THE BITTERN. 151 



comes better out, too, when you are in that position ; and 

 there is an echo, and, as you would readily imagine, a shaking 

 of the ground ; not that, according to the tale of the poets, 

 the bird thrusts his bill into the marsh, and shakes that with 

 his booming, though (familiar as I once was for years with 

 the sound, and all the observable habits of bitterns) some 

 kindly critic, on a former occasion, laboured to convert me 

 from that heresy. A quagmire would be but a sorry instru- 

 ment, even for a bittern's music ; but when the bittern booms 

 and bleats over head, one certainly feels as if the earth were 

 shaking ; but it is probably nothing more than the general 

 affection of the sentient system by the jarring upon the 

 ear an affection which we more or less feel in the case of 

 all harsh and grating sounds, more especially when they are 

 new to us. 



A figure of the bittern one inch to the foot, or one-twelfth 

 of the lineal dimensions, is given on the plate opposite, from 

 which it will be seen that the shape of the body, the structure 

 of the feet, excepting that the hind toe is longer, and even 

 the form of the bill, bear some resemblance to those of a 

 gallinaceous bird. 



The length of the bird is about twenty-eight inches, and 

 the extent of the wings about forty-four. It is heavier, in 

 proportion to the extent of its wings, than the heron ; and 

 though it flies more steadily than that bird, it is not very 

 powerful in forward flight, or in gaining height without 

 wheeling ; but when once it is up, it can keep the sky with 

 considerable ease ; and while it does so, it is safe from the 

 buzzard and harriers, which are the chief birds of prey in its 

 locality. 



The nest is constructed by both birds, in a close tuft or 

 bush, near by and sometimes over the water, but always more 

 elevated than the flood. Indeed, as it builds early, about the 

 time of the spring rains, which bring it abundance of food, in 



