Birds and Birding's Guide to:

Watching THE STORK-LIKE BIRDS

THE HERONS (Family Ardeida)

The American Bittern

(B. lentiginosus) is found throughout temperate North America, Guatemala, and Cuba, while the European species (B. stellaris) ranges throughout the temperate parts of the Old World and south to India and Burma.

The origin of the name Bittern, by which these birds are generally known, is open to more or less doubt, but it is apparently a corruption from some name given in imitation of the very peculiar notes of the birds.”The booming of the Bittern”is a familiar expression, and from the earliest times its notes have been variously likened to the bellowing of cattle, the driving of a stake into swampy ground, the working of an old wooden pump, etc.

The English species, now almost unknown in that country, was formerly called Bittour, Bator, Butter-bump, etc., while the American species is quite generally called the Stake-driver. The following extract from Mudie will give some idea of the note of the European Bittern:

“Anon a burst of savage laughter breaks upon you, gratingly loud, and so unwonted and odd that it sounds as if the voices of a bull and a horse were combined, the former breaking down his bellow to suit the neigh of the latter, in mocking you from the sky.”Hudson, in his”British Birds,”says of the notes,”When flying he utters a harsh, powerful scream, and he has besides a strange vocal performance, called 'booming,' — a sound that resembles the bellowing of a bull."

The American Bittern has no such roar, but produces a sound very suggestive indeed of the driving of a stake. Many attempts have been made to represent the notes by syllables, such as pump-a&'gah, as rendered by Nuttall, chunk-a-lunk-chunk, quank chunk-a-lunk-chunk, by Samuels, while according to Bradford Torrey, whom we shall quote later, it is most nearly represented by plum-pudd'n', giving both vowels the sound of u in full, dwelling a little upon plum, and a strong accent on the first syllable of puddin'. In any event it is a very peculiar voice which possesses also the power of deceiving the hearer as to the position and distance of the performer. When once heard it is not likely to be forgotten.

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