274 SUMMER. 



When full grown it measures about two feet and a half 

 in length, and nearly four feet in the stretch of the 

 wings. The general colour of the bittern is not very 

 unlike that of the heron, only it is yellower, and more 

 marked. The cheeks and crown are black, with the 

 lower mandible, the margin of the upper, and a circle 

 round the eyes of greenish yellow ; the principal colour 

 of the body is a yellowish red or brown, spotted and 

 barred with black, and the lines of that colour upon 

 the quills and greater covers of the wings are regular ; 

 the feathers upon the neck and breasts in the male are 

 very long and large, those upon the female are shorter, 

 and that bird is not so large as the other. Withered 

 grass and rushes, with the dark spikes of the equisetums, 

 which are very frequently mixed together in the places 

 where the bittern nestles or takes up its abode for the 

 day, are by no means unlike the colour of the bird, so 

 that it is naturally concealed. The nest is made of 

 rushes and the leaves of reeds, and placed in a tuft or 

 hassock of the mire, or in an alder, or any other aquatic 

 bush ; but it is never raised far above the surface, or 

 at any considerable distance from the water. Both 

 parents are understood to assist in the construction of 

 the nest, and the male to assist the female in procuring 

 food, and also in her incubation ; but the bird is so 

 retired, and sits so close, that its domestic habits are 

 not accurately known. The eggs are generally five, 

 considerably smaller than those of the heron, and 

 having the same difference of shade as the bird. They 

 are yellowish olive green, while those of the heron are 

 more inclined to blue. The incubation lasts for about 

 five and twenty days ; and the young, when they come 

 out of the shell, are lean and scraggy, and almost 



