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mature male." It is said to have bred in England ; but there appears to be no proof that this is 

 the case, as I have been unable to gather any evidence to show that a nest has really been taken. 

 In Scotland it has been but rarely met with ; and the occurrences recorded by Mr. Robert Gray 

 (B. of W. of Scotl. p. 278) are: — one at Aberdeen 21st October 1866 ; one at the junction of the 

 Don and Ury, below Keith Hall, on the 28th May 1868 ; one near Fintry House 23rd September 

 1868; and one at Luffness, East Lothian, 23rd September 1867. Dr. Edmonston noticed it in 

 Shetland ; and according to Messrs. Baikie and Heddle, one was shot by Mr. Strang on Sanday, 

 Orkney, in 1806. Mr. Thompson (B. of Ireland, ii. p. 159) writes as follows: — "The first indi- 

 vidual of this species killed in Ireland that came under my observation (as recorded in the 

 'Proceedings' of the Zoological Society for 1834, p. 30) was an immature bird in the plumage 

 of the young after the first moult, according to Mr. Selby's description. It was shot in the 

 county of Armagh in November 1830, and sent to my friend, William Sinclair, Esq., of Belfast, 

 who preserved it for his collection. An intelligent sportsman, on seeing this specimen, assured 

 us that a bird which he had observed in spring some years before at the bog-meadows, near 

 Belfast, was of the same species. He described it as rising from the ground almost perpen- 

 dicularly when sprung, and descending again in a similar manner. Another gentleman, who 

 saw the specimen in 1833, at once recognized it as identical in species with a bird which he had 

 shot a year or two previously in the county of Kerry. Mr. T. W. "Warren, of Dublin, possesses 

 an Ardea minuta, which was shot about the year 1833 in the county of Longford. 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." The Little Bittern has not occurred in Greenland ; but a 

 specimen was sent to the Copenhagen Museum some years ago from Iceland, where it was found 

 dead on the shore. Mr. H. C. Miiller records the capture of one on Stromoe, in the Faeroes, in 

 1834 ; and it has also been met with in Scandinavia. Nilsson says that it has been twice obtained 

 in Sweden — once many years back at Westeras ; and the second was shot in Dagstorps moss, in 

 Skane, about the middle of October 1849. It has not been observed in Finland ; but Mr. Sabanaeff 

 informs me that it breeds in the Moscow Government, as also in Smolensk, and possibly in 

 Jaroslaf. In the Riazan Government it is rarer ; but, according to Bogdanoff, it is found as far 

 as the Spask district, in the Kazan Government. Mr. Taczanowski speaks of it as being common 

 in Poland in the summer. In North Germany it is tolerably common. According to Gloger it 

 occurs abundantly in Silesia; and Borggreve adds that it certainly breeds on the Lower and 

 Central Oder and on the Warte-Bruch. Boeck says that it nests in Prussia ; and it is said to 

 breed commonly in Posen, in Anhalt, Mecklenburg, and but rarely in Oldenburg, though com- 

 monly on the Rhine and the Moselle. Borggreve once saw a specimen on the Sieg in winter. 

 Referring to its presence in Mark Brandenburg, Mr. Herman Schalow writes (J. f. O. 1876, 

 p. 17) that it "breeds in the district. In some years it is tolerable common, in others rarer. 

 During the last years we observed it every year at the lake of Tegel, and in the vicinity of 



