94 



LITTLE BITTERN, ETC. 



(Reprinted from " The Field" Newspaper, September 1st, 1866.) 



MR. STTRTEES, of Benridge, has given me a male Little Bittern, 

 in perfect plumage, which was shot by his keeper on the 31st of 

 May last : it has been preserved by Duncan, of Newcastle-upon- 

 Tyne. Bewick's figure of this bird was taken from one procured 

 within a few miles of the same place, and on the same stream, 

 upwards of half a century since, a little earlier in the same 

 month. This reminds one that when a bird has been once met 

 with, another of the same sort may be found not far off at some 

 future time. This species, though a regular summer visitant to 

 some parts of the Continent, appears always to have been a mere 

 periodical straggler in England, and not one of those made more 

 scarce by being destroyed or driven away in consequence of the 

 alteration of the face of the country. It is not noticed by Wil- 

 lughby in his work, and had it been of frequent occurrence in his 

 time it would hardly have escaped his observation, notwithstand- 

 ing its retired habits. Some persons have suggested that the 

 Little Bittern may sometimes breed in England ; but as atten- 

 tion has been paid to Natural History for so many years, and by 

 so many persons without the nest or unfledged young having cast 

 up the only conclusive proofs the probability is that it does 

 not. Several migratory species of birds take very long flights 

 immediately before their breeding season commences, and also 

 immediately after it has finished, the consequence of which is 

 that we find some species on our coasts sometimes as late as the 

 first week in June, which have never been found breeding in 

 this country, and must be then far from their breeding grounds ; 

 and we find others again returned to England by the middle of 

 July. The Whimbrel, a strictly migratory bird, neither spend- 

 ing winter nor summer with us, though many of them do not go 

 so far north to breed as some' other species, passes England in 

 the spring till June, going to breed, and some repass from their 

 breeding grounds as early as July. The only way apparently to 

 account for this is, that those which pass earliest do not go so 



