BITTERNS. 131 



BITTERN. Botaurm stellarts, (L.) 



Yarrell, iv. p. 206 ; Harting, p. 56 ; Dresser, vi. p. 281 ; Seebohm, 

 ii. p. 503; Ibis List, p. in; Ardea stellaris, Pulteney's 

 List, p. 13. 



Although at one time resident in the English fens, 

 the Bittern is now generally met with by snipe- 

 shooters, and is not uncommon as a winter visitor. 

 It is a skulking bird, and rarely seen except on the 

 wing ; its pale streaked plumage, the colour of dead 

 reeds, favouring its concealment. Pulteney states 

 that it is more frequently seen on the Frome than 

 on the Stour, as being more marshy. One was shot 

 at Bexington, Abbotsbury, in 1858 ; one at Bryant's 

 Piddle in 1874; two at Manston in December 1875 ; 

 three on the Bere river in the winter of 1875-76; 

 one at Wareham, January 6, 1877; and one at 

 Tarrant Crawford in February 1887. Mr. Pike in- 

 forms me that, when residing in the neighbourhood 

 of Wareham, in hard winters he often had Bitterns 

 brought to him, and that his brother once killed one 

 within a gunshot or two of Wareham Bridge. 



AMERICAN BITTERN. Botaurus lentiginosus, (Montagu). 



Yarrell, iv. p. 213; Harting, p. 150; Dresser, vi. p. 289; 

 Seebohm, ii. p. 506; Ibis List, p. in. 



Montagu in the Supplement to his " Ornithologi- 

 cal Dictionary," 1813, has, under the name of the 

 Freckled Heron, described and figured the only 

 specimen of this rare American visitor which has 



