THE COMMON BITTERN. 135 



transcribe Turberville's elucidation : " There is yet ano- 

 ther kynde of flight to the fielde which is called the great 

 flight, as to the cranes, wild geese, bustard, birde of paradise, 

 bittours, shovelars, hearons, and many other such like (1611)." 

 Protected also by similar statutes as the heron, one year's 

 imprisonment, and a forfeiture of eightpence for each egg, 

 was the punishment awarded to those who destroyed or took 

 away the eggs of the " bittour." 



Like that bird, its flesh was held in the highest estimation, 

 and, becoming expensive as a luxury, it graced the tables of 

 the princely and magnificent, and was even valued at one 

 shilling during the reign of Henry VIII. Attracting more 

 attention than any other species comprised in the entire order, 

 by an extraordinary booming noise peculiar to the male, so 

 deep and solemn in intensity that it may be often heard clearly 

 and distinctly beyond the circuit of a mile, it is thus that the 

 bittern makes few friends, as that class in whose vicinity its 

 occurrence is most frequent, unable satisfactorily to account 

 for its strange powers, unanimously arrived at the conclusion 

 that the bittern is not " canny ;" indeed, we may scarcely 

 express surprise at such a decision when we see writers sagely 

 explaining how the bittern placed its bill in the cavity of a 

 reed, and thus produced the booming sound : 



" The bittern knows his time, with bill engulfed, 

 To shake the sounding marsh." 



Thus, a puzzle to all, the bittern is invested with many super- 

 natural attributes, and the peasant, on a dim twilight evening, 

 hearing a sound without a name, has no resource but the 

 banshee, and, accordingly, in the harmless booming of the 

 bittern we doubtless recognise the first origin of the wailing 

 banshee, 



" For in the bittern's distant shriek 

 I heard unearthly voices speak." 



The bittern has now become so rare, it is but seldom observed, 

 although occasionally, as in December, 1850, we saw eight 

 specimens obtained from various counties in the course of a 

 single week. 



In Goldsmith's time they must have been of usual occur- 

 rence, when he remarked 



" Along the glades, a solitary guest, 



The hollow-sounding bittern guards her nest ; " 



