The Bitterns. 
'59 
The Little Bittern. The American Bittern. The Common Bittern. 
is now only known as a winter visitor. It is found in the greater part of Europe and 
Northern Asia, frequenting swampy districts, and occurring in winter in North-eastern 
Africa, India, Burma, and China. It is seldom met with in companies, but is 
generally found solitary, or in pairs in its breeding-haunts. Its food consists of fish, 
small mammalia, frogs, and water insects, and it is remarkable for its booming and 
resonant note. The nest is made of dry rushes and is placed on the ground in the 
swampy habitat which it loves. The eggs are from three to five in number, of a 
brownish-olive colour, slightly tinted with green when fresh. They measure from 
two to two-and-a-half inches in length. 
THE AMERICAN 
BITTERN. 
( Botaurus 
lentiginosus.) 
This species has a plain brown head and rufous tips to the 
primary-coverts and quills. The rest of the plumage is waved 
with buff and black as in the other members of the genus 
Botaurus. It has been many times procured in the British 
Islands, and seems not unfrequently to wander on migration 
from its home in North America. In habits it much resembles our Common Bittern, 
and its home is in the swamps. The nest is made of dead rushes, either on the 
ground or on low trees. The eggs are from four to seven in number, and are 
brownish-olive, measuring from an inch-and-three-quarters to two inches in length. 
