The Birds of Pembrokeshtre. 63 
former days, the Bittern was a resident wherever there were mires 
and reed and rush-grown bogs for it to skulk in, and was, 
doubtless, a common Pembrokeshire bird. 
AMERICAN BITTERN, Botaurus Jlentiginosus. — A very rare, 
accidental straggler from America—only one specimen—that 
obtained at St. David’s, in October, 1872 (vide Zoologist for 1883, 
p. 341). This bird was seen and identified by Mr. Cecil Smith, 
the author of ‘The Birds of Somerset.” Mr. Smith states that 
he saw it in the possession of Mr. Greenway, who had shot it. 
Mr. Greenway had recorded it at the time in Land and Water, 
with some doubt as to its being the American Bittern. It is 
singular that only two stragglers from America, this species and 
the Yellow-billed Cuckoo, have occurred on the coasts of 
Pembrokeshire, while upwards of a dozen have been noticed on 
the no very distant coasts of Devon and Cornwall. We can only 
surmise that others may have visited us without having been 
noticed or recorded. 
SPOONBILL, P/atalea /eucorodiai—An occasional visitor in the 
winter ; not very rare, sometimes arriving in considerable flocks. 
The direction from which the Pembrokeshire Spoonbills reach 
us is somewhat of a puzzle. The bird is a common species in 
Holland, and, therefore, as might naturally be expected, a 
regular visitor to the eastern counties of England. But birds 
crossing the German Ocean do not penetrate so far to the west 
as the Principality, save in a very few exceptional instances. We 
must, therefore, look to some other quarter for our Spoonbills, 
and are inclined to believe that they come to us from the south 
of Spain v7é the Bay of Biscay. Flocks of Spoonbills have been 
observed in the winter-time on the north coast of Cornwall, 
and this would seem to favour the route we have suggested. We 
learn from Mr. H. Mathias that, in the years 1854 and 1855, as 
many as eleven Spoonbills were shot on the shores of Milford 
Haven. The specimen in Mr. Mathias’ collection at the Tenby 
