Ornamental, aquatic, and domestic fowl, and game birds; their importation, breeding, rearing, and general management by Nolan James Joseph

Author:Nolan, James Joseph
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Poultry, Game and game-birds
Publisher: Dublin, The author
Published: 1850-03-25T05:00:00+00:00

Wiu associated with the heron, at one of the " ^reat Sight," sod protected by severe penalties i but from the saperior delicacy of its flesh, »Bs much sought for hy the sportsman, And is now com-parativel; scarce. It is a trulj delicious table fowl; if possible, supeHor to the pheasant. It breeds in the fenn; counties in England, and we hate frequently met it in Ireland, where it hides 4b sedgei bj day, and freqnenla wild norasaes, and the oozy banks of large riren, where extensive tracts, ove^rown with flags, weeds, and bulrushes, afford it an asylum. In the midst of those it uronches during the day, and is with difficulty roused to take wing. Persons frequenting the sedgy sides of unfrequented

riTen, miut be (aDiiliar with the dismally-hollow booming of the bittern; it is impossible to giTe those who have not heard this erening call, an adequate idea of its solemnity. It is like the interrupted bellowing of the bull, but boUower and louder, and is heard at a mile's distance, as if issuing from some formidable being, that resided in the bottom of the waters. The bird, however, that, produces this terrible sound, is not as big as a heron, with a weaker bill, 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 diyiding 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 b^^inning of spring to the end of autumn, and however awful they may seem to be, are the calls of courtship, or of connubial felicity.

It hides in the sedges by day, and begins its adl 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 suspects 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 seizing its prey, and which is sometimes extorted by fear.

This bird, though of the heron kind, is yet neither so destructive nor 80 voracious. It is a retired, timerous animal, concealing itself in the midst of weeds and marshy places, and living on frogs, insects, and vegetables; and though 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 the sedgy margin, or amidst a tuft of rushes.

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