THE BITTERN 73 



The bittern has been standing motionless, per- 

 haps in the humpbacked attitude in which the 

 artists, following Audubon's plate, have com- 

 monly represented him ; or quite as likely, he 

 has been making a stick or a soldier of himself, 

 standing bolt upright at full stretch, his long 

 neck and bill pointed straight at the zenith. 



Suddenly he lowers his head, and instantly 

 raises it again and throws it forward with a 

 quick, convulsive jerk. This movement is at- 

 tended by an opening and shutting of the bill, 

 which in turn is accompanied by a sound which 

 has been well compared to a violent hiccough. 

 The hiccough with which, I think, the click of 

 the big mandibles may sometimes be heard is 

 repeated a few times, each time a little louder 

 than before ; and then succeed the real pumping 

 or stake-driving noises. 



These are in sets of three syllables each, of 

 which the first syllable is the longest, and some- 

 what separated from the others. The accent is 

 strongly upon the middle syllable, and the whole, 

 as of tenest heard, is an exact reproduction of the 

 sound of a wooden pump, as I have already said, 

 the voice having that peculiar hollow quality 

 which is produced, not by the flow of the water, 

 but by the suction of the air in the tube when 

 the pump begins to work. 



