The bittern, when attacked by the buzzard, or other birds of prey, defends itself with great courage, and generally beats off such assailants; neither does it betray any symptoms of fear, when wounded by the sportsman, but eyes him with a keen undaunted look, and, when driven to extremity, will attack him with the utmost vigour, wounding his legs, or aiming at his eyes with its sharp and piercing bill. It was formerly held in much estimation at the tables of the great, and is again recovering its credit as a fashionable dish. * * * * * The Little Bittern, (_Ardea Minuta_, LINN. _Le Blongois_, BUF.) in size is not much larger than the throstle, measuring only about fifteen inches in length. From the corners of the mouth, a black stroke extends across the under side of the cheeks; and a patch of black, glossed with green and edged with chestnut, covers the crown of its head. On the back, rump, and scapulars, the feathers are dark brown, edged with pale rusty coloured red; the sides of the neck, and the breast are of the same colours, but the brown on the middle of each feather is in narrower streaks. The belly is white: the hinder part of the neck is bare, but the long feathers on the forepart lie back and cover it. The tail is short, and of a black green colour, edged and tipped with tawny: the legs dirty green. The little bittern has seldom been met with in Great Britain. The above drawing and description were taken from an ill-stuffed specimen in the Wycliffe Museum.—_Bewick._ BITUMEN, _s._ A fat unctuous matter dug out of the earth, or scummed off lakes. BLACK, _a._ Of the colour of night; dark. BLACK, _s._ A black colour; mourning. _To dye a good black._—First make your stuff a very dark blue: then make a very strong dye of strawall and walnut bark; boil the wool in this for six hours. Take out the stuff, and clean out the dye-pot, and make a fresh dye of _strawall_, _logwood dust_, or a good quantity of _chips_, with some _madder_ and _Brazil dust_: boil in this two hours, and pour off your liquor. Clean your pot, and put in liquor again with the stuff, and when hot, pour in a quart of _urine_, at least eight days’ old, and boil in this half an hour. Having dissolved in some of the boiling liquor the size of a hazel-nut of copperas, lift out your stuff, and pour in this liquor—boil it well, and all is done. If any brown or purple should appear between you and the light, put down some clean water, and boil it, adding to it one, two, or three tea spoonfuls of _salt of tartar_, and throw in your stuff for a few minutes. This is a long way for black dyeing, but the best for fishing. Let your dye-pot be large, or it will run over when you add the copperas; keep your dye-pot constantly full of water.—_Ancient Recipe._ BLACKBIRD, _s._ The name of a bird. [Illustration]