VOL. xm.] ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES. 261 



Bittern {Botanrus s. stellaris). 



Habits in the Breeding-Season. — As early as March 15th 

 six Bitterns were reported to be booming, and that in a 

 limited area, all males presumably, whose mates were engaged 

 in choosing nesting-sites. Not long after Sir E. Gurney and 

 Mr. Cator simultaneously announced three or four more on 

 the smaller Broads connected with the Bure and the River 

 Ant, while another made itself heard at Catlield, where Dr. 

 Long subsequently ascertained that there were a pair. 



Besides this, Bitterns were detected by their booming, if 

 not actually seen, in at least two other places, so Norfolk 

 had a liberal supply. None was shot, on the contrary, 

 there was a general desire to protect them, nor to the best of 

 my belief were any eggs or young ones taken, but in one nest 

 the brood unfortunately died. 



At Hoveton a pair were to be heard at frequent intervals- 

 up to the end of May, their booming being sometimes so loud 

 and resonant as to be very unacceptable to light sleepers in 

 the village hard by. By the 26th it was ceasing, though 

 when on the Broad I could catch a faint " wumph," even 

 at midday. 



As regards breeding-habits, not much more remains to 

 be said, after the long and accurate narratives which have 

 been given by Miss Turner in The Norwich Naturalists' 

 Transactions (Vol. X., p. 319) and British Birds {antea, pp. 5 

 and 34). But I should like to ask one question, and that is 

 if anyone has discovered why the claw of the Bittern's middle 

 toe is pectinated like a little saw ? Herons have it also but 

 in a less degree, and their claws are not so large. That it is 

 given for a purpose seems pretty obvious, yet it is difficult 

 to divine what that purpose can be. In one specimen there 

 were twenty-four serrations, and in another Mr. Chasen 

 counted twenty-nine ; they can hardly be for grasping slippery 

 fish, because the Bittern never holds fish in its feet, but they 

 may facilitate the clutching of reeds, which Bitterns love 

 to bend and perch on, and for the same reason the hind claw 

 is enormously developed. Five eggs would seem to be the 

 Bittern's normal clutch, although Dr. Long and Mr. R. 

 Gurney were fortunate enough to see a nest with six at 

 Somerton ; but five is the complement, and that was the 

 number of young ones in a nest which was inspected on 

 April 26th. The nest is at first about sixteen inches by four- 

 teen in diameter, but after the young ones have made a plat- 

 form of it, it naturally becomes a little wider. Its compositioa 



