BRITISH BIRDS, THEIR EGGS AND NESTS. 



birds, a rare one ; and, as certainly not breeding in our island, 

 possessing no claim upon us for lengthened notice here. 



181. LITTLE BITTERN (Botaurus minutus). 

 It would seem that this bird is to be looked upon rather as a 

 summer visitor to us ; and Mr. Yarrell says of it, " Some, if not 

 prevented, would probably have bred in this country." Still, 

 although the grounds for this opinion seem valid and conclusive, 

 no actual instance of nidification here has ever been ascertained. 



182. COMMON BITTERN (Botaurus stellaris). 

 Mire Drum. Butter-bump, Bog-bumper, Bittour, Bumpy-coss, 

 Bull-of-the-Bog, Bog-blutter, Bog-jumper. Clearances and drain- 

 age, and the onward strides of agriculture, and the gun, and the 

 pursuit of specimen-hunters and collectors have made this a rare 

 species almost everywhere. It was common enough a century or 

 two since ; and many a fertile cornfield, which then was a seem- 

 ingly hopeless marsh and bog, has resounded far and wide 

 with the deep, booming, bellowing cry of the Bittern. Recorded 

 instances even of its nesting here are becoming more and more 

 rare and unusual, and ere long it is to be feared this beautifully 

 plumaged bird will be among the things that " have been." Its 

 nest is composed of sticks, reeds and iikt matters, built on the 

 ground, at no great distance from the wate A it frequents, and hid 

 among the plentiful water-growth found at the edges of shallow 

 standing waters. The eggs are three to five in number, of an 

 uniform olive-brown colour. Fig. 2, plate VIII, 



183. AMERICAN BITTERN (Botamus lentiffinosus). 

 A bird of rare and most accidental occurrence in England. 



184. NIGHT HERON (Nyctieorax Gardeni.) 

 Gardenian Heron,, Spotted Heron, Night Raven. This bird 

 claims to be a British Bird, inasmuch as upwards of a dozen 

 specimens have been met with here. But it does not breed 

 with us, if indeed commonly at all in Europe. 



185. WHITE STORK (Ciconia alba). 



A much too conspicuous object not be noticed whenever its 

 visits have been paid to our shores. Accordingly, we find it has 

 long been known as a visitor, though the instances of its occur- 

 rence in the last generation or two are noticeably less frequent 

 than in former days. As breeding abundantly in Holland, it 

 would be strange if the Stork did not come to us sometimes. 



186. BLACK STORK (Ciconia nir/ra'). 



The Black Stork has occurred much more rarely than its" white 

 eonjrer-.er. 



