ARDEIDA. 383 
THE COMMON BITTERN. 
BoTAURUS STELLARIS (Linnzus). 
The extensive reed-swamps and marshes, to which the Bittern 
resorts during the breeding-season, have greatly decreased of late 
years in England, owing to drainage and cultivation ; nevertheless, 
its eggs were occasionally found in the Broad-district of Norfolk 
down to March 30th 1868, and as recently as August 1886 a 
young bird with down still adhering to it was obtained there. Before 
the reclamation of the East Anglian fens the ‘ Butter-bump,’ as it 
was called from its note, bred in them annually, as it did also in 
other suitable portions of England and Wales; while, even at the 
present day, so many of the birds which visit us are shot in spring, 
that, if a little forbearance were exercised, the ‘boom’ of the Bittern 
might again be regularly heard in our land. To the mainland of 
Scotland the species is only an irregular visitor, occasionally wander- 
