Bittour, was probably derived from its voice, which, uttered as the bird rises spirally to a vast height in the dusk of evening, is thought to resemble the deep-toned bellowing of a bull. The names which are given to the species, in some of the rural districts of England, such as Bull of the bog, Mire-drum, &c., refer to this booming sound.

The Bittern is a bird of much beauty; the ground-colour of its plumage is bright buff, marked with innumerable streaks, freckles, and crescents of black; the crown is black, with green and purple glosses. The plumage of the neck can be thrown forward, and made to assume the appearance of a thick ruff. The legs and feet are grass-green.

In former years the Bittern was common throughout Great Britain, but owing to the increase of cultivation, the reclaiming of waste-lands, and the drainage of marshes, it has gradually become less frequently met with, and may now be classed among the rare British birds. Yet, from circumstances unexplained, it is even now, in some years, comparatively numerous in favourable localities, where, perhaps, for several seasons before and after, not a specimen is to be seen. occurrence is therefore considered as an event of sufficient interest to be recorded. The winters of 1830-31, 1831-32, and 1837-38, were remarkable for the number of specimens that were procured. Instances of the breeding of this species are rare in England.

Its

On the continent of Europe, however, the Bittern appears much more common; nor is it confined to this quarter of the world; for specimens,

procured in Sweden, Barbary, South Africa, Siberia, Bengal, and Japan, do not appreciably differ from each other.

The Bittern is a voracious feeder: small mammalia, birds, and fishes, alternate with frogs, newts, slugs, and insects, to satisfy his appetite; and the former are not always of the smallest.

Sir William Jardine has found a Water Rail whole in the stomach of one; and from that of another, Mr. Yarrell has taken the bones of a pike of considerable size; and in a third instance a Water Rail whole, and six small fishes. In Graves's "British Birds," it is stated that in one dissected in 1811, the intestines were distended with the remains of four eels, several newts, a short-tailed field-mouse, three frogs, two buds of the water-lily,

and some other vegetable substances. It is chiefly during the night that the Bittern feeds; by day he remains skulking among the reeds or coarse weeds of the marsh, or river-margin, and is not easily flushed. On the approach of night he emerges from his retreat, and rising on the wing soars in spiral circles to a great height, uttering, as he goes, his hollow boom. Goldsmith's description of this sound, to which superstition was wont to attach somewhat of an unearthly character, is poetical and interesting, the rather because he seems to speak from observation. "Those who have walked in an evening by the sedgy sides of unfrequented rivers must remember a variety of notes from different water-fowl; the loud scream of the wild-goose, the croaking of the mallard, the whining of the lapwing, and the tremulous neighing of the jack-snipe. But of all those sounds there is none so dismally hollow as the booming of the Bittern. It is impossible for words to give those, who have not heard this evening call, an adequate idea of its solemnity. It is like the interrupted bellowing of a bull, but hollower and louder, and is heard at a mile's distance, as if issuing from some formidable being that resided at the bottom of the waters." And he adds, "I remember in the place where I was a boy, with what terror this bird's note affected the whole village; they considered it as the presage of some sad event, and generally found or made one to succeed it. I do not speak ludicrously; but if any person in the neighbourhood died, they supposed it could not be otherwise, for the night-raven had foretold it; but if nobody happened to die, the

death of a cow or a sheep gave completion to the prophecy.

A wounded Bittern fights with desperation, lying on its back and endeavouring to clutch its adversary with its claws, as well as striking vigorously with its sharp, formidable beak. Hence, in the days of falconry, when this bird, which was favourite game, was brought down, it was the duty of the falconer to run in quickly, and seizing the beak of the Bittern, to plunge it into the firm ground, to prevent injury to the Falcon ; an operation not without danger, as the Bittern generally aims to strike the eyes.

The comb-like divisions of the inner edge of the middle claw, which we find in all the Herons,

CLAW OF HERON.

have given rise to no little difference of opinion on the subject of their intended purpose.

The structure is found in widely different birds, such as the Nightjar among the Fissirostral Passeres, and the Frigate-bird among the Pelecanidæ. From our own observation, we have no doubt of its object being the freeing of the plumage from insect-parasites. A glance at its structure will shew that no greater power of grasping or of holding a branch is, or can be possessed by a claw having these narrow parallel slits in its edge (for they are not serratures) than by one of the ordinary structure.

* Anim. Nature, iii. 263, 264.

FAMILY III. SCOLOPACIDE.

(Snipes.)

The most remarkable characteristic of this Family is the extreme length and slenderness of the beak, which, far from possessing the strength. and firmness of the Herons, is extremely weak and flexible. Of course this structure is more conspicuous in what are known as the typical genera, than in those which lead off from them into connexion with neighbouring Families. In the former the tip of this long beak is covered with a soft skin, extremely sensitive; and the organ is employed as a probe to feel the soft mud or earth, into which it is thrust, and to capture there minute insects and animalcules, which could not be discovered by any other sense. They have the hind toe jointed on the tarsus above the level of the fore toes, and so short as to be unable to touch the ground. In some it is absent.

The feet and necks of these birds are, generally, of moderate length; the wings long and pointed; and hence the flight is swift and sustained: the tail is short and even; the front toes frequently united by a membrane more or less considerable. Their plumage is of chaste and subdued tints, frequently presenting a mottled assemblage of black, white, and rufous hues, often disposed in elegant contrast; at other times a nearly uniform greyish olive is the prevalent hue. Their flesh is held in high esteem.

The Snipes are widely distributed; a considerable number of the species are found in Britain,