244 HABITS OF BIRDS. 



from the windpipe, one going to the right and 

 another to the left lung. The cartilaginous rings of 

 the windpipe, moreover, do not go entirely, but 

 only half round the tube, the circle being completed 

 by a thin, loose, and elastic membrane, which is 

 capable of being greatly inflated. Two sacks being 

 thus formed, when they are inflated, the imprisoned 

 air escapes with violence in bellowing*." So far the 

 account is perspicuous and accurate ; but he adds, 

 '" When the inspired air inflates the sacks, the bird, 

 thrusting its bill under water, and opening it, allows 

 the air to rush out with such impetus as to rival the 

 bellowing of a bullf." We must consider this state- 

 ment as purely conjectural ; and, as Buffon well 

 remarks, it would not be easy either to verify or 

 disprove the fact from observation J, since the bird 

 lurks always so close as to escape the sight, and the 

 fowlers cannot reach the spots where it lurks without 

 wading through the reeds into deep water. Gold- 

 smith, who seems to have been familiar with the 

 sound, says, u It is often heard where there are 

 neither reeds nor waters to assist its sonorous invita- 

 tions." He adds, " 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 

 generally found or made one to succeed it. I do not 

 speak ludicrously ; but if any person in the neigh- 

 bourhood died, they supposed it could not be other- 

 wise, for the night raven had foretold it; but if 

 nobody happened to die, the death of a cow or a 

 sheep gave completion to the prophecy ." 



" The bellowing noise," says Dr. Latham, " is 

 supposed to arise from a loose membrane which can 



* Ornithologia, iii. 166. t Ibid. 



J Oiseaux, Art.LeButor. Anim. Nat. iii, 264. 



