. Cassell's natural history . ^ Their nests are built in societies, on the trees. The eggs are usually four, of apale-blue colour. In the months of July and August, the young make their firstappearance in the meadows and marshes, in parties of twentj- or thirtj^ together. Thelarge ditches, with which the extensive meadows below Philadelphia are intersected, are,about that season, regularlj^ visited by tlocks of these birds ; tliese are frequently shot,but the old birds are too sagacious to be easily approached. Their food consists of frogs,lizards, small fish, insects, seeds of the .splatterdo
. Cassell's natural history . ^ Their nests are built in societies, on the trees. The eggs are usually four, of apale-blue colour. In the months of July and August, the young make their firstappearance in the meadows and marshes, in parties of twentj- or thirtj^ together. Thelarge ditches, with which the extensive meadows below Philadelphia are intersected, are,about that season, regularlj^ visited by tlocks of these birds ; tliese are frequently shot,but the old birds are too sagacious to be easily approached. Their food consists of frogs,lizards, small fish, insects, seeds of the .splatterdock (a species of ni/iiipha), and smallwater-snakes. The long plumes of these birds have, at various periods, been in great request inEurope, particularly in France and Italy, for (he purpose of adorning ■ir.^.^:.s::.y. -~. IHE BITTERN. The provincinl English names of this bird, such as Mcro-dnira, and Bull of thefrog, as well us many of its foreign appellations, allude to the bellowing or drummingnoise for which it is remarkable. This deep note of the hollow-sounding bittern isheard at the breeding season, about February or March. As the day declines the bittern leaves his haunts, and rising .spirally, soars to a greatheight in the twilight. Ordinarily it Hies very heavily, like the heron, uttering fromtime to time a resounding cry. This, without doubt, says Willughb}-, is that bird our common people call thenight-raven, at whose deadly voice the superstitious wayfarer of the night turnedpale and trembled. The common people have a great dread of it, imagining its cryportends no less than their death, or the death of .some of their near relations; for liutaunis Stcllaiin. 11 IK HirrERK. 501 it flics in the iiighl, answers their description of being like a flagging collar, and hathsu
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1850, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1854
