..
How many villages they razed,
How many parishes laid waste...
Whole colonies, to shun the fate
Of being oppress'd at such a rate,
By tyrants who still raise their rent,
Sail'd to the Western Continent.
l. 44. -----
"The hollow-sounding bittern guards its nest". 'Of all
those sounds,' says Goldsmith, speaking of the cries of
waterfowl, 'there is none so dismally hollow as the booming of
the bittern.' ...'I remember in the place where I was a boy with
what terror this bird's note affected the whole village; they
considered it as the presage of some sad event; and generally
found or made one to succeed it.' ('Animated Nature', 1774, vi.
1-2, 4.)
Bewick, who may be trusted to speak of a bird which he has drawn
with such exquisite fidelity, refers ('Water Birds', 1847, p.
49) to 'the hollow booming noise which the bittern makes during
the night, in the breeding season, from its swampy retreats.
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