TUE bittee:?^.] 



SHOOTING, 



[THE BITTEEN. 



or summer teal, pochards, shovellers, teals, 

 pewits, gulls, terns, herons, bitterns, coots, 

 water-hens, water- rails, ruffs and reeves, knobs, 

 redshanks, lapwings, and many others. This 

 enumeration is sufficiently full to indicate the 

 varied character of the feathered population of 

 the fena. 



THE BITTERN. 



This bird is the Ardea Stellaris of Linnseus, 

 and bears a strong resemblance to the heron 

 family, only it is smaller, and has a different 

 plumage. The feathers on the top of its head 

 are black ; and those on the hind part of the 

 head, neck, and breast, are long and loose. 

 The general colour of the bird is a dull, pale 

 yellow, but variegated with spots and bars of 

 black. The greater covert and quill feathers 

 are ferruginous, and regularly barred with 

 black. The tail is short, and the legs of a pale- 

 green hue ; the toes and claws are very long and 

 slender, and the middle claw is serrated on 

 the inner edge. The female is somewhat less 

 than the male, with a plumage less bright, the 

 feathers on the neck not being so long and 

 flowing. Its bill is considerably shorter than 

 the bill of the heron, and likewise weaker. 

 She makes her nest in April, among rushes 

 and sedges, and is, in all respects, a regular 

 visitor of the fen districts. She lays from 

 four to ^vs. eggs, which are of a pale greenish 

 ash colour, and sits twenty-five days. AVhen 

 they are hatched, the young have the appear- 

 ance of being all legs and neck, and never ven- 

 ture from the neat until about twenty days 

 after they are hatched, during which time they 

 are carefully watched and fed by the old birds. 

 Their common food are slugs, small fish, and 

 frogs. In February and March, the male bit- 

 terns make a deep hollow noise, morning and 

 evening, which ceases after the breeding season 

 commences. This is called the booming of the 

 bittern, and has been often noticed both by 

 poets and naturalists. It is observed, in the 

 Ornitliological Dictionary, that " those who 

 have walked, on a summer's evening, by the 

 sedgy sides of unfrequented rivers, must re- 

 member a variety of notes from different water- 

 fowl, the loud scream of the wild goose, the 

 croaking of the mallard, the whining of the 

 lapwing, and the tremulous neighings of the 

 jack-snipe. But of all these sounds there is 

 566 



none so dismally hollow as the looming of the 

 bittern. It is impossible for words to give 

 those who have not heard this eveniuo- call, 

 an adequate idea of its solemnity. It is like 

 the interrupted bellowing of a bull, but hol- 

 lower and louder, and is heard at the distance 

 of a mile, as if issuing from some formidable be- 

 ing that resided at the bottom of the waters. 

 This is the bittern, whose windpipe is fitted 

 to produce the sound for which it is remark- 

 able — the lower part of it, dividing into the 

 lungs, being supplied with a thin loose mem- 

 brane, that can be filled with a large body 

 of air, and exploded at pleasure. These bel- 

 lowing explosions are chiefly heard from the 

 beginning of the spring to the end of autumn^ 

 and are the usual calls during the pairing sea- 

 son. From the loudness and solemnity of the 

 note, many have been led to suppose that the 

 bird made use of some external instrument to 

 produce it, and that so small a body could 

 never eject such a volume of tone. The com- 

 mon people are of opinion that it thrusts its 

 bill into a reed, which serves as a pipe for 

 swelling the note above its natural pitch ; while 

 others imagine that the bittern puts its head 

 under water, and then, by blowing violently, 

 produces its boomings. The fact is, that the 

 bird is sufficiently provided by nature for this 

 call, and it is often heard where there are 

 neither reeds nor water 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 

 eisht or ten minutes, it renews the same sound. 

 In Scotland, the sound of the bittern is so very 

 common, that every child is familiar with it, 

 though the birds, from being shy, are not often 

 seen. The poet Thomson seems to have had a 

 very erroneous opinion of the manner in which 

 the bird produces this noise, when he says — 



" So that scarce 

 The bittern knows his time, with bill engulfed, 

 To shake the sounding marsh.' 



On the contrary, we have repeatedly remarked 

 that the bittern usually booms while flying 

 high in the air. Its lofty spiral flight is, indeed, 

 a matter of common remark — 



" Swift as the bittern soars on spiral wing.' 



A line which, we may remark, is not very orni- 

 thological, inasmuch as neither the bittern nor 



