TE 
AMERICAN NATURALIST. 
Vol. III.—JUNE, 1869.—No. 4. 
ece TORI OD o 
BITTERNS. 
BY WILLIAM E. ENDICOTT. 

persons are repelled by scientific nomenclature. 
Let not such, however, turi away from this artiele when I 
say that the name of the genus I write of is Botaurus, for 
the English term "bittern" is the same word, only in a dit- 
Fig. 36.* 



i 
i 
ferent shape, and comes from the Latin Botaurus (i. e., boa- 
. * * * 
tus taurinus), through the French butor, or Spanish bitor. 
Botaurus, butor, bitor or bittern, it is all one, and means 
et $ » $ 
bull-voiced.” The popular local names the bird has re 
* Botaurus lentiginosus Stephens; from Tenney’s Zoölogy- — — — — 
Entered accordin, i : th - 1869, by the PEABODY ACADEMY OF 
SCIENCE, in the Clerk's Office of the Disiriet Court of the Distriet of Massachusetts. 
AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. III. 22 (169) 



