572 



FORMERLY, as Mr. Gould observes, when large portions 

 of the British Islands were uncultivated, and extensive 

 marshes and waste land afforded the Bittern abundance of 

 retreats congenial to its habits, it was plentifully distri- 

 buted over the country ; but as cultivation has extended, 

 and the marshes have been drained, its numbers have gra- 

 dually decreased, and although not absolutely a rare bird, 

 its presence is not always to be reckoned upon, for in one 

 year it may be tolerably common, and then for several 

 succeeding seasons scarcely to be procured at all. 



In proof of the correctness of these remarks, Mr. Selby 

 observes that at the present day the capture of a Bittern 

 is, in many parts of England, a subject of great interest ; 

 yet in the winter of 1830-31, he was credibly informed 

 that no less than ten were exposed for sale in one morning 

 at Bath. Mr. Allis, of York, sent me word that in the 

 winter of 1837, a bird-preserver in that city had a dozen 

 Bitterns through his hands in a comparatively short space 

 of time ; and Mr. Heysham, of Carlisle, has recorded that 

 during the month of December, 1831, and those of January 

 and February, 1832, no less than eight specimens of the 

 Bittern were killed in that part of Cumberland, which was 

 the more remarkable, as only a single specimen had been 

 met with in the same district for ten or twelve years 

 previous. 



I am able to refer to several records of the breeding 

 of the Bittern in this country. Mr. Eyton, in his Fauna 

 of Shropshire, says a hatch of these birds came off at 

 Cosford Pool, near Nufnal, in 1836, and during the same 

 summer, and in the same county, a pair of Bitterns bred 

 at Tonglake, Albrighton, in a reedy pond of half an 

 acre, surrounded by bushes, about half a mile from the 

 Holyhead road ; two young birds about half grown, were 

 caught by a farmer's boy. The authors of the catalogue 



