LITTLE BITTERN.—COMMON BITTERN. 159 
specimen, killed in Mr. Heath’s marshes at Horning, was 
sold in Yarmouth to some local collector, and on the 
3rd of September, 1864, the last that has been observed 
in this county was shot off a “rand” on Horsey Mere. 
This bird, which was in perfect plumage, was sent to 
London by Mr. Rising, to be stuffed, but he assures 
me that the specimen returned to him, as his own, had 
not the slightest resemblance to the one he forwarded, 
which he has never been able to recover. 
From this list of some twenty specimens, all pro- 
cured within the bounds of the “Broad” district, 
either in Norfolk or Suffolk, it will be seen that taking 
only the cases in which the exact dates are known, no 
less than nine have been killed during the summer 
months (May, June, and July); four in winter 
(December and February); and one only in autumn 
(September). With reference to the somewhat puzzling 
plumage of this species, Messrs. Gurney and Fisher 
remark that, “from an inspection of the specimens 
obtained, from time to time, in this district, we incline to 
the opinion that, if the females of this species ultimately 
arrive at a plumage similar to that of the adult males, 
as is asserted by modern naturalists, it is only at a much 
more advanced period than that at which the same 
plumage is assumed by the latter, and it appears quite 
certain that the female in the supposed immature 
plumage pairs with the adult male.” 
BOTAURUS STELLARIS (Linneus.) 
COMMON BITTERN. 
It is a remarkable fact, as I have before stated, that 
of the rarer species recorded by Sir Thomas Browne 
as nesting in Norfolk in 1671, but two, the spoonbill 
