BITTERN. 155 



the bird has been seen at a distance from either water or bog. 

 One of these was the specimen from which our drawing was 

 made, which was shot in Burwood Common, near Walton, in 

 Surrey : this spot or waste is covered with furze-bushes and 

 heath-plants. This specimen is in the collection of John 

 Fletcher, Esq., of Ruxley Lodge. 



That the Bittern has often been the unconscious hero of a 

 ghost story we think very probable, as no bird is better 

 calculated to perform the part, and the scene of a village 

 ghost tale is generally some lonely bog or marsh : we know a 

 case in point. Three little boys went down, one evening, to 

 a bank-side, where they had previously found a bird's nest 

 containing eggs, of whose species they were ignorant ; and 

 they hoped, by surprising the little bird on her nest, to 

 ascertain what they were. It was a dark evening in May, 

 When they had stealthily reached the spot, and one of the 

 little fellows was carefully stretching out his hand to seize the 

 prize, they were startled by the appearance of a black object 

 close before them : as they gazed for a moment upon it in 

 much trepidation, it suddenly turned white with a rustling 

 noise, and growing taller and taller, vanished from their sight. 

 Their alarm was so excessive, that, forgetting the object of 

 their visit to this lonely spot, they took to their heels, and 

 rushed towards home with the greatest precipitation; and when 

 arrived within the friendly shelter of the kitchen, neither of 

 them could tell by which gate they had entered the garden, 

 nor how they had avoided the pools and broken banks by 

 which their road was intersected ! One thing alone they 

 were all certain of — they had seen a ghost ! On returning to 

 the spot the next morning, the footstepss of a Bittern were 

 found perfectly imprinted in the clayey soil. 



The Bittern rarely perches in a tree, unless its arrival with 

 us in the spring takes place before the water plants have 

 grown tall enough for shelter, in which case it is obliged to 



