120 BRITISH BIRDS, THEIR EGGS AND NESTS. 
182. COMMON BITTERN—(Botaurus stellaris). 
Mire Drum, Butter-bump, Bog-bumper, Bittour, Bumpy-coss, 
Bull-of-the-Bog, Bog-blutter, Bog-jumper.—Clearances and drain- 
age, and the onward strides of agriculture, and the gun, and the 
‘pursuit of specimen-hunters and collectors have made this a rare 
species almost everywhere. It was common enough a century or 
two since; and many a fertile cornfield, which then was a seem- 
ingly hopeless marsh and bog, has resounded far and wide 
with the deep, booming, bellowing ery of the Bittern. Recorded 
instances even of its nesting here are becoming more and more 
rare and unusual, and ere long itis to be feared this beautifully 
plumaged bird will be among the things that “have been.” Its 
nest is composed of sticks, reeds and like matters, built on the 
ground, at no great distance from the water it frequents, and hid 
among the plentiful water-growth found at the edges of shallow 
standing waters. The eggs are three to five in number, of an 
uniform olive-brown colour.—Fig. 2, plate VIII. 
183. AMERICAN BITTERN—(Botarus lentiginosus). 
A bird of rare and most accidental occurrence in England. 
"184. NIGHT HERON—(Wycticorax Gardeni.) 
Gardenian Heron, Spotted Heron, Night Raven—This bird 
claims to be a British Bird, masmuch as upwards of a dozen 
specimens have been met with here. But it does not breed 
with us, if indeed commonly at all in Europe. 
185. WHITE STORK—(Ciconia alba). 
A much too conspicuous object not be noticed whenever its — 
visits have been paid to our shores. Accordingly, we find it had 
long been known as a visitor, though the instances of its occur- 
rence in the last generation or two are noticeably less frequent 
than in former days. As breeding abundantly in Holland, it 
would be strange if the Stork did not come to us sometimes. 
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