The dovecote and the aviary The dovecote and the aviary : being sketches of the natural history of pigeons and other domestic birds in a captive state : with hints for their management dovecoteaviarybe00dixo Year: [18--.] 330 THE BITTERN'S FEET. [CHAP. vii. (on account of the mud) pieces of water, called ' Broads.' They are fringed with beds of reeds and rushes, and the distinction of lake and land at their margin is but ambiguously denned. For the sake of the litter which the rank herbage of their banks and shallows afford for cattle, they are annually mowed by men in boats (not boots), who
The dovecote and the aviary The dovecote and the aviary : being sketches of the natural history of pigeons and other domestic birds in a captive state : with hints for their management dovecoteaviarybe00dixo Year: [18--.] 330 THE BITTERN'S FEET. [CHAP. vii. (on account of the mud) pieces of water, called ' Broads.' They are fringed with beds of reeds and rushes, and the distinction of lake and land at their margin is but ambiguously denned. For the sake of the litter which the rank herbage of their banks and shallows afford for cattle, they are annually mowed by men in boats (not boots), who carry off their aquatic hay-harvest in barges instead of waggons. Here we have the home of the Bittern, and after our description the reader will not be surprised that its nest and young should so seldom be found; for many of these marshy coverts are impenetrable to boats, and the deep muddy bottom prevents all search by wading. A winged sportsman would be the only one likely to succeed. Itself is enabled to walk on the treacherous morass by feet and claws of a peculiar construction. Had the Bittern feet like the Emeu and the Ostrich, Foot of Bittern—one fourth natural size. or even like the Stork, it would sink, and become inex- tricably bog-foundered in haunts to which it trusts for safety; but by means of the long claws which stretch out from its spreading toes, it is enabled to tread securely on the floating platform of reeds and rushes.
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