THE BITTERN. 273 



The other name, Quawk, by which it is generally 

 known both on the sea-coast of New Jersey, and every 

 where else where the vernacular of America prevails, is 

 precisely imitative of the harsh clanging cry with which 

 he rises from the reeds in which he lurks during the day 

 time, and which he utters "while disporting himself in 

 queer clumsy gyraiions in mid air, over the twilight 

 marshes in the dusk of summer evenings; and how near- 

 ly Quawk approaches to Duiikadoo^ that one of my 

 readers who is the least appreciative of the comparative 

 value of sweet sounds, can judge as well as I can. 



In England the Bittern, who there is possessed of a 

 voice between the sounds of a bassoon and a kettle-drum, 

 with which he makes a most extraordinary booming 

 noise, which can be heard for miles, if not for leagues, 

 over the midnight marshes, a noise the most melancholy 

 and unearthly that ever shot superstitious horror into 

 the bosom of the belated wayfarer, who is unconscious 

 of its cause, has also been designated by the country 

 people from his cry, " the bog-bumper," and the " blut- 

 tery bump" but as our bird the United States^r, I 

 mean, or Alleghanian, as the New York Historical So- 

 ciety Associates would designate their countrymen 

 Bittern never either booms, blutters or bumps, but only 

 quawks ; a quawk only he must be content to remain, 

 whether with the sea-coasters of JSTew Jersey, the south- 

 eiders of Long Island, or my friends, the Ojibwas of 

 Lake Huron. 



12* 



