272 SUMMER. 



wheeling toward the zenith in constantly extending 

 circles, as if it were carried up by a whirlwind. That 

 bird is 



THE BITTERN. 



The bittern (ardea stellaris), is, by long proscription, 

 the bird of desolation. In the sublime but terrible 

 curse which the prophet denounces in the name of 

 God, against Babylon, the bittern is one of the symbols 

 of utter ruin, " I will make it a possession for the 

 bittern, and pools of water ; and I will sweep it with 

 the broom of destruction, saith the LORD of hosts." 

 This is one among many proofs that the authors of that 

 volume were by no means ignorant of natural history, 

 although the time when those words were spoken has 

 gone by more than five and twenty hundred years. 

 Fortunately for us, in Britain, we have had no recent 



