176 



BIKDS OF NORFOLK. 



in his own collection, was shot by his father about two 

 hundred yards from the front of his residence, at Horsey, 

 in April, 1827. 



Since that time this species has become an extremely 

 rare visitant to our coast,* the only recent instance, 

 to my knowledge, being an immature bird, killed on the 

 8th of November, 1860, in the Caister marshes, near 

 Yarmouth. This specimen, now in the collection of the 

 Rev. C. J. Lucas, of Burgh, and sent to him, in the 

 flesh, as an American bittern, resembles the second 

 figure in Yarrell's wood-cut, having a triangular 

 white patch, of more or less extent, at the tip of each 

 feather. The feathers of the head and neck are also 

 streaked with brown and white, each feather broadly 

 edged with brown ; the quill and centre of the web 

 being white throughout. f It is most probable that the 

 specimen sold in Mr. Miller's collection, in 1853, was one 

 of those mentioned by the Messrs. Paget as obtained 

 in that neighbourhood, and Messrs. Sheppard and 

 Whitear were informed by Mr. Hunt, of Norwich, that 

 "one in his possession was shot in Suffolk, and was 

 kept alive some time, being only slightly wounded." 



* A male night-heron, in the Wisbech Museum, as I learn from 

 Mr. T. W. Foster, was killed at South Brink, Wisbech, in July, 

 1849. 



f In the " Ibis" for 1861, p. 53, in his notes " On the Orni- 

 thology of Hongkong, Macao, and Canton," my friend Mr. E. 

 Swinhoe gives a most interesting description of the breeding habits 

 of this species, from which it appears that "the immature plumage 

 of the yearling undergoes little change until the second winter, 

 or until the bird is over two years old." A bird in its first 

 plumage was found sitting on a nest containing eggs, and the 

 testes of one dissected in its juvenile dress, plainly indicated its 

 powers to breed at that age. 



