156 
THE AMERICAN BITTERN. 
was for years witli the sound, and all the observable habits of Bit- 
terns), some kindly critic, on a former occasion, laboured to convert 
me from that heresy. A quagmire would be but a sorry instrument 
even for a Bittern's music ; but when the Bittern booms and bleats 
over head, one certainly feels as if the earth were shaking ; but it is 
probably nothing more than the general affection of the sentimental 
system by the jarring upon the ear — an affection which we more or 
less feel in the case of all harsh and grating sounds, more especially 
when they are new to us. 
Macgillivray, who quotes the latter portion of this, 
doubts whether it was the cry of the Bittern which Mudie 
really heard, and expresses a belief that it was the drum- 
ming of the Snipe ; but as lie confesses that he never himself 
heard the Bittern's boom, and as Mudie asserts his perfect 
familiarity with it, we take the account as it stands as correct. 
There are few captures of Bitterns recorded to have 
taken place in Britain of late years : the latest we have 
seen mentioned is that in the following newspaper para- 
graph, bearing date 1856 : — 'A fine specimen of the male 
Bittern, a bird becoming veiy rare in this part of the 
country, was shot at Diglis, near the locks on the Severn, 
on Saturday. The bird was in fine plumage, and measures 
three feet four inches across the wdngs, and in length from 
the top) of the bill to the feet, three feet two inches.' 
We must now present in a group the three other species 
of Bitterns whose names occur at p. 152. 
The American Bittern closely resembles the common 
species in form ; it is of smaller size, and very dissimilar 
in colouring, whicb is darker, being mostly of a rich brown, 
shaded with black and chestnut, and very prettily freckled. 
Only three or four specimens have been taken in this 
country ; it is a bird well known to American naturalists, 
and Dr. Eichardson says it is common in the marshes and 
willow thickets in the interior of the fur countries, up to 
the fifty-eighth parallel. Its loud booming, exactly resem- 
bling that of the Common Bittern of Europe, may be heard 
every summer evening, and also frequently in the day. 
When disturbed it utters a hollow croaking cry. The North 
American Indians term it Molcoko^ probably an imitation 
of one of its cries. 
