360 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 



The food of the Bittern consists, like that of 

 others of the family, of fish, frogs, beetles, mice, 

 3'oung water-fowl, leeches, snakes, worms, and also 

 small birds that come within its reach:* Montagu 

 also adds the warty lizard. It is certainly a vora- 

 cious bird, as the stomach of one contained two 

 young pike, one seven and the other eight inches in 

 length; in the stomach of another was found the 

 remains of a flat fish, some sea- weed, and a hard 

 pellet of the fur of some animal, apparently that of 

 the water rat and shrew mixed ; there were also a 

 few feathers : Mr. Jeffery, the writer of the note, 

 asks, " Does the Bittern throw up pellets of the fur 

 of those animals which it eats ? " This question 

 does not appear to me to have been answered yet, but 

 it would seem probable that both fur and feathers 

 are rejected in this manner. Yarrell mentions a 

 whole Water Kail having been taken from the sto- 

 mach of a Bittern, and such a mass of indigestible 

 matter as the feathers must have been would have 

 caused serious discomfort unless rejected. A con- 

 siderable amount of sea-weed, as well as fresh-water 

 weed, is often found in the stomach of the Bittern : 

 these weeds seem more probably to be swallowed 

 with than taken separately as food. 



The Bittern is a very handsome bird, though 

 without any great variety of colour, as its plumage 



* Meyer's ' British Birds,' vol. iv., p. 158. 



