Le Butor. Belon av. 192. Bittour, Bittern, or Mire-drum. Wil. orn. 282. Raii fyn. av. 100. 444. tab. 37. Garza bionda, o di color d'oro. Zinan. Botaurus, le Butor. Briffon av. V. Br. Zool. 117. tab. A. 1. THE HE bittern is a very retired bird, concealing itself in the midst of reeds and rushes in marfhy places. It is with great difficulty provoked to flight, and when on wing has fo dull and flagging a pace, as to acquire among the Greeks the title of ox* or the lazy. It has two kinds of notes; the one croaking, when it is disturbed the other bellowing, which it commences in the spring and ends in autumn. Mr. Willughby fays, that in the latter season it foars into the air with a fpiral afcent to a great height, making at the fame time a fingular noife. From the first observation, we believe this to be the species of heron that Virgil alludes to among the birds that forbode a tempeft, In ficco ludunt fulicæ, notafque paludes Deferit, atque altam fupra volat Ardea nubem †. For the antients mention three kinds +; the Leucon, or white heron; the Pellos, fuppofed to be the common fort; and the Afte * Arift. hift. an. 1056. + Georg. I. 363. ‡ Arift. hift. an. 1006. Plin. lib.. x. c. 60. rias, or bittern; which feems to have acquired that name from this circumstance of its afpiring flight, as it were attempting, at certain feasons, the very ftars; though at other times its motion was fo dull, as to merit the epithet of lazy. Some commentators have fuppofed this to have been the Taurus of Pliny; but as he has exprefsly declared that to be a small bird, remarkable for imitating the lowing of oxen, we muft deny the explanation; and wait for the difcovery of the Roman naturalist's animal from fome of the literati of Arles, in which neighbourhood Pliny fays the bird was found. In fize it is inferior to the heron: the bill is weaker, and only four inches long: the upper mandible a little arched; the edges of the lower jagged: the rictus or gape is fo wide, that the eyes feem placed in the bill: the irides are next the pupil yellow; above the yellow incline to hazel: the ears are large and open. The crown of the head is black; the feathers on the hind part form a fort of fhort pendent creft: at each corner of the mouth is a black fpot: the plumage of this bird is of very pale dull yellow, fpotted, barred, or ftriped with black: the baftard wing, the greater coverts of the wings, and the quil-feathers are of a bright ferruginous color, regularly marked with black bars: the lower belly is of a whitifh yellow: the tail is very fhort, and confifts of only ten feathers. The feathers on the breast are very long, and hang loose the legs are of a pale green. All the claws are long and flender: the inner fide of the middle claw finely ferrated to hold its prey the better; its hind claw is remarkably long, and being a fuppofed prefervative for the teeth, is fometimes fet in filver and used as a tooth-pick. Befides this common fpecies, Mr. Ed Lib. x. c. 42. DESCRIP. wards wards mentions a fmall one of the fize of a lapwing, fhot near Shrewsbury. He adds no more than that the crown of the head was black as this anfwers the description of a kind frequent in Switzerland and Auftria*, we imagine it to be a ftrayed bird from thofe parts. It builds its neft with the leaves of water plants on fome dry clump among the reeds, and lays five or fix eggs, of a cinereous green color. This bird and the heron are very apt to ftrike at the fowler's eyes, when only maimed. The food of the bittern is chiefly frogs; not that it rejects fifh, for small trouts have been met with in their ftomachs. In the reign of Henry VIII. it was held in much efteem at our tables; and valued at one fhilling. Its flesh has much the flavour of a hare; and nothing of the fishiness of that of the heron. 175. WHITE. Le Heron blanc. Belon av. 191. DESCRIP. Ardea alba. Gefner av. 213. Turner. Raii fyn. av. 99. Ardea candida, le Heron blanc. Brif- Br. Zool. 117. fon av. V. 428. HIS bird has not fallen within our obfervation; therefore we TH must give Mr. Willughby's account of it. The length to the end of the feet is fifty-three inches and a half, to that of the tail only forty; the breadth fixty inches; the weight forty ounces. |