LITTLE-BITTEKN 345 



The bird found by Miss Turner, we may assume, was the youngest 

 in the nest ; and this because there is good evidence to show that incu- 

 bation begins as soon as the first egg is laid, inasmuch as there is always 

 a considerable disparity in size between the occupants of the nest, as 

 is the case with young barn-owls (Strix ftammea), for example. 



There is much, as we have already remarked, to be done before 

 we can claim to have anything like a complete life-history of this 

 wonderful bird. And among other things there are certain state- 

 ments by older writers which need confirmation, or, what is more 

 likely, refutation. Such, for example, is the statement made by the 

 Rev. Mr. Stonehouse, and quoted by Yarrell, that the bittern changes its 

 haunts at night, and rising by spirals attains a vast height. Montagu, 

 while rightly scouting the belief, prevalent in his day, that the bittern's 

 boom was made by thrusting the beak into a reed or into water, went 

 almost as wide of the truth when he insisted that this strange, weird 

 cry was uttered while the bird was high in the air. Most other authors 

 agree that the flight of this bird is heron-like, and that it is often 

 accompanied by a hoarse croak not unlike that of the greatcrested- 

 grebe. But the heron also cries when on the wing. 



Under adequate protection a few pairs, at least, of this most 

 valuable bird may be induced annually to breed among us, and in this 

 case we shall almost certainly find a historian who will be able to give 

 us a new history of this most interesting of our native birds : a few 

 days with a note-book and a camera will accomplish more than a 

 century of egg-collecting and shooting. 



LITTLE-BITTERN 

 [R B. LODGE and F. C. R JOURDAIN] 



Although this bird has been obtained on many occasions in the 

 British Isles, and observed under circumstances which leave little 

 doubt that it has occasionally bred with us, absolute proof of the 



