COMMON BITTERN. 



169 



straight up, as one might naturally suppose, and not 

 buried in the mud or the hollow of a reed stem, after 

 the quaint conceit of former naturalists. A remarkable 

 fact, also, with reference to the nesting habits of 

 this species, is mentioned by Mr. Lubbock, who states 

 that in two instances in which four young were dis- 

 covered in the nest, " two were apparently much older 

 than the others." One pair being described "as more 

 than half-grown, and the other pair covered with 

 nestling down and but a few days hatched." Might 

 not this be owing, as is here generally believed by 

 country people to be the case with the heron, to the 

 second set of eggs being hatched by the young of the 

 first brood? 



By some writers the bittern is described as ascending 

 at times in spiral curves like the heron, till almost lost 

 in the clouds,* but to this habit I can find no reference 

 in our local authors ; Mr. Lubbock, however, states that 

 one compelled to rise " in the full blaze of a July noon, 

 flew hither and thither as if quite dazzled and confused 

 by so much light." 



As a migrant the bittern is a regular, and in severe 

 seasons very numerous, winter visitant, a fact which has 

 become much more apparent since its extinction as a 

 resident species. Indeed, it is not improbable that in 



* Thompson, in his " Birds of Ireland," assumes that from this 

 habit, the bittern acquired its specific name of stellaris, but from 

 the following note kindly supplied me by Mr. Alfred Newton, this 

 term seems rather to have originated from its speckled or starry 

 plumage. " Gesner, so far as I know the first man who called this 

 bird stellaris, says, (Hist. Anim. iii., p. 208, ed. 1555) 'Ardea 

 stellaris Aristoteli et Plinio memoratur, 'asreplas Greece cog- 

 nominata, quod punctis tanquam stellis eleganter picta distinc- 

 taque sit.' " Aldrovandus in 1599, evidently quotes Gesner on 

 this point ; and Linnaeus, who also quotes Gesner, adopted the 

 name of stellaris. 



