Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-06-28
BOOM OF THE BIT'rERN"
PART THIS BIRD PLAYS IN EN-
GLISH LITERATURE.
Ancient Objection to the Building Of a
Road-Would Drive OF
Fowl.
From the London Globe.


A petition against the proposed course of
a new turnpike road, addressed by local res
idents to the authorities some two hundred
years ago, contained the curious objection
that 1.-The bittern would be driven from his
pool and the wild fowl from the marshes
But the road was made and the bitern was
probably none the worse for 1t. Doubtless
he suffered considerably from the change
wrought on the face of the country by
drainage and the disappearance of his ia
vorite fens and swamps. And the advance
ing railway system still further intruded on
the secluded, sedgy resorts in which his
family are most at home. But down to the
middle of the last century a bittern's nest
was occasionally found in this country. from
which period the bird seems to have been
regarded distinguished a visitor as to
be fully entitled to gunpowder welcome.
But he returns year after year with a pa
thetic insstence which Is. unhappily, too
seldom justified. Three of these beautiful
and interesting birds have been shot during
the present month. and in the course of the
last twenty years many have been de-
stroyed in half the counties of England
The bittern commonly visits us in Feb
ruary which is unfortunate for himself, as
he cannot claim the protection of the act
until March l. AS the bird does not gener-
any DTeeu 1nuCn the CndnCeS
OF his again nesting in this country are
therefore. reduced to minimum. And yet,
as a high authority observes, there can be
no doubt that, if unmolested, the boom of
the bttern might again be heard in our land
during the breeding season.
The Bittern's Call
There is. perhaps. no other bird which has
made an equal figure in our island story
with whose life and conversation"-to use
Gilbert Whites phrase-we are now so lit
tie acquainted, as the bittern. But the pc
culiar booming sound which he gives forth
in the spring has always made him con-
splcuous, and he was hardly more the Won
der of the ancient naturaliSts than of the
poets who idealized. and the people who
dreaded, his mournful note This has been
the subject of almost as many different ac-
counts as the song of the nightingale. and
has echoed through the pages of English
poetry, from Chaucer downward. 1t has
been compared with the lowing of bull,
the explosion of musket and the "grunt
of the largest bass string" Doubtless the
sound itself often varies in force and quail
ity. and some allowance must be made for
the idiosyncrasy Of the listener and for the
circumstances in which the boom Is
heard. But it is admittedly one of the
weirdest and most mournful sounds which
wild nature affords. Goldsmith was ex-
ceptionally well acquainted with the
bittern, and he justly observes that
it is for this singular accomplish
ment that it is held in such detestation by
the vulgar. II remember in the place
where was a boy. with what terror this
birds note affected the whole village; they
considered it as the presage of some sad
event, and generally found or made one to
succeed it," The various local names of
the bittern are invariably founded on this
popularity. He is called the Night Raven
because of the time at which his warning is
usually uttered. but he is also widely
known as the Bull of the Bog. the Bog
Bumper and the Mire Drum; while in
Wales he bears an appelIation which signi-
fies the boom of the marsh"
Cause of the Sound.
AS a matter of mechanical fact this
strange sound is nothing but the bittern' S
spring "call note" and as such is not really
more wonderful than the cooling of the cush-
at in the woodland. 1t proceeds from a
loose membrane at the bottom of its long
windpipe, which the bird can initiate at
pleasure. Some other anatomical peculiar
tiles concur in giving the vocal organs a
power above the average. the cause and
nature of which are now well unders God.
The Weiro impression created Is also obvious
enough. The bird is a recluse haunting
lonely fens and stagnant marshes far from
the common resorts of men. Booming at
nightfall across the desolate countryside,
the uncanny sound must needs challenge
attention and arouse fear. Scott speaks of
the bittern booming from the sedgy shall
low while. abiding to the distance at
which the call can be heard, Southey says:
at evening DER the swampy plain
The bitterns boom came far.
But the poet of the Seasons hanks back
to Aristotle. who says that the bittern is
unable TO produce his below until he
puts his bill under the water; and so Thorn
son incorrectly writes that:
The bttern knows his time, with bill ngulphed
To shake the sounding marsh
Its normal note. however. is of a lighter
scrtbed as something between the bleating
of a goat and the cry of the wild goose.
Not unlike the heron in some of it's habits,
the bittern holds to its solitary ways with
| an almost pathetic steadfastness. But OBJ
viousy it is increasingly difficult for him to
escape notice, even in the secluS.ons to
which he instinctivey resorts.
He may certainly be called handsome
bird, his prevailing buff color being streaked
and notified with various shades of warm
brown. The hen generally produces four
eggs, usually selecting for her nest bed
of dead rushes or sedge near the margin
of the stream or pool. How exceptional
is such find in this country is implied
by the fact that the discovery of one with
four eggs in 1S49 finds prominent place
in pathological records. AS the hen sits
for nearly four weeks, and the young are
unable to quit the nest for three a period
must elapse during which it would be ex-
tremely difficult for the most wary parents
altogether to elude observation. And as a
few hours knowledge of a bittern's ap-
pearance in January or February Is gen.
orally fatal to the bird, the question whet tn
er II might not be encouraged to breed again
in this country is very doubtful one. Ac-
tive encouragement, indeed, he does not
want, but simply freedom from mOlestation.
But the bittern even resents curiosity, and
we can only accept him as an emblem of
the loneliness and desolation in which he
has SO long figured.
RcSEN SAILED FOR NEW YORK.