Page 10 - Animals of the Sakhalin Region in myths and legends

Bittern Amur

(Ixobrychus eurhythmus)

Body length 33–40 cm; wingspan 55–59 cm. The male has a chestnut-colored dorsal side,
the top of the head is black, the bottom of the body is buffy with a dark longitudinal stripe
along the throat; wings are buffy-gray with dark tips. The upper beak is brownish with a yellow
base and under-beak, the legs are greenish. The female and young birds have numerous light
streaks on the back and upper wing coverts.
Food prefernces — fish, insects.
Inhabits the entire territory of island Sakhalin; Bitterns were not recorded on the Kuril
Islands. Reported on Island Moneron. The general distribution is Southeast Asia.

The bittern grazed her herds to drink in green, lush meadows, where flowers were
in abundance, and therefore she had healthy and strong cows. And the hoopoe drove
his cattle to high, bare mountains, where only the wind blows the sand, and his cows
were therefore skinny and could not get better.

When evening came, and the shepherds drove the flocks home, the bittern could
not gather her cows, they were disobedient and ran away from her. And she shouted:
«Let’s go! Let’s go!», But it did not help, the cows did not obey her call. And the
hoopoe could not raise his cattle to their feet, since he became thin and powerless
with him. «Come on, come on, come on!» — he shouted, but it did not help, the cows
continued to lie on the sand.
So this is what happens if there is no measure in anything. Even now, when they

no longer graze the herd, the bittern shouts: «Let’s go!», And the hoopoe: «Come up,
come up, come up!»

8