ARDEID&. 359 
advance of the carpal joint of the wing when the 
wing is closed, a few of the feathers have dark 
centres, with buff-coloured margins; breast, belly, 
thighs and under tail-coverts buff, with a small 
patch of white about the vent; under wing-coverts 
and axillary plume pale buff; the legs, toes and 
claws greenish yellow. 
The egg is said to be of a uniform dull white. 
Common Birrern, Botaurus stellaris. This spe- 
cies is much more common, not only in this county, 
but generally throughout England, than the Little 
Bittern; but it is not now so much so as it was for- 
merly, partly perhaps on account of the gun being so 
much more in use, and partly on account of the 
spread of cultivation and drainage, and the conse- 
quent destruction of many of its favourite boggy 
resorts. The last that has come under my notice is 
in the possession of Mr. Bidgood, the Curator of the 
Museum at Taunton: it was killed in the Marsh, 
in December, 1867, and other specimens have oc- 
curred from time to time in various other parts of 
the county. 
The Bittern is resident in England throughout 
the year, and breeds here; but its nest not being 
often found, the following note from the ‘ Zoologist’ 
for 1868 may be interesting:—A nest was found 
near one of the Broads in Norfolk, on the 30th of 
March, with two eggs in it: the nest was composed 
of reeds and sticks, as seems to be usually the case. 
