200 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[Sept. 1, 1866. 



some such excrescence of the truck as I have tried 

 to represent. The actual entrance into the tree in 

 this instance was by a narrow perpendicular slit, 

 two and a half inches long and three-tenths of an 

 inch wide, the upper part of which may be seen in 

 the specimen. The width, laterally, in the middle 

 of the stem of the structure, is exactly one and a 

 half inch. The weight of the whole, judgiug by the 

 portion I have, may have been half a pound. 



C. P. 



THE LITTLE BITTERN {Ardea minntd). 



rpHE student-lover of the natural history of our 

 -"- country always feels, as each fresh pheno- 

 menon is brought under his notice, a new interest 

 given to his pursuits, an additional stimulus to his 

 exertions. Whether the discovered object be 

 common or rare is at first of little import, so long as 

 it possesses the merit of being new. But, perhaps, 

 after consulting his books, or his more learned 

 companions, our friend finds that what is fresh to 

 him is by no means unknown to the world at large; 

 and then, although he cannot altogether ignore the 

 delight which he has already experienced, he may 

 feel that it has been thrown away upon a compara- 

 tively unworthy object. Suppose, however, on the 

 other hand, that his " find " should be really inter- 

 esting, not merely to the novice who has obtained 

 it, but to the scientific community generally, we 

 cannot but admit that there is a certain feeling of 

 pleasure connected with it, which is renewed: as 

 often as the object is contemplated. We may well 

 suppose that this feeling is experienced in no 

 ordinary degree by the few favoured individuals to 

 whose lot it falls to obtain a specimen of the bird 

 whose portrait stands opposite — the Little Bittern 

 {Ardea minutd). 



The earliest mention of the Little Bittern as a 

 British bird occurs in a valuable old work, perhaps 

 less known than it deserves, and published in 1667 — 

 Christopher Merrett's "Pinax Rerum Naturalium 

 Brittanicarum." In this book, immediately suc- 

 ceeding the mention of "Ardea stellaris— the 

 Bittourn," comes the following:— "Ardea minor, 

 quam ad me transmisit Dr. Jenner, ex agro Wil- 

 toniensi." Of course, in those bygone days, when 

 observers were few, and books on natural history 

 fewer, we could not expect to find the Little 

 Bittern an object of much observation; and it is 

 not until 1S0S that it is mentioned by Montagu as 

 having been noticed "contiguous to the river 

 Credey, in Devonshire," where three specimens 

 were shot. The county of Norfolk appears to have 

 produced several examples; in 1826, a young 

 specimen was shot on the banks of the Thames near 

 Windsor, which Yarrell remarks, "was believed to 

 have been bred there, from the situation being 



favourable, and the circumstance of a second bird in 

 the same state of plumage being seen about the 

 same spot for several days at that time." Speci- 

 mens, but seldom more than two or three, have 

 been obtained, at various dates, from the counties 

 of Devon, Cornwall, Dorset, Hants, Somerset, 

 Berks, Middlesex, Salop, York, and Northumber- 

 land; also from North Wales, from the east and 

 south of Ireland, and from the Orkney Islands. 

 We have recently heard of a specimen obtained 

 near Deal. The specimen figured was shot by 

 Mr. Thomas Marshall, of High Wycombe, at the 



Fig. 196. The Little Bittern. 



latter end of last year : it was killed as it flew from 

 a well-known island in the river Thames, called 

 Queen's Ait, about halfway between Maidenhead 

 and Windsor, and just within the confines of the 

 county of Bucks : the island is said to be admirably 

 adapted for its nidification. At about the same 

 time another specimen was shot at Christchurch, 

 Hants, by Mr. Hart ; in which locality the Little 

 Bittern had previously occurred. 



There is, we believe, no recorded instance of an 

 egg of the Little Bittern having been obtained iu 

 Britain. Mr. R. B. Sharpe, indeed, recently men- 

 tioned, in the "Naturalist" that he had received a 

 genuine specimen from Norfolk, and was kind 

 enough to offer it for our inspection ; but the results 

 of further investigation are very unsatisfactory, and 



