140 Order VI 



that of Herons, is generally sought at night, for in the 

 day the Little Bittern lurks in the marshes and, if dis- 

 turbed, stands silently with upturned beak, looking 

 like a dry reed-stem. Naturally the flight is not very 

 strong, while the cry is of a grunting nature, sharper 

 in the female. The nest of marsh vegetation is placed 

 in reeds, low bushes or even trees and hedges, in or 

 near swamps, the four or five eggs being white with 

 scarcely a tinge of blue. 



The booming note of the Bittern {Botaurus stellaris) 

 has again been heard in England. Since the days 

 when it bred not uncommonly in the marshes of that 

 country, Wales, and the south of Scotland it has 

 always continued to visit us in spring, but was shot or 

 driven away by persecution in almost every case of 

 later date than 1868. Nevertheless a very young bird 

 was killed in Norfolk in 1886, and finally in 1912 one 

 that had lately left the nest was found on the Broads 

 of that county, while a thorough search terminated 

 by the discovery of the nest itself. The Bittern bred 

 in the same district again in 1913, and there is no 

 reason that it should not continue to do so, if properly 

 protected. Abroad it occupies the whole Palsearctic 

 region, except the far north and north Africa. It is 

 a most striking bird, having very soft plumage, mottled 

 with buff, chestnut and black, while the head is black, 

 and the neck exhibits a fine ru£E of erectile feathers. 

 It has a slow flight when seen in the day-time, and is 

 seldom alert except at night, when it hunts for its 

 food, which is as varied as that of the Heron ; at other 

 times it skulks in the dense cover of marshes. The 

 nest of dry reeds or flags contains four olive-coloured 

 eggs, often laid in April or even in March. 



