HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



the bittern. It is impossible for words to give 

 those who have not heard this evening-call an 

 adequate idea of its solemnity. It is like the 

 interrupted bellowing of a bull, but hollower, 

 and louder, and is heard at a mile's distance, 

 as if issuing from some formidable being that 

 resided at the bottom of the waters. 



The bird, however, that produces this ter- 

 rifying sound, is not so big as a heron, with a 

 weaker bill, not above four inches long. It 

 differs from the heron chiefly in its colour, 

 which is in general of a paleish yellow, spotted 

 and barred with black. Its windpipe is fitted 

 to produce the sound for which it is remark- 

 able ; the lower part of it dividing into the 

 lungs, is supplied with a thin loose membrane, 

 that can be filled with a large body of air, and 

 exploded at pleasure. These bellowing ex- 

 plosions are chiefly heard from the beginning 

 of spring to the end of autumn ; and however 

 awful they may seem to us, are the calls to 

 courtship, or of connubial felicity. 



From the loudness and solemnity of the 

 note, many have been led to suppose, that the 

 bird made use of external instruments to pro- 

 duce it, and that so small a body could never 

 eject such a quantity of tone. The common 

 people are of opinion, that it thrusts its bill 

 into a reed, that serves as a pipe for swelling 

 the note above its natural pitch ; while others, 

 and in this number we find Thomson the poet, 

 imagine that the bittern puts its head under 

 water, and then violently blowing produces its 

 boomings. The fact is, that the bird is suffi- 

 ciently provided by nature for this call ; and 

 it is often heard where there are neither reeds 

 nor waters to assist its sonorous invitations. 



It hides in the sedges by day, and begins 

 its call in the evening, booming six or eight 

 times, and then discontinuing for ten or twenty 

 minutes, to renew the same sound. This is 

 a call it never gives but when undisturbed, 

 and at liberty. When its retreats among the 

 sedges are invaded, when it dreads or expects 

 the approach of an enemy, it is then perfectly 

 silent. This call it has never been heard to 

 utter when taken or brought up in domestic 

 captivity ; it continues under the control of 

 man a mute forlorn bird, equally incapable of 

 attachment or instruction. But though its 

 boomings are always performed in solitude, it 

 has a scream which is generally heard upon 

 the seizing its prey, and which is sometimes 

 extorted by fear. 



This bird, though of the heron kind, is yet 

 neither so destructive nor so voracious. It is 

 a retired timorous animal, concealing itself in 

 the midst of reeds and marshy places, and 

 living upon frogs, insects, and vegetables; 

 and though so nearly resembling the heron in 

 figure, yet differing much in manners and ap- 

 petites. As the heron builds on the tops of 



VOL. II. 



the highest trees, the bittern lays its nest in a 

 sedgy margin, or amidst a tuft of rushes. 

 The heron builds with sticks and wool: the 

 bittern composes its simpler habitation of 

 sedges, the leaves of water-plants, and dry 

 rushes. The heron lays four eggs ; the bittern 

 generally seven or eight, of an ash-green 

 colour. The heron feeds its young for many 

 days ; the bittern in three days leads its little 

 ones to their food. In short, the heron is lean 

 and cadaverous, subsisting chiefly upon ani- 

 mal food ; the bittern is plump and fleshy, as 

 it feeds upon vegetables, when more nourish- 

 ing food is wanting. 



It cannot be, therefore, from its voracious 

 appetites, but its hollow boom, that the 

 bittern is held in such detestation by the 

 vulgar. I remember, in the place where I 

 was a boy, with what terror this bird's note 

 affected the whole village ; they considered it 

 as the presage of some sad event; and gene- 

 rally found or made one to succeed it. I do 

 not speak ludicrously ; but if any person in 

 the neighbourhood died, they supposed it could 

 not be otherwise, for the night-raven had fore- 

 told it; but if no body happened to die, the 

 death of a cow or a sheep gave completion to 

 the prophecy. 



Whatever terror it may inspire among the 

 simple, its flesh is greatly esteemed among 

 the luxurious. For this reason, it is as eager- 

 ly sought after by the fowler, as it is shunned 

 by the peasant ; and, as it is a heavy- rising 

 slow-winged bird, it does not often escape 

 him. Indeed, it seldom rises but when al- 

 most trod upon, and seems to seek protection 

 rather from concealment than flight. At the 

 latter end of autumn, however, in the evening, 

 its wonted indolence appears to forsake it. 

 It is then seen rising in a spiral ascent, till it 

 is quite lost from the view, making at the 

 same time a singular noise, very different from 

 its former boomings. Thus the same animal 

 is often seen to assume different desires ; and 

 while the Latins have given the bittern the 

 name of the star-reaching bird, (or the stellar- 

 z's,) the Greeks, taking its character from its 

 more constant habits, have given it the title of 

 the owes, or the lazy bird. 



CHAP. VII. 



OF THE SPOONBILL, OR SHOVELLER. 



As we proceed in our description of the 

 crane kind, birds of peculiar forms offer, not 

 entirely like the crane, and yet not so far dif- 

 ferent as to rank more properly with any 

 other class. Where the long neck and stilt- 

 legs of the crane are found, they make too 

 2 A 



