540 ARDEIDJE. 



FORMERLY, as Mr. Gould observes, when large portions 

 of the British islands were uncultivated, and extensive 

 marshes and waste land afforded the Bittern abundance of 

 retreats congenial to its habits, it was plentifully distri- 

 buted over the country ; but as cultivation has extended, 

 and the marshes have been drained, its numbers have gra- 

 dually decreased, and although not absolutely a rare bird, 

 its presence is not always to be reckoned upon, for in one 

 year it may be tolerably common, and then for several suc- 

 ceeding seasons scarcely to be procured at all. 



In proof of the correctness of these remarks, Mr. Selby 

 observes that at the present day the capture of a Bittern is, 

 in many parts of England, a subject of great interest ; yet 

 in the winter of 1830-31, he was credibly informed that no 

 less than ten were exposed for sale in one morning at Bath. 

 Mr. Allis of York sent me word some time ago that in the 

 winter of 1837, a bird-preserver in that city had a dozen 

 Bitterns through his hands in a comparatively short space 

 of time ; and Mr. Heysham of Carlisle has recorded that 

 during the month of December 1831, and those of January 

 and February 1832, no less than eight specimens of the 

 Bittern were killed in that part of Cumberland, which was 

 the more remarkable, as only a single specimen had been 

 met with in the same district for ten or twelve years pre- 

 vious. 



I am able to refer to only three recent records of the 

 breeding of the Bittern in this country. Mr. Eyton, in his 

 Fauna of Shropshire, says, a hatch of these birds came off 

 at Cosford Pool, near Nufnal, in 1836, and during the 

 same summer, and in the same county, a pair of Bitterns 

 bred at Tonglake, Albrighton, in a reedy pond of half an 

 acre, surrounded by bushes, about half a mile from the 

 Holyhead road ; two young birds about half grown, were 



