COMMON BITTERN. 209 



Bittern taken in that county ; and Mr. W. R. Fisher gave 

 the Author a drawing of one taken, with an addled egg, at 

 Ranworth, by Mr. D. B. Preston, and figured in ' The 

 Zoologist' (p. 1321). An egg in the collection of Prof. 

 Newton was taken at Horsey in 1841 ; an unfledged bird 

 was picked up alive in the marshes near Yarmouth about 

 1845, and lived in captivity till the winter of 1847 ; and 

 Mr. Gurney has three nestlings, taken at Surlingham or 

 Ranworth in 1847 or 1848. The latest recorded instance 

 is of a nest found on a small broad at Upton, on the 30th 

 of March, 1868, containing two eggs, now in the possession 

 of Mr. H. M. Upcher, of Feltwell ; and on the 25th of 

 May of that year a young bird was caught alive in the 

 same locality. Considering that out of 108 specimens stated 

 by Mr. Stevenson to have been brought into Norwich in the 

 course of eighteen years, fifteen were obtained in February, 

 ten in March, and one in April, there can be no doubt that if 

 unmolested the ' boom ' of the Bittern might again be heard 

 in our land during the breeding- season. 



In Scotland, according to Mr. R. Gray, the Bittern is not 

 a common species anywhere, but he has seen examples from 

 almost every county ; and it occasionally straggles to the 

 Outer Hebrides, the Orkneys, and the Shetlands. In Ireland 

 it used to breed until the first quarter of this century in the 

 marshes at the confluence of the Blackwater and Bride, in 

 CO. Waterford ; but now it is principally an irregular winter 

 visitant. 



According to Reinhardt, the Bittern has once occurred 

 as a straggler in Greenland. It is a summer visitor to 

 Sweden up to about 60° N, lat., and its range can be traced 

 through Northern Russia to latitudes varying from 57° to 

 64° : the latter on the Yenesei. Southwards its summer 

 distribution extends throughout the entire Palsearctic region 

 from the Azores to China and Japan. In the warmer parts 

 of Europe it is resident ; its numbers being augmented in 

 winter by migrants from the north. It breeds in Persia and 

 in Northern and Central India, and has occurred in Burmah ; 

 but Colonel Legge does not mention it among the birds 



VOL. IV. E E 



