ARDEID.E. 1 87 



of 1826, was believed to have been bred there. Two 

 reasons are given for this supposition ; firstly, from 

 the fact of the situation being favourable from the 

 quantity of reeds ; and secondly, from the circum- 

 stance of a second bird, in the same state of plumage, 

 being observed about the same spot where the other 

 was killed, for several days, about the same time. 



The food of this bird consists of small fish, frogs, 

 lizards, and insects. 



In the Field of the 29th of September, 1865, 

 there is a notice of a specimen of the Little Bittern, 

 which was shot at Maidenhead by Mr. T. Marshall, in 

 the latter end of August in that year.* A Windsor 

 birdstuffer informed me of some which were procured 

 in Berkshire several years ago, but he had for- 

 gotten the dates on which they were brought to him. 



I was informed by Mr. Gould that he had a fine 

 Little Bittern brought to him, which was shot by 

 Simon Wilder, a fisherman, forty years ago, on the 

 river Thames, just above Monkey Island. Mr. Ash- 

 mead observes, in the Zoologist for July, 1867, that 

 a specimen of this occasional visitor was captured on 

 Mr. Holmes's pond at Wargrave, on the 4th of May. 

 It was a female, and eggs were in process of 

 formation. 



Bittern {Botaimis stellaris). Were marsh lands 

 and fens more common, the Bittern would still be a 

 familiar bird ; but, alas ! the spread of cultivation has 



■ * Mr. James Britten also sent me. a notice of this bird.- 



