BITTERN 313 



Whitely, an immature bird of the Night-Heron, which 

 had been shot in Plumstead Marshes, Kent, in December, 

 1883. 



Genus BOTAURUS, Stephens. 



BITTERN. 



Botauvus stellaris (Linnaeus). S.N., i., p. 239 

 (1776). 



The Bittern was a frequent visitor to Kent before the 

 draining of the large marshes, but even now they are 

 occasionally taken in the more secluded lakes and over- 

 grown swamps. 



Boys includes it in the Birds of Sandwich, 1792. The 

 Kev. J. Pemberton Bartlett, writing in 1844, says it is 

 " not common." It is recorded from Cobham in 1848. 

 A female was shot at Swanscombe in 1853, and recorded 

 by Mr. W. Cooke. Mr. E. Newman mentions an ex- 

 tremely fine male which was killed in 1864 at Orpington, 

 Kent, and another in Kent in 1875. Mr. G. Dowker adds 

 it to the birds of Stourmouth. A specimen now in the 

 collection of Mr. W. Oxenden Hammond, at Canterbury, 

 was obtained at Wadnall Wood, Everington, Kent. It 

 was obtained at Queensborough and Stoke in 1884 ; 

 Snodland and Cooling in 1890. Mr. E. J. Balston 

 procured it at Headcorn, January 4, 1890, and another 

 at Pluckley, Kent, December 22, 1899 ; the former is in 

 the Maidstone Museum, the latter was spoilt, as the 

 retriever would not fetch it off the ice, which was too 

 thin for a man to venture upon, eventually it was got 

 when the ice was gone. 



Mr. A. B. Earn, in writing to the Zoologist, 1899, says : 



