160 audeid^e. 



In 1837 that gentleman told me of his having, some years before, 

 seen one in a fresh state which was shot at Merrion, near that 

 city ; and preserved for Sir William Homan. Mr. Glennon states, 

 that the little bittern has been more than once killed in the marsh 

 at Sandymount, near Dublin. Dr. Harvey of Cork informs us, 

 that an adult male bird in his collection was shot in the summer 

 of 1842, at Woodside, by Mr. Robert Parker, and that the Rev. 

 Mr. Stopford had also killed one in that county."* About the 

 1st of May, 1849, one was shot by an officer of the 9th regiment 

 in a bog between Newry and Dundalk.f 



This bird has visited Ireland more frequently than any named 

 in these pages subsequent to the common heron, and may there- 

 fore be supposed to be of more frequent occurrence in England. 

 Such is the fact. Although not procured on the mainland of 

 Scotland,! one has been killed in Orkney. || The little bittern has 

 migrated so far north as Sweden, on the continent of Europe. 



THE BITTERN, 



Botaurus stellaris, Linn, (sp.) 

 Ardea „ „ 



Once common in Ireland, is gradually becoming scarce, 

 owing to the drainage of the bogs and marshes. 



It therefore seems desirable to me, in a statistical point of view, 

 that such information as I possess on the species should be given 

 in detail. I shall arrange my notes upon it according to localities, 

 and not to dates, beginning with the northern province. 



Down. — Harris, in his History of this country, published in 1744, 

 remarks that "the bittern is common in the Lower Ardes, about 

 Magheralin, and other places." In 1833 I made a note to the effect 

 that within the preceding ten or twelve years I had known about six 

 bitterns to have been obtained in the county of Down, all of which 



* Fauna of Cork, p. 12. f Mr. It. J. Montgomery. % Macgillivray, 1846. 

 || Flemiug. 



