The bittern is nearly as large as the common heron; its legs are stronger, body more plump and fleshy, and its neck is more thickly clothed with feathers. The beak is strong at the base; straight, sharp on the edges, and gradually tapers to an acute point; the upper mandible is brown, the under inclining to green; the mouth is wide, the gape extending beyond the eyes, with a dusky patch at each angle: the irides are yellow. The crown of the head is somewhat depressed, and covered with long black feathers; the throat is yellowish white; the sides of the neck pale rust colour, variegated with black, in spotted, waved, and narrow transverse lines, and on the forepart the ground colour is whitish, and the feathers fall down in less broken and darker lengthened stripes. These neck-feathers, which it can raise and depress at pleasure, are long and loose, and, inclining backwards, cover the neck behind; those below them, on the breast to the thighs, are streaked lengthwise with black, edged with yellowish white: the thighs, belly, and vent, are of a dull pale yellow, clouded with dingy brown. The plumage on the back and wings is marked with black zigzag lines, bars, and streaks, upon a ground shaded with rust colour and yellow. The bastard wings, greater coverts, and quills, are brown, barred with black. The tail, which consists only of ten feathers, is very short; the legs are of a pale green, bare a little above the knees; the claws, particularly those on the hind toes, are long and sharp, the middle ones serrated. The female is less than the male; her plumage is darker, and the feathers on her head, breast, and neck, are shorter, and the colours not so distinctly marked. She makes an artless nest, composed chiefly of the withered stalks and leaves of the high coarse herbage, in the midst of which it is placed, and lays from four to six eggs, of a greenish white colour. The bittern is a shy solitary bird; it is never seen on the wing in the day time, but sits, commonly with the head erect, hid among the reeds and rushes in the marshes, where it always takes up its abode, and from whence it will not stir, unless it is disturbed by the sportsman. When it changes its haunts, it removes in the dusk of the evening, and then rising in a spiral direction, soars to a vast height. It flies in the same heavy manner as the heron, and might be mistaken for that bird, were it not for the singularly resounding cry which it utters from time to time while on the wing; but this cry is feeble when compared to the hollow booming noise which it makes during the night time, in the breeding season, from its swampy retreat.