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CHAPTER VI.

OF THE BITTERN OR MIRE-DRUM.

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.

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The bird, however, that produces this terrifying sound is not so big as a heron, with a weaker bill, and not above four inches long. It differs from the heron chiefly in its colour, which is in general of a palish yellow, spotted and barred with black. Its windpipe is fitted to produce the sound for which it is remarkable; the lower part of it dividing into the lungs, is supplied with a thin loose membrane, that can be filled with a large body of air, and exploded at pleasure. These bellowing explosions are chiefly heard from the beginning of spring to the end of autumn; and however awful they may seem to us, are the calls to courtship, or of connubial felicity.

From the loudness and solemnity of the note, many have been led to suppose that the bird made use of external instruments to produce it, and that so small a body could never eject such a quantity of tone. The common people are of opinion, that it

thrusts its bill into a reed that serves as a pipe for swelling the note above its natural pitch; while others, and in this number we find Thomson the poet, imagine that the bittern puts its head under water, and then violently blowing produces its boomings. The fact is, that the bird is sufficiently provided by nature for this call; and it is often heard where there are neither reeds nor waters to assist its sonorous invitations.

It hides in the sedges by day, and begins its call in the evening, booming six or eight times, and then discontinuing for ten or twenty minutes to renew the same sound. This is a call it never gives but when undisturbed and at liberty. When its retreats among the sedges are invaded, when it dreads or expects the approach of an enemy, it is then perfectly silent. This call it has never been heard to utter when taken or brought up in domestic captivity; it continues under the control of man a mute forlorn bird, equally incapable of attachment or instruction. But, though its boomings are always performed in solitude, it has a scream which is generally heard upon the seizing its prey, and which is sometimes extorted by fear.

This bird, though of the heron kind, is yet neither so destructive nor so voracious. It is a retired, timorous animal, concealing itself in the midst of reeds and marshy places, and living upon frogs, insects, and vegetables; and though so nearly resembling the heron in figure, yet differing much in manners and appetites. As the heron builds on the tops of the highest trees, the bittern lays its nest in a sedgy margin, or amidst a tuft of rushes. The heron builds with sticks and wool; the bittern composes its simpler habitation of sedges, the leaves of water plants, and dry rushes. The heron lays four eggs; the bittern generally seven or eight, of an ash-green

colour. The heron feeds its young for many days; the bittern in three days leads its little ones to their food. In short, the heron is lean and cadaverous, subsisting chiefly upon animal food; the bittern is plump and fleshy, as it feeds upon vegetables when more nourishing food is wanting.

It cannot be, therefore, from its voracious appetites, but its hollow boom, that the bittern is held in such detestation by the vulgar. 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.

Whatever terror it may inspire among the simple, its flesh is greatly in esteem among the luxurious. For this reason it is as eagerly sought after by the fowler as it is shunned by the peasant; and as it is a heavy-rising, slow-winged bird, it does not often escape him. Indeed it seldom rises but when almost trod upon; and seems to seek protection rather from concealment than flight. At the latter end of autumn, however, in the evening, its wonted indolence appears to forsake it. It is then seen rising in a spiral ascent till it is quite lost from the view, making at the same time a singular noise very different from its former boomings. Thus the same animal is often seen to assume different desires; and while the Latins have given the bittern the name of the starreaching bird (or the stellaris), the Greeks, taking its character from its more constant habits, have given it the title of the oxvos, or the lazy.

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CHAPTER VII.

OF THE SPOONBILL OR SHOVELER.

As we proceed in our description of the crane kind, birds of peculiar forms offer, not entirely like the crane, and yet not so far different as to rank more properly with any other class. Where the long neck and stilt-like legs of the crane are found, they make too striking a resemblance not to admit such birds of the number; and though the bill, or even the toes, should entirely differ, yet the outlines of the figure, and the natural habits and dispositions being the same, these are sufficient to mark their place in the general group of nature.

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-The Spoonbill is one of those birds which differs a good deal from the crane, yet approaches this class more than any other. The body is more bulky for its height, and the bill is very differently formed from that of any other bird whatever. Yet still it is a comparatively tall bird; it feeds among waters; its toes are divided; and it seems to possess the natural dispositions of the crane. The European spoonbill is of about the bulk of a crane; but as the one is above four feet high. the other is not more than three feet three inches. The common colours of those of Europe is a dirty white; but those of America are of a beautiful rose colour, or a delightful crimson. Beauty of plumage eems to be the prerogative of all the birds of that continent; and we here see the most splendid tints bestowed on a bird, whose figure is sufficient to destroy the effects of its colouring; for its bill is so oddly fashioned, and its eyes so stupidly staring, that its fine feathers only tend to add splendour to deformity. The bill, which in this bird is so very particular; is about seven inches long,

and running out broad at the end, as its name justly serves to denote, it is there about an inch and a half wide. This strangely fashioned instrument in some is black, in others of a light gray, and in those of America it is of a red colour, like the rest of the body. All round the upper chap there runs a kind of rim, with which it covers that beneath; and as for the rest, its cheeks and its throat are without feathers, and covered with a black skin.

A bird so oddly fashioned, might be expected to possess some very peculiar appetites; but the spoonbill seems to lead a life entirely resembling all those of the crane kind; and nature, when she made the bill of this bird so very broad, seems rather to have sported with its form, than to aim at any final cause for which to adapt it. In fact, it is but a poor philosophy to ascribe every capricious variety in nature to some salutary purpose: in such solutions we only impose upon each other, and often wilfully contradict our own belief. There must be imperfections in every being, as well as capacities of enjoyment. Between both, the animal leads a life of moderate felicity; in part making use of its many natural advantages, and in part necessarily conforming to the imperfection of its figure.

The Shoveler chiefly feeds upon frogs, toads, and serpents; of which, particularly at the Cape of Good Hope, they destroy great numbers. The inhabitants of that country hold them in as much esteem as the ancient Egyptians did their bird ibis: the shoveler runs tamely about their houses; and they are content with its society, as an useful though a homely companion. They are never killed; and indeed they are good for nothing when they are dead, for the flesh is unfit to be eaten.

This bird breeds in Europe, in company with the heron, in high trees, and in a nest formed of the

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