HERBS. מרורים. Exod. xii, 8, and Num. ix, 11. The Jews were commanded to eat their passover with a salad of bitter herbs; but whether one particular plant was intended, or any kind of bitter herbs, has been made a question. By the Septuagint it is rendered επι ϖικριδων; by Jerom, “_cum lactucis agrestibus_;” and by the Gr. Venet., επι ϖικρισιν. Dr. Geddes remarks, that “it is highly probable that the succory or wild lettuce is meant.” The Mischna in _Pesachim_, cap. 2, reckons five species of these bitter herbs: 1. Chazareth, taken for lettuce: 2. Ulsin, supposed to be endive or succory: 3. Tamca, probably tansy: 4. Charubbinim, which Bochart thought might be the nettle, but Scheuchzer shows to be the camomile: 5. Meror, the sow-thistle, or dent-de-lion, or wild lettuce. Mr. Forskal says, “the Jews in Sana and in Egypt eat the lettuce with the paschal lamb.” He also remarks, that _moru_ is centaury, of which the young stems are eaten in February and March.

BITTERN, a genus of Wading Birds, belonging to the family Ardeidoe, comprising several species closely allied to the Herons, from which they differ chiefly in their shorter neck, the back of which is covered with down, and the front with long feathers, which can be raised at pleasure. They are solitary birds, frequenting countries possessing extensive swamps and marshy grounds, remaining at rest by day, concealed among the reeds and rushes of their haunts, and seeking their food, which consists of fish, reptiles, insects, and small quadrupeds, in the twilight. The Common Bittern fBotaurus stellaris) is nearly as large as the heron, and is widely distributed over the eastern hemisphere. Formerly it was common in Britain, but the extensive drainage of late years has greatly diminished its numbers, and it is now a permanent resident only in the fen districts of England. The bittern in the days of falconry was strictly preserved, and afforded excellent sport. It sits crouching on the ground during the day, with its bill pointing in the air, a position from which it is not easily roused, and even when it takes wing, its flight is neither swift nor long sustained. When wounded it requires to be approached with caution, as it will then attack either man or dog with its long sharp bill and its acute claws. It builds a rade nest among the reeds and flags, out of the materials which surround it, and the female lays four or five eggs of a uniform dusky brown. During the breeding season it utters a booming noise, from which it probably derives its generic name, Botaurus, and which has made it in many places an object of superstitious dread. Its plumage for the most part is of a pale buff colour, rayed and speckled with black and reddish brown. The American Bittern (Botaurus ...

קפוד. Isa. xiv, 23; xxxiv, 11; and Zephaniah ii, 14. Interpreters have rendered this word variously: an _owl_, an _osprey_, a _tortoise_, a _porcupine_, and even an _otter_. “How unhappy,” says Mr. Harmer, “that a word which occurs but three times in the Hebrew Bible should be translated by three different words, and that one of them should be _otter_!” Isaiah, prophesying the destruction of Babylon, says that “the Lord will make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water;” and Zephaniah, ii, 14, prophesying against Nineveh, says that “the cormorant and bittern shall lodge in the upper lintels of it: their voice shall sing in the windows.” The Arabic version reads “_al-houbara_.” According to Dr. Shaw, the _houbara_ is “of the bigness of a capon, but of a longer body. It feeds on little shrubs and insects, like the _graab el Sahara_; frequenting, in like manner, the confines of the desert.” Golius interprets it _the bustard_; and Dr. Russel says that the Arabic name of the bustard is “houbry.”

_waters of_. See ADULTERY.