THE BITTERN. 



279 



Singly or in pairs it is distributed over tne marshes, but 

 with us it is not abundant." 



The geographical range of this bird is, as I have 

 before stated, very extensive, extending from the shores 

 of Hudson's Bay, in the extreme north, so far south at 

 least as to the Cape of Florida, and probably yet farther 

 down the coasts of the Mexican gulfs. 



That fanciful blockhead, the Count de Buffon for he 

 was a most almighty blockhead when he set himself 

 drawing on his imagination for facts with his usual 

 eloquent absurdity, describes the species as " exhibiting 

 the picture of wretchedness, anxiety and indigence ; 

 condemned to struggle perpetually with misery and 

 want ; sickened with the restless cravings of a famished 

 appetite ;" a description so ridiculously untrue, that were 

 it possible for these birds to comprehend it, it would 

 excite the risibility of the whole tribe. 



If the count had seen the Quawks, as I did, at their 

 high jinks, by the Hackensack, he would have scarce 

 written such folly ; and had he been a little more of a 

 true philosopher, and thorough naturalist, he would have 

 comprehended that whatsoever being the Universal 

 Creator hath created unto any .end to that end he 

 adapted him, not in his physical structure only, but in 

 his instincts, his appetites, his tastes, his pleasures and 

 his pains ; and that to the patient Bittern, motionless on 

 his mud-bank, that watch is as charming, as is the swift 

 pursuit of the small bird to the falcon, of the rabbit to 



