COMMON BITTERN. 207 



FoKMERLY, when large portions of the British Islands 

 were uncultivated, and extensive marshes and waste land 

 afforded the Bittern abundance of retreats congenial to its 

 habits, it was plentifully distributed over the country ; but 

 as cultivation has extended, and the marshes have been 

 drained, its numbers have gradually decreased, and although 

 not absolutely a rare bird, its presence is not always to be 

 reckoned upon, for in one year it may be tolerably common, 

 and then for several succeeding seasons scarcely to be pro- 

 cured at all. In proof of the correctness of these remarks, 

 Selby observes that at the present day the capture of a- 

 Bittern is, in many parts of England, a subject of great 

 interest; yet in the winter of 1830-31, he was credibly in- 

 formed that no less than ten were exposed for sale in one 

 morning at Bath. In the same season, according to Mr. 

 W. E. Clarke, about sixty examples were obtained in York- 

 shire ; and Heysham, of Carlisle, has recorded that during 

 the months of December, 1831, and January and February, 

 1832, eight specimens of the Bittern were killed in that 

 part of Cumberland ; which was the more remarkable, as 

 only a single specimen had been met with in the same 

 district for ten or twelve years previous. Thompson says 

 that in the winter of 1830-31 Bitterns were unusually 

 numerous in Ireland. Allis, of York, sent the Author word 

 that in the winter of 1837 a bird-preserver in Bath had a 

 dozen Bitterns through his hands in a comparatively short 

 space of time. In subsequent years similar arrivals have 

 been noted ; and it may be taken as a rule that severe 

 Aveather on the Continent will be followed by the apparition 

 of this species in some numbers. In the winters of 1863-4, 

 18G7, and 1874-5 there were large immigrations. Of 

 Lincolnshire Mr. Cordeaux writes to the Editor: — " I have 

 talked to old men who have assured me they have frequently 

 heard the ' butter-bumps ' [a well-known onomatopoetic name 

 for the Bittern], booming in the low grounds in this parish 

 (Great Cotes) at the beginning of this century. Sir Charles 

 H. T. Anderson wrote me (Jan. 4, 1875) : ' A Bittern killed 

 itself in Lea parish in 1814 flying against a tree in a fog ; 



