( 5 ) 

 THE BITTERN IN THE NORFOLK BROADS. 



" A GREAT ENTAIL." 



(Plate i.) 



BY 



EMMA L. TURNER, f.l.s.. h.m.b.o.u. 

 In spite of its furtiv^e and semi-nocturnal habits, the Bittern 

 {Botaurits stellaris) is not a bird whose presence can be con- 

 cealed from the general public. If the Bittern is to maintain 

 in peace time the steady increase in numbers which it has 

 attained during the war, public opinion must be enlisted on 

 its side. Somewhere Ruskin wrote : "God has given us the 

 earth for our life. It is a great entail." It will now be the 

 duty of every ornithologist, and especially of every member 

 of the B.O.U., to guard this recovered inheritance which our 

 forefathers wasted so shockingly. I know that it is the 

 orthodox thing to say that the Bittern, and other lost breeding 

 species, died out owing to the reclamation of the fens. Those 

 who finally assisted in the destruction of our rarer breeding 

 marsh birds started this theory in order to cover up their 

 own sins ; and we have gone on deluding ourselves into this 

 belief. It is not true. The Bittern was driven out by 

 drainage from some fens such as Whittlesea, but there are, 

 and always have been, vast tracts where the Bittern would 

 breed if unmolested. 



During the war the Bittern has steadily increased in numbers 

 and the deep resonant challenge of Bittern calling to Bittern 

 across the great wide silence of the misty marshes, or heralding 

 the gorgeous pageant of a Broadland dawn, is now a familiar 

 sound in some areas. Nevertheless, in Norfolk alone Mr. 

 Riviere has collected evidence of fifteen Bitterns having been 

 shot between midsummer 1917 and midsummer 1918. On 

 the whole, the war has been a godsend to the birds of Great 

 Britain, because it has kept the majority of gunners and 

 collectors busy elsewhere. It remains to be seen whether the 

 numbers of breeding Bitterns will increase during the next 

 few years, whether they will decrease, or merely remain 

 stationary. 



The first Bittern's nest was located in July 191 1 by James 



