176 | BITTERNS. 
the Atlantic to the River Lena, in Siberia, and is found, 
though sparingly, in Hindostan. It is very rare in the Brit- 
ish Islands, owing, probably, to drainage of bogs; so rare in 
fact, that some naturalists have thought it worth their while 
to give date and plaee of the killing of all specimens they 
have seen. In England it is said to breed only in Lincoln- 
shire, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk. In old times the bittern 
was held in high esteem for the sport it afforded when pur- 
sued by trained faleons. Both birds would mount in spirals, 
oftentimes out of sight; the bittern straining every nerve to 
keep above the hawk, the hawk doing his best to rise above 
the bittern so as to make the fatal pounce. The bittern, 
being of weaker flight, rarely escaped, but often in his death 
involved his enemy's ; for as the cruel falcon came down with 
rushing wings, exulting in his fierce soul, the bittern, in his 
dire extremity, thrusting up his sharp beak, empaled the 
triumphant savage, and both came tumbling from the clouds 
together, striking the earth with a thump which drove the 
last breath from both. A lesson to tyrants not to push the 
weak to despair. 
On account of its furnishing such excellent sport to the 
humane of former times, rigorous laws for its protection 
were passed in the reign of Henry VIII, and of Edward VI, 
which imposed a fine of eight pence and a year’s imprison- 
ment for every egg taken or destroyed. There was something 
like protection. The long hind claw was a most excellent 
toothpick, for, besides its functions as such, it had, if the 
wisdom of our ancestors was infallible, the highly merito- 
rious property of preserving the teeth from decay. It ap- 
pears, moreover, that the fowl had then the power of display- 
ing a brilliant light from the centre of its breast, which 
attracted fish to it in great shoals, so that the satisfying of 


its hunger took but a small part of the night, and much time — 1 
was left for other pursuits, one of the most cheerful of which 
was to soar above the hovel of the British ploughman or 
hedger or ditcher, and rouse him from his lethargic sleep - 



