BITTERN
221
BLACK
and the meat is edible, almost like beef. A naturalist once shot a great animal that measured ten feet in length, its estimated weight 2,000 pounds. When at its best the American bison is of very splendid appearance. Hornaday thus describes one in perfect pelage: "The magnificent dark brown frontlet and beard of the buffalo, the shaggy coat of hair upon the neck, hump and shoulders, terminating at the knees in a thick mass of luxuriant black locks, to say nothing of the dense coat of fur upon the body and hind quarters, give to our species a grandeur and nobility of presence which are beyond all comparison with ruminants."
Greed brought to an end the life of this noble and most useful creature. Settlers coming in restricted the range and also ruthlessly slaughtered; sportsmen wantonly killed; and droves of hide-hunters had their full share in the extermination. See Hornaday: American Natural History; Stone and Cram: American Animals.
Bittern (Botaurus Lentiginosus), a nocturnal bird allied to the herons, widely distributed over North America and frequently found in marshy or reedy places in the eastern continents as well as in Australia. In size it varies from two to three feet in height, with a bill about three inches in length, and an expanse of wing close upon four feet. In its marshy haunts, it feeds at night on water-insects, fish, lizards and frogs. In the spring especially, at the breeding season, its notes have a bellowing, booming sound. Nesting on the ground, their eggs have a plain olive-green color, the birds themselves having a purple-brown tint, with occasional buff streaks on throat, breast and belly. They are very solitary in their habits, as well as shy and retiring.
Bitu' men, a general name applied to a variety of substances occurring beneath the earth's surface, and consisting principally of carbon and hydrogen, though often containing a little oxygen, nitrogen and sulphur. Natural gas represents one extreme of the bitumen series, and solid asphalt the other. Between these extremes are naphtha, petroleum, mineral tar, etc. Bitumen is very widely distributed, though its occurrence in quantities sufficient to make it commerically valuable is relatively rare. See NATURAL GAS, PETROLEUM, ASPHALT.
Bituminous Coal. See COAL.
Bjornson (by%rnf sun), Bjornstjorne, a celebrated writer of Norway, was born Dec. 8, 1832. While studying at the University of Christiania, he conceived a passion for the theater, and began his career as a writer by an historical drama. A few years later, when in Copenhagen, he published his beautiful story, Synnove Solbakken, which at once became popular atxd marked
an epoch in Norwegian literature. Soon after, he was made manager of the National theater in Bergen by its proprietor, 01 e Bull. He published a series of national dramas from subj ects taken from the old Norse sagas or legends. After a few years spent in Rome, Ger-m a n y and France, he returned to Nor-way. The parliament voted him a yearly "poet's salary, so that he was free to devote his time to writing. He became director of the Danish theater at Christiania, and editor of the Norse People's Journal. He also took an active part in politics, and came to be an eloquent speaker. In 1881 he visited the United States, studying the workings of republican government and lecturing to his countrymen in the western states. Among his works are the so-called saga tragedies, Limping Hulda, King Sverre, Sigurd Slembe and others. The play, Mary Stuart in Scotland, is the only one taken from foreign history. Among his novels are The Fisher Maiden, Arne, In God's Way, The Heritage of the Kurtz and The Bridal March; he has also written shorter tales and poems. His later works dealt mostly with society and social reforms; among these are The Editor, The King, A Bankruptcy and The New System. Died April 26, 1910.
Black, Jeremiah Sullivan, American jurist and statesman, was born in Pennsylvania in 1810, and died there Aug. 19, 1883. In politics he was what is known as a Jeffersonian Democrat, and was prominent as a lawyer, taking part, at one period of his professional career in the Vanderbilt will contest. In 1851 and again in 1854 he was elected one of the supreme court judges of Pennsylvania, and from 1857 to 1860 he was attorney-general in President Buchanan's administration, and afterward (i860-61) was secretary of state. In the latter year (1861) he retired from public life.
Black, William, a British novelist, was born at Glasgow in 1841, where he was educated and studied art. He was, however, led to writing, and did his first work for a Glasgow newspaper. He afterward went to London, where he wrote for several magazines. During the war between Prussia and Austria, in 1866, he was war correspondent for the London Morning Chronicle. He was afterward editor of the LQndon Review and
BJ6RNSTJ5RNE BJ5RNSON
