LITTLE BITTERN. : 155 
during the summer months, and, in one instance, a per- 
fect ege was taken from a female killed near Lowestoft. 
Its skulking habits, however, and the almost im- 
penetrable nature of the swamps it frequents renders 
detection, except by the merest accident, extremely 
improbable. Of its identification in this county, I find 
no record prior to the commencement of the present 
century, but in Messrs. Sheppard and Whitear’s cata- 
logue it is first mentioned, a specimen having been 
killed at Burlingham in the winter of 1819, as those 
authors were informed by Mr. Hunt of Norwich. Next 
in point of date is most probably the male bird, stated 
by Mr. Lombe* in his MS. notes, to have been Jilled 
at South Walsham, in May, 1822. 
Of the three specimens enumerated by the Messrs. 
Paget in 1834, the first, as stated by Yarrell on Mr. 
Lubbock’s authority, was an immature bird “caught 
by a water-dog, at Hickling, near Ludham, during 
the extreme frost of 1822-23,” and presented by Mr. 
Lubbock to the late Mr. Girdlestone. The second, 
which formed part of the late Mr. C. A. Preston’s col- 
lection (now in the possession of Mr. E. 8. Preston, 
of Yarmouth), is described by the Messrs. Paget as 
having been killed at Lowestoft in June, 1830, and 
is, very probably, the same mentioned in Mr. Lombe’s 
to have been seen; the sandwich tern visits us merely in spring 
and autumn, and the only record of the golden oriole remaining 
here to breed is extremely doubtful. Nor could I ascertain that 
the little bittern had been either heard or seen in any part of the 
county in the year 1865. I have reason to know that Mr. Sharpe 
is fully convinced that in this instance he was grossly deceived, 
and, as a zealous ornithologist, regrets that he ever appended his 
name to so doubtful a statement. 
* There is no evidence to show whence Mr. Lombe procured 
the pair, which are still preserved in his fine collection at 
Wymondham. 
x 2 
