THE BITTERN'S SONG. 
175 
but not a moving thing between you and the sky around. You 
feel rather disappointed — foolish, if you are daring; fearful, if you 
are timid. On, on, a burst of uncouth and savage laughter breaks 
over you, piercingly, or rather gratingly loud, and so unwonted 
and odd, that it sounds as if the voices of a bull and horse were 
combined, the former breaking down his bellow to suit the neigh 
of the latter, in mocking you from the sky." 
This, we are told, is the bittern's love-song ; but we are fain 
THE BITTERN. 
to think that its character is somewhat exaggerated. No doubt 
it has a loud booming sound, like the far-off report of a heavy gun ; 
but it does not deserve to be stigmatized as a " burst of uncouth 
and savage laughter." It resembles rather the bellowing of an 
ox, and is audible at a considerable distance. This bellowing is 
based on one principal note, which a German naturalist expresses 
by the word uproumb. On approaching nearer, you catch another 
sound, like that which is produced by striking the water with a stick. 
The nest of the bittern is always hidden among the reeds in 
