THE COMMON BITTERN. 61 



drained ; also that John Davidson, an aged farm servant at 

 Oldcastles, who had been brought up there, had mentioned 

 to him that in his youth he had often heard the Bull o' the 

 Bog bellowing at night in the vicinity. 



Mr. Thomas Hewit, Auchencrow, stated to me on the 

 23rd of June 188G, that in his younger days he had fre- 

 quently heard old people speak of hearing the Bull o' the 

 Bog in the neighbouring Mire ; and Mr. John Ferguson, 

 Duns, relates that he has got similar accounts from villagers 

 at Chirnside. A male Bittern was shot at the Hirsel in 

 1817, and another in the following year ; ^ and a specimen 

 was killed at Eedhcugh, in the parish of Cockburnspath, by 

 Mr. Johnston, on the 6th of December 1834.^ Mr. Kelly, 

 Lauder, writing in 1875, says: "I have ascertained from 

 Mr. Simson that Huntley wood Moss was once (1810) a 

 favourite haunt of the Bittern, or ' Bull o' the Bog ; ' and 

 for thirty years later occasional birds have been gotten, 

 but it is now quite deserted." ^ The last example seen 

 in the neighbourhood of Mellerstain, according to Mr. John 

 Thomson (writing in 1886), was "shot on Minchie Moss 

 about forty years ago." Mr. John Aitchison, plasterer. 

 Duns, informed me on the 20th of May 1886, that a 

 Bittern was shot by John Hogg, gamekeeper, Preston, 

 about 1851, on the estate of Cumledge near the Knebs 

 Eocks, on some rough ground by the side of the Whitadder, 

 not far from the place where the old Waulk Mill stood. It 

 was killed in the " back end " of the year, and was " stuffed " 

 by Mr. Henderson, cabinetmaker. Duns. It was seen in 

 his hands by Mr. Aitchison, Mr. W. Duns, builder, Mr. W. 

 Marshall, blacksmith, and Mr. Thomas Cockburn, baker, all 



1 These specimens are iu the Hawick Museum, where I saw them on the 27th 

 of August 1890. Tlie labels upon tliem state that the birds were preserved by 

 "John Wilson, College Preserver of Birds and Quadrupeds to the Museum in the 

 University of Edinburgh." 



2 Hist. Ber. Nat, Club, vol. i. p. 66, 3 Jbid. vol, vii. p. 305. 



