303 



THE BITTERN. 

 (Botaurus stellaris.) 



THE Bittern is a strange-looking bird which as it moves 

 stealthily among the reed-beds, has given rise to many 

 superstitions and weird beliefs. Yet it is nothing but a 

 greedy, insatiable cousin of the Heron, living on small 

 fishes, but not despising young birds, w<ater-rats, water- 

 beetles, frogs, and even horse-leeches as food. Its eyes 

 at once announce that it is a night bird. On a still night 

 its booming can be heard more than a mile and a half 

 away ; and from this the bird has received some of its 

 local names, such as "Bumble" and "Mire-drum." 

 The. sounds which it utters are deep, hollow roars, as 

 though they came from some large animal ; many people 

 will not believe that these sounds proceed from a slender 

 bird. They sound like " Cu-prumb-cu-prumm-cu-um." 

 Sometimes, though not often, a "boo" is added to the 

 "prumb." Learned scientific books have been written 

 on the nature of these sounds. The truth is that they 

 occur when the bird draws air into its feed-pipe until it 

 is full and then expels it forcibly. In this way it 

 produces its mating-call, the love-song of the male bird. 

 It is not given to every bird to sing like the nightingale. 



This deep-toned cry is rarely heard now in our British 

 marshlands, where the bird now comes only to be shot 

 and sent to the shop of the bird preserver. It has, of 

 course, been getting scarcer every year. In Selby's 



