168 



ARDEID^E. 



common species under the name of jack-snipe. It is not an un- 

 frequent error, even at the present day, to imagine that jack-snipe 

 means male snipe ; in the same way that jack denotes the male 

 sex of the ass, and other animals. 



To quote the words of Goldsmith, " These bellowing explosions 

 are chiefly heard from the beginning of spring to the end of 

 autumn ; and, however awful they may seem to us, are the calls to 

 courtship or of connubial felicity." This writer judiciously combats 

 the various ideas respecting the manner in which the sound is 

 produced, and states that, unaided by any extraneous means, the 

 bird's " windpipe is fitted to produce the sound for which it is 

 remarkable." 



Although we associate the bittern with the rank and humid 

 marsh, or with " desolation," yet is there a finely poetical associ- 

 ation with its name, — Ardea stettaris, or heron of the stars. This 

 doubtless originated from its singular spiral flight, by means of 

 which it ascends into the realms of space, far beyond the reach of 

 human vision. 



THE AMERICAN BITTERN, 



Botaurus lentiginosus, Mont, (sp.) 

 Ardea lentiginosa „ 

 moko/io, Wagler. 



Has once been obtained. 



The specimen was thus noticed by me in the 17th volume of the 

 Annals of Natural History, published in 1846. "I have the plea- 

 sure of placing on record the occurrence of an American bittern 

 in Ireland, the first known to have visited this island. The fresh 

 skin, being sent to Belfast to be preserved and mounted, came 

 under my inspection on the 14th of November 1845 ; and having 

 learned that it was sent from Armagh by the distinguished astro- 

 nomer Dr. T. R. Robinson — whose acutely observant eye had not 

 failed to mark the differences between it and the Botaurus stellaris 

 — I wrote to lrim for all particulars respecting the bird, and 



