THE BITTERN 267 



and has earned for it the various names of bog- 

 bumper, mire-drum, night raven. I have never 

 seen a living specimen of the bittern in Britain, 

 but have shot them in India, their shape, 

 plumage, etc., being in every respect similar to 

 the ordinary British variety. Colonel Irby gives 

 the length of the bittern as being seven or eight 

 inches less than that of the common heron. 

 Like the heron, the bittern, when wounded, is 

 a dangerous bird to handle, and can use its 

 powerful beak with unerring certainty in self- 

 defence. 



Two other varieties of the bittern find a place 

 in the list of British birds, viz., the little bittern 

 and the American bittern, the former being but 

 twelve inches in length, and the latter twenty- 

 seven nearly the same size as the common 

 bittern. The little bittern, though common in 

 some parts of France, is but a very occasional 

 straggler to this country. The Rev. C. A. Johns 

 states that they are so numerous in the marshes 

 of Esonne, near Paris, that in the months of 

 August and September, if a gun be fired, the 

 valley re-echoes to a long distance with their 

 harsh cries. 



The American bittern cannot truly be said to 

 be a British bird, though Colonel Irby states that 

 more than twenty occurrences of its having been 

 seen in Britain and Ireland are recorded. In 

 plumage and size this bird much resembles the 

 common bittern, but its bill is more slender, and 



