BITTERN 
117 
rarely that the Bittern rises from the reed-beds ; 
when the unheeding wayfarer, trespassing too near 
the bird's domain, does startle it out, its flight is slow 
and flapping, heavier even than that of the generality 
of Herons, nor does it travel far, but presently drops 
heavily again into the shelter of the brake. 
Bitterns probably once inhabited all parts of the 
district where there is any growth of reeds ; now they 
are confined to Lake Reedy and the adjoining parts 
of Lake Connewarre and the Barwon River, where 
their bull-like notes may be heard in the last three 
months of the year, and particularly in the early 
morning before the sun is up. 
I never yet met any one who had seen a Bittern's 
nest, whether professional or amateur shooter ; and 
in truth the parts of Lake Reedy, where the typha 
bulrushes grow, the Bittern's chosen abiding-places, 
are so treacherous with feet of black mud beneath 
their inches of water, that a person on foot can only 
with the greatest difliculty penetrate their recesses, 
while the stems grow too thickly and there is too 
much rotting vegetation cumbering the surface to 
allow passage even to a duck-punt. I do not think 
the Bittern is, of late years, diminishing in numbers, 
though if ever the Reedy Lake is " reclaimed," it 
will become extinct in a very few years. The nest, 
as observed in other parts of the State, and especially 
in swamps fringing the Murray, is a pile of heaped-up 
reeds hollowed at the top, the eggs, of an uniform 
olive-green, numbering five. 
