56 RESIDENTS AND MIGRANTS. 



twice in Scotland, and is stated to have been once ob- 

 tained in Ireland. 



NIGHT HEEON. Nycticorax yriseus (Linnaeus). 



There is good reason to believe that this bird at one 

 time nested annually in England in suitable localities. 

 Although this is no longer the case, specimens are still 

 met with at irregular intervals every year (I have notes 

 of its occurrence in upwards of fifty instances), and 

 it may accordingly be considered an annual visitant. 



An interesting account of the nesting-habits of this 

 bird, as observed by Mr. Swinhoe, will be found in 

 ' The Ibis ' for 1861, p. 53. 



COMMON BITTEEN. Botaurus stellaris (Linnaeus). 



At one time common in England and Ireland; but 

 the drainage of marsh-lands has almost entirely de- 

 terred it from nesting here. It is now most frequently 

 met with in winter. Messrs. Lubbock and Stevenson, 

 in their respective works, refer to several instances of 

 its having nested in Norfolk. Graves, in his ' British 

 Ornithology,' mentions a nest on the river Cam in 

 1821, which contained four young birds and an addled 

 egg ; and gives a figure of the old bird, which was 

 shot off the nest. In 1849 or 1850, a nest containing 

 four eggs was found at Tring Reservoir, Herts* ; and 

 a few years later a nest and eggs were taken, and the 

 female bird shot, near Drayton Beauchamp, Bucksf ; 

 while, in the latest instance recorded, a nest con- 



* A. G. More, in The Ibis,' 1865, p. 433. 



t A. C. Kennedy, in < The Zoologist,' 1868, p. 1255. 



