500 



B I T T E R N. 



mountain Brasses ami little trefoils come along w ith 

 them ; till in time the ennvhile swamp is changed to a 

 green and wholesome pasture. Nor are there wanting 

 instances in which, from some such natural change as 

 this, though these are far less frequent than changes 

 of man's making, the blithe carol of the skylark 

 succeeds to the dreary boom of the bittern. 



There is not, in many of their habits, and especially 

 in their voices, a more striking contrast among our 

 native and resident birds than the skylark and the 

 bittern ; mid yet, when we come to examine them 

 closely, we find more points of resemblance between 

 them than we would be prepared to expect. They 

 are not, upon the whole, very like either in shape or in 

 size ; but the outlines of the heads and the marking 

 of the plumage have some similarity. Their food, 

 though different in species, as being found upon soils 

 very different from each other, yet belongs to the 

 same general class of substances, especially during 

 the nesting time, which is the truly characteristic 

 time of all birds. Skylarks are usually classed among 

 the vegetable feeders ; but that applies chiefly to 

 their food during the winter, when the majority of our 

 resident birds which do not either resort to the 

 shores, or feed upon the tops of heath or moss, like 

 the mountain gallinidaa, will then feed on the seeds 

 with which the ground is strewed, or on the berries 

 on the bushes. In summer, the skylarks feed more 

 upon animal matter ; and their general feeding brings 

 them more within the division of omnivorous fcedi-rs 

 than any other ; we have said, and though it is not 

 proved it is probable (and much of the history of bit- 

 terns is eked out with guesses), that bitterns must 

 either have long fasts, or live partly upon vegetable 

 food in the winter. It is further worthy of remark, 

 that the skylarks do not flock in the greatest numbers 

 to the places which abound most in annual plants and 

 their seeds, but to those which abound most in the 

 common red earth-worm. Thus, there is a similarity 

 in the seasonal food ; only the lark frequents places 

 where the soil is dry, and the vegetation kindly, 

 and the bittern humid places, where the vegetation is 

 harsh. 



There is also some similarity in their feet, though 

 the one bird is fitted for running among the dry 

 clods or upon the grassy sod, and the other for the 

 rushy hummock, or the stiff bent, and the stiffness of 

 the bittern's footing does not require the same elonga- 

 tion of the hinder claw. 



Even the voices of the two birds, different as they 

 are in the place, the hour, and the sound, have still 

 some resemblance in the way irr which they are deli- 

 vered. Both birds deliver their song only when they 

 are on the wing ; both ascend the air in spirals ; and 

 both sing loudest at the top of their flight. There is 

 even some resemblance in the time (of the day) at 

 which their very dissimilar notes are begun. The 

 lark begins at grey dawn in the morning, the bittern 

 at grey twilight in the evening ; and while the one is 

 never known to sing when the sun is below the 

 horizon, the other is never known to sing when the 

 sun is above it They both agree in singing only 

 when the air is tranquil, or at least when the wind is 

 very light ; and they both agree in singing most 

 blithely (if blitheness can be predicated of both) 

 when the air is in that relenting state, which does not 

 severely dry the surface, and therefore brings out the 

 small earth animals on which they feed. An unusual 

 vehemence in either of fheir songs is thus an indica- 



tion of ruin, or at all events of what is called "soft 

 growing weather." 



But notwithstanding these very curious analogies, 

 it is equally curious to observe how much the strain 

 of each bird's voice is in accordance with the place 

 where, and the time when, it is heard. The song of 

 the skylark, is given over fresh and fragrant fields 

 coming into bloom; for even at the earliest time that 

 it gives its full stave, the daisy has bloomed on the 

 sward and the coltsfoot on the lea ; and it is given us 

 the rnatin song of those places of hope and proniis.> ; 

 the awakening call for all nature to arouse to enjoy- 

 ment The lively song of the lark, is therefore in 

 admirable keeping with the time and the circumstances, 

 and they and it give reciprocal effect to each other. 

 Nor is that of the bittern less accordant. It is heard 

 ordy as the evening twilight begins to deepen the 

 gloorn of the wilderness, and thefew prominent objects 

 which mark its dreary surface put on a spectre-like 

 appearance. Then, though the air is tranquil at the 

 height to which the bittern wheels, there are little 

 winds in motion between the dry moor and the bog, 

 which cause a rustling among the withered stems 

 which have outstood the winter, as if some unseen 

 creatures were moving to the sound of that dismal 

 voice which is shaking the sky, and grating on the 

 ear till the whole body quivers, and the earth /eels as 

 if it were unstable and quaking at the sound. The 

 popular name given to this very singular sound is 

 " booming ; " but neither that nor " bellowing " like 

 a bull, from which the genus has been called Botaurus, 

 nor any other single epithet, is accurately expressive 

 of it. Nay, it is by no means easy to imagine a 

 compound, which can convey anything like an accu- 

 rate notion of the bittern's voice to those who have 

 not heard it. Think of a full chorus of bulls, horses, 

 asses, turkeys, and geese, driven forcibly from the! 

 repose, amid the loud shouts and wild laughter vi 

 banditti ; and perhaps the approximation might be as 

 near as most others. 



Sir Walter Scott, whose extraordinary powers of 

 observation and description were as true to nature 

 generally as to the characters of human beings,- has 

 described and discriminated the skylark and the bit- 

 tern with very graphic effect, in the serenade which 

 Helen sings to Fitzjames on the island : 



" But, the lark's shrill pipe shall come, 



" At the day-break, from the fallow ; 

 " And the bittern sound his drum, 



" Booming from the sedgy shallow." 



Small critics might, perhaps, take some exception to 

 the juxtaposition of these ; but there is no violation 

 of nature in this, the lark may begin to sing before 

 the bittern gives over. 



These general remarks have extended to so great 

 length, that we must shorten considerably our notices 

 of the species ; and we do not require to be very de- 

 tailed with these, as they are all obscure, and all bear 

 considerable resemblance to each other. The species 

 which is best known in Britain, though it probably 

 never was a plentiful bird, and is now a rare one in all 

 places, and unknown in very many, is, 



The COMMON BITTERN (Bolaurus stellarh). This 

 is the species ch'iefly alluded to in the former part of 

 this article, and the one, indeed, from which almost 

 all the general descriptions of the genus are taken ; 

 and then, in most instances, it is, as has been men- 

 tioned, considered as a species of heron, under the 

 name of Ardea stellaris, and the generic description is 



