COMMON BITTERN 35 



season, is described by most ornithologists as ' bellowing ' 

 or ' booming ' ; it is deep and full, and carries a long 

 distance. Mr. Harting, in confuting the fabulous ideas 

 that the beak is stuck in the ground, in the water, or 

 within a reed, states that when watching a Bittern 

 ' bellowing ' only ten yards off, he proved by observation 

 that the beak " is pointed vertically upwards, resembling at 

 a little distance a green reed stem amidst faded leaves " 

 (Handbook Brit. Birds, 1901, p. 219). The wailing of the 

 Banshee, one of the many apparitions which haunt the 

 credulous minds of superstitious country-folk in Ireland, 

 may have had its origin in the * booming ' of the Bittern, 

 weird and strange when heard at a distance, after dusk and 

 in the dead of night. 



" For in the Bittern's distant shriek 

 I heard unearthly voices speak." 



At other times of the year the note of the Bittern is 

 harsh and one-syllabled, somewhat like that of the Heron. 



Food. The Common Bittern is almost omnivorous ; it 

 devours a considerable number of small mammals and birds 

 as well as its more ordinary diet of fish, frogs, reptiles, snails 

 and insects. It seeks its food principally at night. 



Nest. This species builds on the ground, on bog-lands 

 and swamps, densely overgrown with reed-beds. The nest 

 is generally well hidden from view ; it is made chiefly of 

 dry reeds and rushes, piled together into a considerable 

 mass. 



The eggs, usually four in number, are light brownish, 

 often showing an olive-green tinge. Incubation begins 

 early in April, sometimes at the end of March. 



The latest date of the breeding of the Bittern in England, 

 as given by Stevenson, 'Birds of Norfolk' and other writers, 

 is March 30th, 1868, when a nest containing two eggs was 

 discovered on Upton Broad, Norfolk. On May 25th of the 

 same year a nestling was taken from the same place. But 

 we have further evidence, though not absolute proof, of the 

 Bittern breeding in the same district several years later, for, 

 in August, 1880, " a young bird with down still adhering to 

 it was obtained" (Saunders). 



In Ireland the Bittern has ceased to breed since about 

 1840; Thompson mentions in his 'Natural History of 

 Ireland,' .vol. ii, that a female was shot off her nest with 

 nestlings, in co. Tipperary, in August a few years before 



