COMMON BITTERN. 401 



beginning of spring to the end of autumn, indications of their 

 presence rent the air — hence the distich : — 



" When on Potteric Carr the Butter Bumps cry. 

 The women of Bulby say summer is nigh." 



It used to be abundant formerly in the low grounds and 

 marshes of east Yorkshire, and a farmhouse, not far from the 

 site of the old Meaux Decoy, was called " Butter-bump Hall," 

 from the continuous booming of these birds which bred in 

 the adjacent marsh ; an old couplet ran : — 



" When the Butther-bumps cry, 

 Summer is nigh." 



Mr. F. Boyes has heard old people relate how on still summer 

 evenings it could be heard from close to the town of Beverley 

 as it boomed on the town moor, but drainage and cultivation 

 have banished it from many of its ancient summer haunts ; 

 it is, however, not a very rare bird in winter, and in severe 

 weather, when frozen out of its secluded retreats, it is compelled 

 to seek food in more open places where it falls a prey to the 

 gunner ; one or more may be found in a certain locality 

 almost any time during the winter months. 



A considerable flight of these birds took place in the north 

 of England in the year 1831, when Strickland and Allis together 

 collected a list of sixty occurrences in Yorkshire ; Hugh Reid 

 of Doncaster had twenty-five brought to him, and many were 

 killed in Wensleydale ; again in 1837 ^ dozen came into the 

 hands of a York bird-stuff er {fide Allis's Report). 



The instances of its visits in recent years are too numerous 

 for particularization ; it has been met with in most parts of 

 the county, even in the remote dales of the north-west, though 

 very irregularly, in severe winter weather, when it is driven 

 out of its otherwise secure haunts in Continental Europe ; 

 it was common early in 1875 in England, and the most recent 

 visitations in unusual numbers were in the winters of 1899- 

 1900 and 1904-5, when it was reported in many localities 

 in Yorkshire. 



In spring it is now very seldom observed. One occurred 

 at Cold Hiendly Reservoir, near Wakefield, on 25th May 1868 ; 



