4.VS 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



of course, a front view ; and the entire under surface of the bird was thus 

 displayed, all of a uniform dull yellow like that of a faded rush. I 

 regarded the bird wonderingly for some time ; but not the least motion 

 did it make. I thought it was wounded or paralyzed with fear, and, plac- 

 ing my hand on the point of its beak, forced the head down till it touched 

 the back; when I withdrew my hand, up flew the head, like a steel spring, 

 to its first position. I repeated the experiment many times with the same 

 result, the very eyes of the bird appearing all the time rigid and unwink- 

 ing like those of a creature in a fit. What wonder that it is so difficult — 

 almost impossible — to discover the bird in such an attitude ! But how 

 happened it that while repeatedly walking round the bird through the 

 rushes I had not caught sight of the striped back and the broad, dark- 

 colored sides ? I asked myself this question, and stepped round to get a 

 side view, when, mirabile dictu, I could still see nothing but the rush-like 

 front of the bird ! His motions on the perch, as he turned slowly or 

 quickly round, still keeping the edge of the blade-like body before me, cor- 

 responded so exactly with my own that I almost doubted that I had moved 

 at all. No sooner had I seen the finishing part of this marvellous instinct 

 of self-preservation (this last act making the whole entire) than such a 

 degree of delight and admiration possessed me as I have never before expe- 

 rienced during my researches, much as I have conversed with wild animals 

 in the wilderness, and many and perfect as are the instances of adaptation 

 I have witnessed." 



The bitterns are celebrated for their vocal performances. The Latin 

 name Botaurus means bull-voiced, and all the other names — stake-driver, 



mire - drum, bull - of - the - bog, 

 butter - bump — have reference 

 to the strange ' booming ' note 

 of our or the European species. 

 In the Old World many a super- 

 stition surrounds the bittern; 

 but with us no such old wives' 

 tales have obtained currency. 

 Then, again, many a strange 

 story was told of the way in 

 which the bittern makes its 

 note. Some thought the bird 



Fio. 3*5. -Bittern, or stake-driver (Botaurus lenliginosus). ^ j^ bm ^ & 1k)]1ow ree d, 



while others claimed he stuck it in the mire. Chaucer says: — 



"And as a bitore bumbleth in the mire 

 She laid hire mouth into the water doun." 



