434 MISS E. L. TURNER ON THE RETURN OF THE BITTERN. 
first is common enough during the summer; but the latter, 
alas, had scarcely been heard by the present generation of 
marsh-men until this last year (1911). 
The persistence with which birds return to their old 
breeding grounds, though these may have utterly changed in 
character is well known. It seems as if there must be a 
something in the blood, — call it “inherited instinct,” for 
want of a better name, if you will — which impels individual 
members of a family to make yet one more bid for the 
ancestral territory. It is said in Sussex that if a man is born 
under the shadow of the South Downs he must return there 
to die. But in the case of birds which now and again startle 
us by returning to districts in which they have long been 
considered extinct as a breeding species, the primary object 
of this all-compelling homing instinct is not death, but life. 
Unfortunately, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, death 
and immortality in a glass case is the result of this per- 
sistence. 
Fate, however, had something better in store for two out of 
the three adventurous Bitterns which appeared in the 
Norfolk Broads’ district just before Christmas, 1910. One 
pair remained, and succeeded in bringing off their brood. 
As for the third bird, he, being unnecessary to the story, 
disappears, and his ultimate destiny is unknown. 
From January, 1911, till June 4th, the old, half- forgotten 
“ boom ’’ of the Bittern could be heard continuously far and 
wide ; sometimes night and day. Then it suddenly ceased, 
though the birds themselves were seen at all hours. 
It was not till July 7th that these facts were brought to 
my notice, but early the next day I set forth with James 
Vincent, keeper of Hickling Broad, bent on finding out 
whether the Bitterns were nesting or not. 
We spent about four hours quietly watching the movements 
of one adult bird which worked steadily and regularly to and 
fro between two points. It did not take us long to decide 
