Editing Eurasian bittern (section)

==Taxonomy and etymology==
This species was [[Species description|first described]] as ''Ardea asteria sive stellaris'' as early as 1603 by [[Ulisse Aldrovandi]] in his Ornithologiae.<ref>{{cite book | last= Aldrovandi| first= Ulisse | year= 1603 | title= Ornithologiae - Tomus tertius ac postremus | publisher= Nicola Tebaldi | location = Bologna | pages = 403 ff}} https://gdz.sub.uni-goettingen.de/id/PPN36761202X</ref> In 1660 the ornithologist Thomas Browne referred to it as ''Ardea stellaris botaurus''<ref>The Miscellaneous writings of Sir Thomas Browne edited by Geoffrey Keynes pub. Cambridge University Press 1931 where Browne writes, 'The Ardea stellaris botaurus, or bitour, is also common & esteemed the better dish. In the belly of one I found a frog in a hard frost at Christmas. Another I kept in a garden 2 yeares, feeding it with fish, mice, & frogges; in defect of whereof, making a scrape for sparrowes & small birds, the bitour made shift to maintaine herself upon them'.</ref> and then the Swedish naturalist [[Carl Linnaeus]] in his ''[[Systema Naturae]]'' of 1758 named it again as ''Ardea stellaris''. It is placed in the subfamily [[Botaurinae]], and its closest relatives are the [[American bittern]] (''Botaurus lentiginosus''), the [[pinnated bittern]] (''Botaurus pinnatus'') and the [[Australasian bittern]] (''Botaurus poiciloptilus'').<ref>{{cite web |url=http://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Botaurus/classification/ |title=''Botaurus'': Brown bitterns |author1=Myers, P. |author2=Espinosa, R. |author3=Parr, C.S. |author4=Jones, T. |author5=Hammond, G.S. |author6=Dewey, T.A. |work=Animal Diversity Web |publisher=University of Michigan |access-date=11 November 2015}}</ref> Two races of Eurasian bittern are recognised; the [[Subspecies|nominate subspecies]] ''B. s. stellaris'' has a [[Palearctic realm|palearctic]] distribution and occurs across a broad swathe of Europe, North Africa and Asia, while the other subspecies, ''B. s. capensis'', occurs only in southern Africa.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://avibase.bsc-eoc.org/species.jsp?avibaseid=0F42F11AC607C758 |title=Great Bittern: ''Botaurus stellaris'' (Linnaeus, 1758) |work=Avibase |access-date=10 November 2015}}</ref> The name ''capensis'' was used for species found in the [[Afrotropical realm|Afrotropics]] for which no exact range was known.<ref name=job14>{{cite book | last= Jobling | first= James A | year= 2010| title= The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names | publisher=Christopher Helm | location = London | isbn = 978-1-4081-2501-4 | page=[http://www.slideshare.net/mahmoudghonim/helm-dictionary-of-scientific-bird-names 14]}}</ref>

The generic name ''Botaurus'' was given by the English naturalist [[James Francis Stephens]], and is derived from [[Medieval Latin]] ''butaurus'', "bittern", itself constructed from the [[Middle English]] name for the bird, ''botor''.<ref name=job>{{cite book | last= Jobling | first= James A | year= 2010| title= The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names | url= https://archive.org/details/Helm_Dictionary_of_Scientific_Bird_Names_by_James_A._Jobling | publisher=Christopher Helm | location = London | isbn = 978-1-4081-2501-4 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/Helm_Dictionary_of_Scientific_Bird_Names_by_James_A._Jobling/page/n75 75], 365}}</ref> [[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]] gave a fanciful derivation from ''Bos'' (ox) and ''taurus'' (bull), because the bittern's call resembles the bellowing of a bull.<ref name = oedbitt>{{cite web| title= Bittern (1)| work= Oxford English Dictionary| url= http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/19574?rskey=Qgen84&result=1#eid | publisher=Oxford University Press | access-date =16 May 2016  }}{{subscription required}}</ref> The species name ''stellaris'' is [[Latin]] for "starred", from ''stella'', "star", and refers to the speckled [[Feather|plumage]].<ref name=job/>

Its folk names, often local, include many variations on the themes of "barrel-maker", "bog-bull", "bog hen", "bog-trotter", "bog-bumper", "mire drum[ble]", "butter bump", "bitter bum",<ref name=Bewick/> "bog blutter", "bog drum", "boom bird", "bottle-bump", "bull of the bog", "bull of the mire", "bumpy cors", and "heather blutter".<ref name=BB>{{cite book |last1=Cocker |first1=Mark |last2=Mabey |first2=Richard |author2-link=Richard Mabey |title=Birds Britannica |title-link=Birds Britannica |date=2005 |location=London |publisher=[[Chatto & Windus]] |isbn=0-7011-6907-9 |pages=40–44}}</ref> Most of these were [[onomatopoeia|onomatopoeic]] colloquial names for the bird; the call was described as "bumping"<ref name=Browne1646/> or "booming". [[Mire]] and [[bog]] denote the bird's habitat.<ref name=wildlifeupclose/>