THE BITTERN. 145 



the full grown ones, very voracious, though capable of en- 

 during hunger for a considerable time, and the parents are 

 very diligent in carrying food to them; so also is the male, 

 in carrying food to the female during the period of incu- 

 bation. 



Though herons roost in trees, they partake more of the 

 character of water-birds than many others of the order 

 which nestle and repose on the ground, and nearer to the 

 water.* 



THE BITTERN (Botaurus stellaris). 



Though the bittern takes up its permanent abode much 

 nearer the water than the heron, it is not so much a water- 

 bird in its character and habits, does not subsist so exclu- 

 sively by fishing, and has even some of the characters of the 

 gallinaceous birds, or, at all events, characters bearing some 

 resemblance to them. 



The bittern is, in many respects, an interesting bird, but it 

 is a bird of the wilds almost a bird of desolation, avoiding 

 alike the neighbourhood of man, and the progress of man's 

 improvements. It is a bird of rude nature, where the land 

 knows no character save that which the untrained working 

 of the elements impresses upon it ; so that, when any locality 



* Besides fish, the heron feeds on small mammalia, as water-rats; 

 also on young birds, as water-hens ; and aquatic reptiles, as frogs, &c. 

 It is not generally known that the heron can swim. Its progress is 

 slow, but the carriage stately. Probably it is not often that the heron 

 takes to the water, and then only in quest of the nests of aquatic birds, 

 hid among the reeds and flags. We may here observe, that the emu 

 of Australia, and the two species of South American ostrich (Rhea), swim 

 well, and cross broad rivers. We know a heronry in close proximity to 

 a rookery, but never could see any hostility between the herons and 

 rooks, illustrative of the account given by Bewick. The heronry to 

 which we allude is in the meadows along the Holybrook, at the bottom 

 of Coley Avenue, Heading. There is a fine heronrv in Windsor Great 

 Park. M. 



VOL. II. L 



