Gould pleaded for the protection of the Bittern in the reed beds of Norfolk and Lincolnshire, where it had once been common before the draining of the marshes. He wrote 'Pray, then, let us still see this weird bird in some part of England; let there still be a marsh where the will-o'-the-wisp may exercise its delusive powers, and the boom of the Bittern be heard; for both fever and ague would the ornithologist risk to see the bird in a state of nature.' A characteristic of the male Bittern is its territorial 'booming' call, a hollow noise which sounds like a fog-horn.

DISTRIBUTION: Breeds across Eurasia from Fenno-Scandia to Sakhalin and Japan, south to northwest Africa through to Manchuria, also in central and south Africa. Winters from British Isles and west and south Europe to southeast Asia, the Philippines and Africa