BOG-BUMPER, BITTER-BUM, OR MIRE-DRUM. THE Bittern is nearly as large as the common Heron; its legs are stronger, body more plump and fleshy; and its neck is more thickly cloathed with feathers. The beak is strong at the base, straight, sharp on the edges, and gradually tapers to an acute point; the upper mandible is brown, the under inclining to green; the mouth is wide, the gape extending beyond the eyes, with a dusky patch at each angle: the irides are yellow. The crown of the head is somewhat depressed, and covered with long black feathers; the throat is yellowish white, the sides of the neck pale rust colour, variegated with black, in spotted, waved, and narrow transverse lines, and on the fore part the ground colour is whitish, and the feathers fall down in less broken and darker lengthened stripes. These neck feathers, which it can raise and depress at pleasure, are long and loose, and inclining backward, cover the neck behind; those below them on the breast, to the thighs, are streaked lengthwise with black, edged with yellowish white: the thighs, belly, and vent are of a dull pale yellow, clouded with dingy brown. The plumage on the back and wings is marked with black zigzag lines, bars and streaks, upon a ground shaded with rust colour and yellow. The bastard wings, greater coverts, and quills are brown, barred with black. The tail, which consists only of ten feathers, is very short: the legs are of a pale green, bare a little above the knees; the claws, particularly those on the hind tces, are long and sharp, the middle ones serrated. The female is less than the male; her plumage is darker, and the feathers on her head, breast, and neck are shorter, and the colours not so distinctly marked. She makes an artless nest, composed chiefly of the withered stalks and leaves of the high coarse herbage, in the midst of which it is placed, and lays from four to six eggs of a greenish white colour. The Bittern is a shy solitary bird; it is never seen on the wing in the day time, but sits, commonly with the head erect, hid among the reeds and rushes in the marshes, where it always takes up its abode, and from whence it will not stir, unless it is disturbed by the sports man. When it changes its haunts, it removes in the dusk of the evening, and then rising in a spiral direction, soars to a vast height. It flies in the same heavy manner as the Heron, and might be mistaken for that bird, were it not for the singularly resounding cry which it utters from time to time while on the wing; but this cry is feeble when compared to the hollow booming noise* which it makes during the night time, in the breeding season, from its swampy retreats. The Bittern, when attacked by the Buzzard, or other birds of prey, defends itself with great courage, and generally beats off such assailants; neither does it betray any symptoms of fear, when wounded by the sportsman, but eyes him with a keen undaunted look, and when driven to extremity, will attack him with the utmost vigour, wounding his legs, or aiming at his eyes with its sharp and piercing bill. It was formerly held in much estimation at the tables of the great, and is again recovering its credit as a fashionable dish. This bird lives upon the same water animals as the Heron, for which it patiently watches, unmoved, for hours together. * "The Bittern booms along the sounding marsh, (Ardea minuta, Lin.-Le Blongios, Buff.) THIS bird, in the bulk of its body, is not much bigger than the Throstle, measuring only about fifteen inches in length. From the corners of the mouth, a black stroke extends along the under sides of the cheeks; and a patch of black, glossed with green and edged with chesnut, covers the crown of its head. On the back, rump, and scapulars, the feathers are dark brown, edged with pale rusty-coloured red; the sides of the neck, and the breast, are of the same colours, but the brown on the middle of each feather is in narrower streaks. The belly is white; the hinder part of the neck is bare, but the long feathers on the fore part lie back and cover it. The tail is short, |