BIRDS. 299 
small, narrow, and compressed at the sides. The crown 
is black, the throat and sides of the neck are red, with 
narrow black lines, the back of a pale red, mixed with 
yellow. The claws are long and slender, and the inside 
of the middle claw is serrated, for the better holding of 
its prey. The most remarkable character in this bird is the 
hollow and yet loud rumbling of his voice ; his bellowing 
is heard at the distance of a mile, at the time of sunset, 
and it is hardly possible to conceive at first how such a 
body of sound, resembling the lowing of an ox, can be 
produced by a bird comparatively so small. The boom- 
ing noise was formerly believed to be made while the 
bird plunged its bill into the mud ; hence Thomson, 
So that scarce 
The Bittern knows his time, with bill ingulf d 
To shake the sounding marsh. 
And Southey also describes the peculiar noise of this bird 
in his poem of Thalaba : 
And when at evening, o'er the swampy plain, 
The Bittern's boom came far, 
Distinct in darkness seen 
Above the low horizon's lingering light, 
Rose the near ruins of old Babylon. 
Sometimes in the evening the Bittern soars on a sud- 
den in a straight, or, at other times, in a spiral line, so 
high in the air, that it ceases to be perceptible to the eye. 
The Bittern, when attacked by the buzzard, or other birds 
of prey, defends itself with great courage, and generally 
beats off such assailants ; neither does it betray any 
symptoms of fear when wounded by the sportsman, but 
eyes him with a keen undaunted look; and, when driven 
to extremity, will attack him with the utmost vigour, 
wounding his legs, or aiming at his eyes with its sharp 
and piercing bill. It was formerly held in much estima- 
