"Bittern" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... How to carve Brawn, Venison, (cut it in 12 bits and slice it into the furmity,) Pheasant, Stockdoves, (mince the wings into the syrup,) Goose, Teal, &c., (take off the legs and wings,) Capon, (mince the wing with wine or ale,) Plover, Lapwing, Bittern, Egret. How to carve a Crane, (mind the trump in his breast,) Shoveler, Quail, Martins, Swallow, Fawn, Kid, Roast Venison, Cony, (lay him on his belly with his two cut-off sides, on each side of him.) Cut 4 strips to each bit of meat, for your lord to pick it up by. Open hot Meat-Pies at ...
— Early English Meals and Manners • Various
... they were on the sunny side of the continent, while Portugal and England lay in shadow. Only that portion of Britain facing France felt the cultural influences of the southern lands. The estuaries of the Mersey and Clyde were marshy solitudes, echoing to the cry of the bittern and the ripple of ...
— Influences of Geographic Environment - On the Basis of Ratzel's System of Anthropo-Geography • Ellen Churchill Semple
... whole tale is told: forsooth I can lead thee thither; but tell me, what shall I do of valiant deeds at the Long Pools? for there is no fire-drake nor effit, nay, nor no giant, nor guileful dwarf, nought save mallard and coot, heron and bittern; yea, ...
— Child Christopher • William Morris
... at rest or in action are the most capable of artistic treatment, such as "The Eagle's Throne" (after Wolf); laemmergeyer carrying off lamb; hawks fighting over a small bird, allowing the latter to escape; peregrine falcon striking a bittern; eagle and wild cat; sea-eagle and gulls; osprey and fish. In connection with the last, one of the very best things I ever saw done with these specimens was in the Fisheries Exhibition, 1883, a piece of work—a study it might be called—executed ...
— Practical Taxidermy • Montagu Browne
... was one thing more than another about which the colonel prided himself in his bird sanctuary, it was the presence of the bittern. I don't know where the bittern came from, nor does the colonel. Perhaps the head-keeper knew. Bitterns migrate sometimes, but—well, that keeper was no fool, and knew his ...
— The Way of the Wild • F. St. Mars
... rude sound shall reach thine ear, Armour's clang, or war-steed champing; Trump nor pibroch summon here, Mustering clan, or squadron tramping. Yet the lark's shrill fife may come At the daybreak from the fallow; And the bittern sound his drum, Booming from the sedgy shallow. Ruder sounds shall none be near, Guards nor wardens challenge here; Here 's no war-steed's neigh and champing, Shouting clans, ...
— The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volumes I-VI. - The Songs of Scotland of the Past Half Century • Various
... ibis with a black neck, plentiful in King's Sound, and a large bird, a species of crane, were also seen. The latter was of a French grey hue, with the exception of the head, which was black and of the shape of a bittern, commonly known among the colonists by the name of native companion. It is difficult to imagine how this name could have originated, as there is no instance of the natives making a pet of anything, except the wild dog of the country, and of that only, it is probable, from its ...
— Discoveries in Australia, Volume 1. • J Lort Stokes
... and wide, and drear, and desolate, She roam'd a wanderer thro' the cheerless night. Far thro' the silence of the unbroken plain The bittern's boom was heard, hoarse, heavy, deep, It made most fitting music to the scene. Black clouds, driven fast before the stormy wind, Swept shadowing; thro' their broken folds the moon Struggled sometimes with ...
— Poems, 1799 • Robert Southey
... too. One, whom you may see in the Zoological Gardens, like a plover with a straight beak and bittern's plumage, from 'The Main,' whose business is to walk about the table at meals uttering sad metallic noises and catching flies. His name is Sun-bird, {93a} 'Sun-fowlo' of the Surinam Negroes, according to dear old Stedman, 'because, when it extends its wings, ...
— At Last • Charles Kingsley
... was evidently but seldom trodden. It abounded in sunken ruts, wherein lurked the adder. It led by sullen pools, where the bittern boomed and the pike swam, his silver side glittering like a streak of light beneath the dark surface, as he sought his finny prey. Now it was marshy and muddy, now it was tangled with thorns, now impeded by fallen ...
— The House of Walderne - A Tale of the Cloister and the Forest in the Days of the Barons' Wars • A. D. Crake
... sunset had not stirred the water-fowl to restlessness; dark streaks on the lake gleamed white at moments as some string of swimming ducks turned and the light glinted on throat and breast. Herons stood in the shallows; a bittern, squawking, rose from the saw-grass, ...
— The Firing Line • Robert W. Chambers
... heute sich drfe der Harnische rhmen Oder der Brnnen beider walten!" Da sprengten zuerst mit den Speeren sie an In scharfen Schauern; dem wehrten die Schilde. 65 Dann schritten zusammen sie (zum bittern Schwertkampf),[11] Hieben harmlich die hellen Schilde, Bis leicht ihnen wurde das Lindenholz, Zermalmt mit ...
— An anthology of German literature • Calvin Thomas
... esteemed for its bark and leaves as a [54] capital astringent, these containing much tannin; also for its fruit, which is supplied with malic and citric acids, pectin, and albumen. Blackberries go often by the name of "bumblekites," from "bumble," the cry of the bittern, and kyte, a Scotch word for belly; the name bumblekite being applied, says Dr. Prior, "from the rumbling and bumbling caused in the bellies of children who eat the fruit too greedily." "Rubus" is from the Latin ...
— Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure • William Thomas Fernie
... our nags could split; At the start they were all too weary and sore, And his was quite fresh and fit. Young Marsden's pony had had enough On the plain, where the chase was hot; We breasted the swell of the Bittern's Bluff, And Mark couldn't raise a trot; When the sea, like a splendid silver shield, To the south-west suddenly lay; On the brow of the Beetle the chestnut reel'd, And I bid good-bye to M'Crea— And I was alone when the mare fell lame, With a pointed flint in her shoe, On the Stony Flats: I had ...
— Poems • Adam Lindsay Gordon
... was, that black ugly place, when backed by Caistor Hanglands and Holme Wood, and the patches of the primaeval forest; while dark-green alders, and pale-green reeds, stretched for miles round the broad lagoon, where the coot clanked, and the bittern boomed, and the sedge-bird, not content with its own sweet song, mocked the notes of all the birds around; while high overhead hung, motionless, hawk beyond hawk, buzzard beyond buzzard, kite beyond kite, as far as eye could see. Far off, upon the silver mere, would rise ...
— Prose Idylls • Charles Kingsley
... the burden of his authority mightily. His importance expressed itself in many bellowing commands to his men. As he passed the door of headquarters, booming like a Prussian night-bittern, one of the officers there checked him with ...
— Paths of Glory - Impressions of War Written At and Near the Front • Irvin S. Cobb
... enemies enough besides such unnatural fishermen; as namely, the Otters that I spake of, the Cormorant, the Bittern, the Osprey, the Sea-gull, the Hern, the King-fisher, the Gorara, the Puet, the Swan, Goose, Duck, and the Craber, which some call the Water-rat: against all which any honest man may make a just quarrel, but I will not; I will leave them to be quarrelled ...
— The Complete Angler • Izaak Walton
... and lonely marsh, Where all is shade and gloom, The Bittern stalks, and you may hear His voice ...
— Chatterbox Stories of Natural History • Anonymous
... Prince Englebert and Jemmy Moore ("alias Cox's Emperor, alias Denbigh"), but wisely adds, these come in about the same time as Victoria, when there is a glut. Early or late varieties usually sell best. A new variety, Bittern, raised (as so many varieties have been) at Sawbridgeworth, by the late Francis Rivers, seems well worth trying: "Fruit rather large, deep purple, very heavy crop, habit bushy, compact, vigorous, excellent early free-bearing ...
— The Book of Pears and Plums • Edward Bartrum
... This small variety of Bittern is very common in the southern portions of the United States, but less so and locally distributed in the northern portions of its range. They are very quiet and sly birds, and their presence is often unsuspected ...
— The Bird Book • Chester A. Reed
... away and our parks disfigured by noise and smoke, to suit the convenience of the dingy denizens of Manchester, or the purse-proud merchants of Liverpool?" Similar arguments were urged not more than a century ago against the formation of new turnpike roads. The bittern, it was said, would be driven from his pool, the fox from his earth, the wild fowl would be frightened away from the marshes, and many a fine haunch of venison would be sent to London markets without the proper ceremonies of turning off and running ...
— Old Roads and New Roads • William Bodham Donne
... on the cliff was left The dark pine blasted, bare, and cleft, The veil of cloud was lifted, and below Glowed the rich valley, and the river's flow Was darkened by the forest's shade, Or glistened in the white cascade; Where upward, in the mellow blush of day, The noisy bittern wheeled his spiral way. ...
— The Grateful Indian - And other Stories • W.H.G. Kingston
... dear as life's blood. How often have I wandered through that valley of cliffs by the light of the "cold, pale moon," watching their dark and gigantic masses and silvery foliage, thrown into bold outline on the sky above, with not an echo, save the solitary cry of the bittern; and perhaps only aroused by an impetuous steamer, like some unearthly thing, rushing rapidly past me. Parties of musicians sometimes place themselves amongst the rocks at night when the effect is extremely fine. Perhaps autumn is the fittest season for enjoying these scenes. At ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Vol. 14, Issue 398, November 14, 1829 • Various
... African demoiselle heron. In the two following cases (120, 121) the visitor will find the American blue heron, and the great and little egrets; and in the next two cases given to the crane family (122, 123) are the bittern and little bittern of Europe, the American lineated bittern, the squacco and night herons of Europe, the American night heron, the European spoonbill, and the South American cinereous boatbill. The examination of these varieties will give the visitor a clear idea of the peculiarities ...
— How to See the British Museum in Four Visits • W. Blanchard Jerrold
... said, and stood awaiting for the sign, And heard, above the hoarse, bough-bending wind, The hill-wolf howling on the neighboring height, And bittern booming in the pool below. Some drops of rain fell from the passing cloud That sudden hides the wanly shining moon, And from the scabbard instant dropped his sword, And, with long, living leaps, and rock-struck clang, From side to side, and ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 16, No. 96, October 1865 • Various
... within the last three or four years. They seem now, however, to be confined to occasional autumnal and winter visitants. Mr. Couch says ('Zoologist' for 1871):—"On the 30th December, 1874, after a heavy fall of snow, I had a female Bittern brought to me to be stuffed, shot in the morning in the Marais; and on the 2nd of January following another was shot on the beach near the Vale Church. I had also part of some of the quill-feathers of a Bittern sent to ...
— Birds of Guernsey (1879) • Cecil Smith
... Dedlow Marsh was also melancholy and depressing. The sepulchral boom of the bittern, the shriek of the curlew, the scream of passing brent, the wrangling of quarrelsome teal, the sharp, querulous protest of the startled crane, and syllabled complaint of the "killdeer" plover, were beyond the power of written expression. Nor was the aspect of these mournful ...
— Selected Stories • Bret Harte |
