BIRDS 



114. Common Heron. Ardea cinerea, Linn. 

 ' The Heron, Jrdea cinerea, is of frequent 



occurrence, although no heronry now exists 

 in the county, and the nearest is in the 

 park adjacent to Warwick Castle.' So 

 wrote Hastings in 1834, but since that date 

 there has been a heronry in the park at 

 Ragley, and a few breed there at the present 

 time. In Worcestershire the only heronry 

 now (1901) is in Shrawley Wood. The 

 authority above quoted adds in a note : ' A 

 heronry existed some years ago at Croome, 

 but the birds being troublesome, and making 

 too free with the fish of the ponds, it was 

 destroyed.' 



115. Night-Heron. Nycticorax griseus (Linn.). 

 Mr. Willis Bund includes the night-heron 



in his list of Worcestershire birds, referring to 

 the following instance of its occurrence. A 

 few years since an adult night-heron was 

 flushed from amongst the aquatic herbage of 

 a small pool at Bradley Green, near Fecken- 

 ham, and was shot. It was afterwards 

 brought to Alcester for preservation, where 

 it was seen by the writer. 



116. Little Bittern. Ardetta minuta (Linn.). 

 An adult little bittern was shot more than 



thirty years since on a brook between the 

 villages of Aldington and Badsey, and in close 

 proximity to the latter place. I have no 

 knowledge of any other specimen having 

 been met with in Worcestershire, but an 

 immature one was shot in Warwickshire, 

 and brought to Stratford-on-Avon for preser- 

 vation. 



117. Bittern. Botaurus stellaris {h'mn.). 

 Hastings records the bittern as having been 



often shot on the banks of the Severn. Mr. 

 Willis Bund, including it in his Worcester- 

 shire list, adds : ' Formerly resident, now only 

 a straggler,' which applies to it as a British 

 as well as a Worcestershire bird. I can now 

 only speak of it as a rare species in this 

 county. Lees says that one was shot on the 

 pool before Hopton Court in the parish of 

 Leigh ; and Mr. W. Edwards, of Malvern, 

 records one shot at Eastnor in 1876. A few 

 years since a bittern was shot on the Avon 

 near Pershore, and the occurrence recorded in 

 the Field newspaper. 



118. White Stork. Ciconia alba, Bechstein. 

 Sir Charles Hastings, on page 68 of his 



Illustrations, mentions the occurrence of this 

 bird near Fladbury, and adds the following 

 note : ' Mrs. Charles L. E. Perrott, on whose 

 authority this information is given, says that 

 " the crane and Ciconia were both shot by 



the late Mr. Perrott's keeper, but I should be 

 inclined to think that they had escaped from 

 some private collection." ' Lees records one 

 which was shot on the Severn near Tewkes- 

 bury many years since. Most likely it was 

 the same bird to which Mrs. Perrott alluded. 



1 1 9. Spoonbill. Platalea leucorodia, Linn. 

 The spoonbill has been shot from the large 



sheet of water in the park at Westwood on 

 two occasions, but I have not the date, and 

 the specimens are preserved in the collection 

 of British birds of Mr. Martin Curtler, of 

 Worcester. A spoonbill is recorded by Lees 

 as having been shot on the Avon near 

 Tewkesbury several years previously to 

 1870 (the date of his list of Malvern birds), 

 which was at that time in the Worcester 

 Museum. 



120. Grey Lag-Goose. Anser cinereus, Meyer. 

 The present species is recorded by Hastings 



as being ' of frequent occurrence in the winter 

 season in our various rivers and pools.' It is 

 the Jnser palustris of which he was then 

 speaking, which is one of the names of the 

 grey lag-goose ; and that that species did in 

 former years pass over our county, and some- 

 times remain to rest, there is no doubt. The 

 larger size and lighter colour were quite suffi- 

 cient to distinguish this from the other species 

 of grey goose, even at a considerable distance 

 when passing over head. 



121. White-fronted Goose. Anser alhifrons 



(Scopoli). 

 As with the bean and pink-footed geese, 

 the present species travelled in considerable 

 numbers to and from the west in the autumn, 

 and an occasional one out of a gaggle, which 

 had stayed to rest, was shot, and the species 

 determined. On one occasion an adult in 

 full plumage was taken near the village of 

 OfFenham, and was preserved by the well- 

 known ornithologist, Mr. H. Doubleday of 

 Epping, who happened to be there at that 

 time, and was placed in his fine collection of 

 British birds. It still is found in considerable 

 numbers in the Severn estuary, especially near 

 Berkeley, and specimens occasionally in hard 

 weather make their way further up the Severn 

 to Worcestershire borders. 



122. Bean-Goose. Anser segetum {GmeWn). 

 The late Mr. John Cordeaux in a history 



of British Anseres, which appeared in a re- 

 cently published History of British Birds, gives 

 a very interesting account of the bean-goose, 

 and explains the reason of its present scarcity, 

 which is undoubtedly due to the enclosure of 

 open lands in the marsh districts of Lincoln- 



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