506 BRITISH BIRDS. 



BOTAURUS LENTIGINOSUS. 

 AMERICAN BITTERN. 



(PLATE 39.) 



Ardea botaurus freti hudsonis, Briss. Orn. v. p. 450 (1760). 



Ardea stellaris, var., Forst. Phil. Trans. Ixii. p. 410 (1772). 



Ardea stellaris, ft, Gmel. Syst. Nat. i. p. 636 (1788). 



Ardea lentiginosa, Mont. Orn. Diet, suppl. & pi. (1813) ; et auctorum pluri- 



morum Temminck, Audubon, (Keyserliny fy Blasius), (Coues), Dresser, &c. 

 Ardea minor, Wils. Am. Orn. viii. p. 35, pi. 65. fig. 3 (1814). 

 Ardea mokoho, FiW#. N. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. xiv. p. 440 (1817). 

 Botaurus lentiginosus (Mont.), Steph. Shaw's Gen. Zool. xi. p. 596 (1819). 

 Ardea hudsonias, Merr. Ersch fy Grub. Encycl. v. p. 175 (1820). 

 Botaurus minor (Wils.), Boie, Isis, 1826, p. 979. 

 Butor americana, Swains. Classif. B. ii. p. 354 (1837). 

 Butor lentiginosus (Mont.), Jard. Brit. B. iii. p. 147 (1842). 

 Botaurus adspersus, Licht. Nomencl. Av. p. 89 (1854). 

 Ardea freti-hudsonis, Schl. Mils. Pays-Bas, Ardeee, p. 49 (1863). 

 Botaurus niugitans, Coues, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sc. Phil. 1875, p. 353. 



The type of Ardea lentiginosa, which is now in the British Museum, was 

 shot by Mr. Cunningham near Piddletown in Dorsetshire in the autumn 

 of 1804 (Montagu, 'Orn. Diet/ suppl. & pi., under the heading of 

 "Freckled Heron "). Since that date sixteen examples were recorded 

 between the years 1829 and 1875, of which six were obtained in Scotland, 

 three in Ireland, two in Wales, four in England, and one in Guernsey. 

 With the exception of one example which was obtained on the 25th of 

 March, 1873, in Dumfriesshire (Gunny, ' Zoologist/ 1876, p. 4929), all 

 these specimens were obtained in the months of October, November, and 

 December. To this list an eighteenth example must be added, which was 

 shot on the 1st of November, 1883, near Bally nahinch, in co. Down. 

 Mr. Lloyd Patterson informs me that he examined it in the flesh two days 

 after it was shot, and ascertained it to be a male. The occurrence of the 

 American Bittern in the British Islands is no doubt owing to the pre- 

 valence of westerly gales in autumn, which drive the birds out of their 

 usual line of migration. One of the " fly-lines " of this species crosses the 

 Bermuda Islands ; and Captain Reid writes (' Zoologist/ 1877, p. 473) 

 that the American Bittern is a regular visitant there in autumn (no less 

 than thirteen having been shot by one officer in the autumn of 1875), 

 but that on spring migration it is only occasionally seen in March. 

 These facts are remarkably coincident with the dates of its appearance in 

 our islands. 



