472 ARDEID.E. 



So many examples of the Little Bittern have now been 

 taken in various parts of this country, that a brief enumera- 

 tion only will be necessary. Montagu mentions that one 

 was shot from the stump of a tree on the bank of the Avon, 

 near Bath ; and H. E. Strickland, Esq. sent me notice of one 

 that was shot in the spring of 1838, at Shobden Court, in 

 Herefordshire ; and this bird has also been killed in Shrop- 

 shire, and in South Wales. It has been killed in Cornwall, 

 and several times in Devonshire. One has been recorded as 

 having been killed at Lytchet, in Dorsetshire, and one is 

 also recorded to have been killed near Christchurch in Hamp- 

 shire. Berkshire has been named as producing one ; and a 

 specimen in my own collection was killed some years since on 

 Uxbridge Moor in Middlesex. In Norfolk several speci- 

 mens have been obtained. The figure at the head of this 

 subject was drawn from a very fine specimen in the collec- 

 tion of Dr. Thackeray, at King''s College, Cambridge ; a 

 specimen has been killed in Yorkshire, another at the mouth 

 of the Tyne, and another in Northumberland, now in the 

 collection which belonged to the late Sir M. W. Ridley, 

 Bart. From this last-mentioned bird Bewick's figure of the 

 adult Little Bittern was taken. Dr. Fleming mentions one 

 that was shot at Sanda, in Orkney ; and Mr. William 

 Thompson, in his recorded notes of the birds of Ireland, 

 mentions that a Little Bittern, shot in the county of Ar- 

 magh, is J3reserved in the cabinet of William Sinclair, Esq. 

 of Belfast. Specimens have also been obtained in the east 

 and south of Ireland. 



The Little Bittern has been killed as far north as Sweden. 

 It occurs occasionally in Germany, is rather connnon in Hol- 

 land, and is found in France, Provence, and Italy. It is 

 seen at Genoa on its passage northward ; and M. Necker says 

 that it is annually observed in Switzerland, where some few 

 stop to breed. The specimen from which Edwards drew the 



