162 AIlDEIBiE. 



place at that period of the year, lie believed it to have been selected 

 for their nest. One of them was wounded by a person employed to 

 procure birds for his collection ; but it escaped, and they both from 

 that time forsook the haunt. — Londonderry. Wm. Ogilby, Esq. in- 

 formed me, in 1845, that about twenty-five years previously, he com- 

 monly, when walking in the calm, still, autumnal evenings, in the 

 neighbourhood of Dungiven, heard the bittern boom from the marshy 

 and grassy hollows. The sound he always considered to proceed from 

 a bird on the ground. Of late years he never heard it. The species 

 is there called bog-bluiter [bleater], as the snipe is heather-bluiter '.- — 

 Fermanagh. A statement similar in all respects to the last has been 

 made to me by a gentleman in reference to this county. — Armagh. One 

 killed at Loughall, in Oct. 1 842, was kindly sent to the Belfast Museum 

 by Mr. John Nicholson. 



Westmeath. A few years ago bitterns frequented the margin of a 

 very deep lough in the middle of the bog called Loughnabrone, near 

 Tyrrel's Pass. They may do so yet, as the place is very rarely visited, 

 and the ground so soft and dangerous as to be seldom accessible. One 

 wounded here in the wing was kept for several years at a place in the 

 neighbourhood, and had liberty to walk about the house. It was par- 

 ticularly wicked, and was in the habit of standing somewhat in the way 

 a heron does, apparently asleep, with its head and neck covered up ; 

 but if any one approached, it suddenly shot out its head with great 

 violence, always directing its aim towards the eye of its disturber.* 

 — Dublin, &c. In the winter of 1830-31, bitterns were much more 

 numerous than usual here, and in the neighbouring counties, whence 

 they were sent to the metropolis. Many of them were exposed for sale 

 in the market. In the last week of Dec. 1844 eight fresh specimens were 

 seen, by Mr. R. Ball, in the shop of Mr. Glennon, bird-preserver ; others 

 were in the market there about the same time. In the winter of 1848- 

 49, they were also unusually numerous ; five were sent to Dublin 

 during one week in January to be set up.f — Kildare. The late 

 Archdeacon Butson, about thirty years ago, has killed two or three 

 bitterns in the course of a day's shooting in the Bog of Allen : one 

 wounded by this gentleman lived two years in his garden. In 1842 

 I was told that the species continued to breed there.- -Queen's- 

 county. Some years ago a bittern was observed by a gentleman of 

 my acquaintance during a walk near Portarlington. 



* Mr. H. M. Pilkingtou. f Mr. R. J. Montgomery. 



