THE AMERICAN BITTERN. 169 



received the following information : — ' It was shot by my second 

 son Wm. R. Robinson, about noon, on the 12th of November 

 last, in a bog — part of a flat, partially drained tract called Llayde 

 Bottoms — surrounded by hills, and a mile from Armagh. It was 

 put up in sedge, seemed lazy, and flew heavily, not showing the 

 usual wariness of the bittern, but letting him come rather close 

 before it rose. Its stomach was empty ; but it was very fat and 

 very good eating, for we roasted it ! The sex was, unfortunately, 

 not noted. The glottis was peculiar, so that I suppose it must 

 have had the powerful voice of the common species/ Dr. Robin- 

 son, on being informed that it was the American bittern, most 

 liberally presented the bird to the Belfast Museum. As bearing 

 on the points touched upon in this letter, it may be observed that 

 Audubon ' never saw one of them fly farther than thirty or forty 

 yards at a time ; and on such occasions their movements were so 

 sluggish as to give opportunities of easily shooting them ; for (as 

 he remarks) they generally rise within a few yards of you, and fly 

 off very slowly in a direct course/ (Orn. Biog. vol. iv. p. 297.) 

 Wilson states that it ' is considered by many to be excellent eat- 

 ing ;' — and that the American bird 'has nothing of that loud 

 booming sound for which the European bittern is so remarkable/* 

 Audubon has not himself heard its notes, but gives the observa- 

 tions of two well-known naturalists upon them. Dr. Richardson 

 states that ' its loud booming, exactly resembling that of the 

 common bittern of Europe, may be heard every summer evening, 

 and frequently during the day/f 



" Judging from these works, this bird takes the place in North 

 America of the common bittern in Europe ; but is much more 

 frequent there than the latter is now in any part of the British 

 Islands. Audubon informs us that in winter it is ' common in 

 the markets of New Orleans, and bought by the poorer classes to 

 make gombo soup/ 



" The Prince of Canino, in his f Comparative List of the Birds 



* Jardine's edit. Wils. Amer. Orn. vol. iii. p. 57. 

 f Fauna Bor. Amer. p. 374. 



