104 
BITTERN. 
generally beats off sucli assailants. They are sometimes met 
with at a distance from water; thus Meyer mentions one 
shot on Burwood Common, near Walton, Surrey. They rarely 
perch in trees, but do so sometimes on their first arrival as 
a means of shelter. More than one pair are seldom found 
in one swamp, unless it is of very large extent. They cannot 
be rendered tame, though they may be kept a few years in 
confinement. If approached in their native fastnesses, they 
lie immoveably still as long as it seems possible to succeed 
in escaping observation or molestation, and if a person walks 
round one, it turns itself as if on a pivot, without otherwise 
moving, facing the intruder continually. 
Meyer observes, ‘The manner in which the Bittern moves 
its long neck is very remarkable: owing to the profusion of 
loose feathers all down the neck, it is not visible how the 
long neck is folded up in drawing it close to the body, and 
extending it again immediately. When the neck is drawn 
close to the body, and the head and beak lie in an horizontal 
line on its back, the whole bird looks a clumsy thick lump 
of feathers; and it may well startle any one who has never 
met with a Bittern in a wild state, to see it lengthen itself 
on a sudden, when in the act of flying up. The attitude 
in which the Bittern shews itself to most advantage is when 
it is in a passion, or under great excitement from fear; under 
such circumstances it faces the danger with half-open wings, 
and holds the tip of the beak in readiness for the onset, 
while the loose plumage of the neck is raised, and the head 
feathers erected so as to form a perfect circular crest. The 
eyes of its opponent, whether man or beast, are then the 
usual aim.’ 
‘It is very remarkable how the Bittern disentangles itself 
from among the strong thick rushes, so as to gain room to 
open its wings. The way in which this is managed is by 
grasping the rushes with its long toes, and thus climbing to 
the more pliable foliage of the plantation.’ 
They do not fly far at a time, if disturbed, and then at 
a dull and flagging pace. They walk slowly, and with much 
apparent caution. 
They seek their prey, which consists of small animals, 
moles, shrews, mice, and others, birds, fishes, leeches, lizards, 
snakes, frogs, beetles, and other insects, by night. Sir William 
Jardine has known a Water-Rail devoured whole by one, 
and Mr. Yarrell found in another the remains of a Pike, of 
