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BITTERN. 



COMMON BITTERN. MIRE DRUM. BITTER BUMP. 

 BOG BUMPER. 



Botaurus stellaris, SELBY. 



Ardea stellaris, PENNANT. MONTAGU. 



Botourus. Bos A. Bull. Taurus A Bull. Stellaris. 



THE Bittern visits some parts of Russia, Siberia, and 

 Denmark, and Scandinavia generally; and in a southerly 

 direction, France, Spain, and Italy, Galicia, Hungary, and 

 Holland. In Africa, it is known in Barbary, and, it is said, 

 at the Cape of Good Hope; also in Asia, in Japan, the 

 Dukkun, and other parts of India, and in China and Tartary. 



In Yorkshire the Bittern has been met with a few times 

 near Sheffield, and near Huddersfield, but very rarely; one 

 shot at Dalton, several in 1830; one at Whortley Park, 

 several between that place and Pontefract; others near Leeds. 

 It used to frequent Askham Bogs, near York, but is now 

 scarce, though occasionally pretty abundant. In 1837, about 

 a dozen passed through the hands of Mr. Henry Chapman, 

 bird-stuifer, of York; and in 1831, twenty-five specimens 

 were brought to Mr. Hugh Reid, of Doncaster. Fifteen 

 were shot near that town in one year. No doubt before 

 the drainage of the Cars, the outskirts of the famous level 

 of Hatfield Chase, the birds were common in that district; 

 but at present only a single one is occasionally seen. Upwards 

 of sixty were ascertained, by Mr. Thomas Allis, to have been 

 killed in the county in that year, in which they were 

 unusually abundant all over England. In the month of 

 December, eight were obtained in the neighbourhood of 



