HERODIONES. ( 53 ) ARDEID&. 



THE COMMON BITTERN. 



BULL 0' THE BOG, BUTTER-BUMP, BITTER-BINN, BOG-BUMPER, BOG- 



BLUTTER, BOG-JUMPER, BOG-DRUM, MIRE-BUMPER, MIRE 



DRUM, MOSS-BUMMER, BUMPY-COSS, BUMBLE. 



Botaurus stellaris. 

 i;ije Bull o* tlje Bog;, <Hty $in 2Drum. 



No more the screaming Bittern bellowing harsh, 

 To its dark bottom shakes the shuddering marsh. 



LEYDEN, Scenes of Infancy. 



UNTIL the early years of the present century, when Billie 

 Mire was drained, that extensive and almost impassable 

 morass was a favourite haunt of innumerable wild-fowl, and 

 above their various weird cries at night the loud boom or 

 bellow of the Bittern could be heard in spring coming from 

 the great reed beds which surrounded the deep black pools 

 of the bog the bird on this account being known by the 

 country people in the neighbourhood as the Bull o' the Bog 

 or the Mire Drum. 1 



As Billie Mire was the principal resort of the Bittern in 

 Berwickshire, as well as of several other birds which are now 

 rarely or never seen in the county, amongst which may be 

 mentioned the Hen Harrier, it may not be considered out of 

 place to give here an account of that interesting and his- 



1 It is probable that the weird and unearthly cry of the Bittern at night gave 

 rise to the superstition regarding the "Bogle of Billy Myre" and "Jock o' the 

 Mire," which Dr. Henderson says "so long haunted its black peat-hags, grey saugh 

 bushes, and ancient causeway." See Popular Rhymes of Berwickshire, p. 3. 



