166 aedeidjE. 



its eyes, or one of them at least, fixed on the orb of day ; and 

 frequently spread out its wings in the manner of cormorants and 

 vultures to enjoy the heat, or perhaps the gentle breeze." (Orn. 

 Biog. vol. iv. p. 296.) He again observes — "That they are 

 extremely timid I well know ; for, on several occasions, when I 

 have suddenly come upon them, they have stood still from mere 

 terror, until I have knocked them down with an oar or a stick," 

 (p. 297.) 



We find the bittern associated in the sacred volume with the 

 desolation both of Babylon and Nineveh.*" In reference to the 

 former great city is the denunciation, — " I will also make it a 

 possession for the bittern, and pools of water." (Isaiah xiv. 23.) 

 See also Isaiah xxxi v. 11. 



As the species disappears before the improvement of the coun- 

 try by man, we can very rarely now, even in Ireland, hear 



"At evening, o'er the swampy plain, 

 The bittern's boom come far." — Southey. 



Yet it was one of the very few birds which Goldsmith, in his de- 

 lightful " Animated Nature," descanted on from personal obser- 

 vation in his native country. He remarks that it is not from its 

 voracious appetite, " but its hollow boom, that the bittern is held 

 in such detestation by the vulgar. I remember, in the place 

 where I was a boy, with what terror the bird's note affected the 

 whole village ; they considered it as the presage of some sad 

 event ; and generally found, or made one to succeed it. I do not 

 speak ludicrously ; but if any person in the neighbourhood died, 

 they supposed it could not be otherwise, for the night-raven had 

 foretold it ; but if nobody happened to die, the death of a cow or 

 a sheep gave completion to the prophecy ."t 



The following commencement of the same author's description 



* Zephaniah ii. 14. 



f The uneducated in various countries have had superstitious, or at least proguos- 

 tications, in connexion with the note of the bittern ; but I shall mention only one, 

 not selected on account, of its elegance, but from its having, so far as I am aware, 

 appeared only in the page of a journal. As stated (by Mr. J. Hawley) in the 

 Zoologist for Feb. 184 ( J : — " 1 have heard some old people recite a doggrel rhyme 



