ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



patch. The legs and toes are of a greenish brown 

 colour. 



" Altogether, it is a fine-looking bird, and decidedly 

 nobler in appearance than the native breeds which haunt 

 our fens and water-meadows. It has been, we understand, 

 forwarded to Culzean Castle." 



The Earl of Cassillis writes me from Culzean Castle 

 (in litt. 19, xii. 1909) : "There are three Bitterns here, . . . 

 one shot in 1871 or 1872 ; another later; and the third 

 shot in Albania by my father. . . . There is nothing here 

 of the American Bittern you wrote me about, as shot in 

 1848." 



This occurrence is not mentioned by Robert Gray in his 

 " Birds of Ayrshire and Wigtownshire," 1 869, nor in his "Birds 

 of the West of Scotland," 1871. Howard Saunders does not 

 refer to it in his " Manual of British Birds," 1899 5 nor does 

 Mr. J. E. Harting in his " Handbook of British Birds," 1901. 

 It is possible, however, that this record may not have 

 been unknown to these authorities ; but may have been 

 purposely disregarded by them for some good reason of 

 which I am not aware. 



There can be no doubt that the American Bitterns which 

 have visited Scotland have been aided in their passage 

 across the Atlantic by vessels of some sort plying between 

 America and Great Britain ; and the following list has been 

 compiled of all recorded occurrences of this species in 

 Scotland : 



