THE BITTERN 93 
the advance been gradual, I know not. It was 
too rashly done; the attempt failed. The Bittern 
as a species is shy, wary, and suspicious. Nests, 
moreover, are placed where blinds or screens of 
any sort are particularly conspicuous. Lastly, 
in the Bittern the organ of philoprogenitiveness 
seems to be comparatively undeveloped. In deal- 
ing with many species there are between seven 
and ten days during which the parents will endure 
much—days immediately before the eggs chip 
and days immediately after. The Bittern is not 
one of these long-suffering breeds; it will readily 
forsake its nest or forsake it long enough fatally 
to chill the eggs or callow nestlings. 
Our beats in searching these swamps, rush 
brakes, or samphire flats, were three-quarters of 
a mile or so in length. Throughout this covert 
the birds would run like pheasants before us, 
only rising when forced into the open. Though 
primarily a frequenter of marsh and swamp and 
unapt to rest elsewhere, yet on occasion these 
birds will alight on the sides of open-grassed_hill 
slopes. 
I am inclined to ascribe the remarkable snag- 
like elusive attitude so often to be noted in the 
Bittern as assumed in the first place, not for pur- 
poses of concealment, but in order to offer a 
minimum of resistance to the storms of his hunting- 
grounds—storms alike unavoidable and recurrent. 
