152 BIRDS OF GUERNSEY. 



recorded instance of its occurrence in the Channel 

 Islands. 



It is not mentioned in Professor Ansted's list, 

 and there is no specimen in the Museum. 



131. BITTERN. Bot&urus stellaris, Linnaeus. 

 French, " Heron grand butor," " Le grand butor." 

 Bitterns were probably at one time more common 

 in Guernsey than they are at present, drainage 

 and better cultivation having contributed to thin 

 their numbers, as it has done in England ; and 

 Mr. MacCulloch tells me that in his youth they were 

 by no means uncommon. Of late years, however, 

 they have become much more uncommon, though, 

 as he adds, specimens have been shot within the 

 last three or four years. They seem now, however, 

 to be confined to occasional autumnal and winter 

 visitants. Mr. Couch says (' Zoologist' for 1871) : 

 " On the 30th December, 1874, after a heavy fall 

 of snow, I had a female Bittern brought to me to be 

 stuffed, shot in the morning in the Marais ; and on 

 the 2nd of January following another was shot on 

 the beach near the Vale Church. I had also part 

 of some of the quill-feathers of a Bittern sent to 

 me for identification by Mrs. Jago, which had been 

 killed in the Islands the last week in January, 1879." 

 These are the most recent specimens I have been 

 able to get any account of. The birdstuffer in 

 Alderney (Mr. Grieve) and his friend told me they 



