BITTERN, a bird of the heron family and genus Botaurus, several species of which exist in various parts of the world. The bitterns differ from the herons in their lesser size, shorter neck, comparative shortness of the legs, and superior length of toes, and in their noctur nal habits and loud voices. Otherwise their haunts, food and manner of life closely re semble those of herons (q.v.). The only North American species is the common bittern (B. lentiginosus), which is spread throughout the United States and southern Canada in all suit able places, often close to towns. Its length is about 25 inches, and the plumage is tawny brown of various shades, excessively variegated everywhere; the neck is striped with dull yellow and has on each side a dark patch. Both sexes, and the young, are alike in plumage. The Old World species (B. stellaris) is very similar, but has more red on the upper parts, and green about the bead. It is found numerously from Ireland to Japan, in India and throughout Africa. Other species or varieties spread the range of the genus to New Zealand and the South Sea Islands. The one great peculiarity of the bitterns, to which they owe their Latin and many local names, is their extraordinary vocal utterance in spring, which in the European species is likened to booming by everyone who has heard it, and has been called "a loud and awful voice.' The old fable that this sound was produced in some mysterious way by the bird while it held its beak plunged into the mud is untrue; and the flesh is no longer esteemed as a dainty, as it was some centuries ago. The
voice of the American bittern is a droning, thumping noise, which has been likened to the driving of a stake with an axe, or, more often, to the working of an old-fashioned pump handle. Hence the rural names, "stake-driver," "mire-drum," "bog-pumper," "thunder-pump," and the like. Nuttall attempted to suggest the sound of the syllables "pump-au-gah' ; but Sam uels succeeds better. He writes: "In the mat ing season, and during the first part of the period of incubation, the male has a peculiar love-note, that almost exactly resembles the stroke of a mallet on a stake; something like the syllables quank chunk-a-lunk-chunk.' I have often, when in the forests of northern Maine, been deceived by this note into believing that some woodman or settler was in 'my neighborhood, and discovered my mistake only after toiling through swamp and morass for perhaps half a mile." • A genus of smaller birds, Ardetta, is known as that of the "least bitterns.' One species (A. exilis) occurs over most of North America, and related species belong to South America. They are intermediate between the true bitterns and the night herons.
Consult Coues,