THE BITTERN. 1(53 



Roscommon. Mr. G. Jackson (now gamekeeper to the Earl 

 of Bantry) shot a bittern, on the 30th August 1832, in a rushy 

 swamp about the middle of a bog near Belanagar. The pointers 

 followed the scent for a very considerable distance, so that the 

 object of their pursuit was thought to be an old cock grouse, 

 until it rose on wing. Another was shot by him in a young 

 plantation at Erenchpark in the winter of 1836-37, when there was 

 much snow on the ground. — Mayo. A friend has often seen bitterns 

 in the early spring — four or five in a day — from the year 1838 to 1843, 

 in Muckanagh bog, on the shore of the lower lough Conn. The place 

 was inaccessible to shooters in winter from being always flooded. The 

 author of the ' Wild Sports of the West' describes, in his usual graphic 

 manner, his shooting a bittern in the wilds of Connaught, about Bally - 

 croy, and remarks that the species is now " extremely scarce ; " an 

 observation which will, I believe, apply generally to the more western 

 and wilder parts of that province ; but about Portumna, on the 

 banks of the Shannon, co. Galway, I was told, a few years ago, that 

 bitterns are killed every winter. 



Clare. Until the year 1836, at least (when the information was 

 supplied), bitterns were stated to be not uncommonly on sale in 

 Ennis market. — Tipperary. A few years previous to 1842 (when 

 the circumstance was communicated), Mr. R. Davis, jun., received for 

 Ms collection a female bittern, which was shot early in August, about 

 three miles from Killenaule, when rising from her nest ; the young- 

 birds were at the time unfledged. The species was then considered to 

 be very rare in the county ; but it was added that " a winter rarely 

 passes over without one or more specimen being shot." In the season of 

 1840-41, a bittern was killed near Cashel ; but none was known to have 

 occurred in the following winter. — Wexford. Mr. Wheelock (bird- 

 preserver) mentioned, in Nov. 1841, that three of these birds only were 

 known to him as having been procured there. In the winter of 1846- 

 47, one was obtained (Poole). — Waterford. Dr. R. J. Burkitt of 

 Waterford, in a letter dated Nov. 19, 1841, observed that bitterns are 

 not uncommon there, and that he had seen eight which were killed in 

 the county within the preceding six years. In 1831 he saw five that 

 were shot at the one locality of Kilbarrey ; " they were very numerous 

 that year about Waterford, and have been much scarcer since." One 

 was procured there in Nov. 1848. — Cork. Smith, in his History of 



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