle. (Hist. Anim. hook ix. c. xviii.) In 

 the same chapter its sluggishness, and the fable of its ori- 

 gin from slaves metamorphosed into birds are mentioned. 

 Aristotle observes further that the 0wi? especially strikes at 

 the eyes; and in the edition of Belon (1557), 'enrichy de 

 quatrains,' we find the following verse below the figure of 

 the ' butor :' 



' En un Butor Phoix, pour sa paresse 

 Fut par les dieux change diviiiument, 

 In pnresstmx aussi comnmnvment, 

 Est (lit Butor, pour son peur d'alegresse.* 



The flesh of the bittern was formerly in high esteem (in 

 the reign of Henry VIII. it was valued at I*.), nor is it de- 

 spised in the present day ; when well fed, its flavour some- 

 what resembles that of the hare, nor is it rank and fishy, 

 like that of some of its congeners. The long claw of the 

 hind toe is much prized as a tooth-pick, and, in the olden 

 time, it was thought to have the property of preserving the 

 teeth. 



A paragraph in the last edition of Pennant, signed J. L., 

 written probably by Latham, states that this bird ' is said to 

 inhabit the greater part of Africa; and is certainly found 

 on the coast of Barbary, at the Cape of Good Hope, and 

 also in India and China.' Selby observes that its geogra- 

 phical distribution ' seems confined to Europe, extending 

 nearly to the confines of Asia ;' but it was in the collection 

 formed in the neighbourhood of Trebizond by Keith E. 

 Abbott, Esq., and presented to the Zoological Society by 

 that gentleman. Colonel Sykes notes it as rare in Dukkun 

 (Deccan), and Mr. Gould as inhabiting the three continents 

 of the Old World. In England inclosure and drainage 

 have made the bittern a very scarce bird, and its capture is 

 no longer an ordinary event. 



In size the common bittern is less than the common 

 heron, being about two feet and a half in length. The bill 

 is about four inches long, brown above, greenish below ; 

 irides yellow : feathers on the crown black, shot with green, 

 those of the hinder part of the head, neck, and breast long 

 and loose ; general colour of plumage dull, pale yellow, va- 

 riegated with spots and bars of black ; tail short ; legs mo- 



