ARDEID.'E. 



383 







THE COMMON BITTERN. 



BoTAURUS STELLARis (Liiinceus). 



The extensive reed-swamps and marshes, to which the Bittern 

 resorts during the breeding-season, have greatly decreased of late 

 years in England, owing to drainage and cultivation ; nevertheless, 

 its eggs were occasionally found in the Broad-district of Norfolk 

 down to March 30th 1868, and as recently as August 1SS6 a 

 young bird with down still adhering to it was obtained there. Before 

 the reclamation of the East Anglian fens the ' Butter-bump,' as it 

 was called from its note, bred in them annually, as it did also in 

 other suitable portions of England and Wales ; while, even at the 

 present day, so many of the birds which visit us are shot in spring, 

 that, if a little forbearance were exercised, the ' boom ' of the Bittern 

 might again be regularly heard in our land. To the mainland of 

 Scotland the species is only an irregular visitor, occasionally wander- 



