IHHHHMM 



Order AKDEIFOKMES.] 



[Family ARDEICvE. 



BOTAUEUS PCECILOPTILUS. 



(BLACK-BACKED BITTERN.) 



Botaurus poeciloptilus (Wagler), Buller, Birds of New Zealand, vol. ii., p. 141. 



Five and thirty years ago the Bittern was a common enough bird on the west coast of the 

 Wellington province. At that time the fine district now traversed by the Wellington-Manawatu 

 railway line was an almost continuous chain of low-lying swamps and marshes, where " the boom 

 of the lonely Bittern " was one of the most familiar sounds. From the Uruhi swamp, near 

 Waikanae, I obtained a never-failing supply of fine specimens, always generously assisted thereto 

 by my good friend the old Waikanae whaler, Bill Jenkins, who was himself a keen sportsman, and 

 loved to flush a Bittern ; for the bird never escaped his sure aim, although even at that time he 

 was quite an old man. I remember on one occasion shooting an adult male Bittern on the border 

 of this swamp, and the wounded bird, with a broken wing, nearly deprived me of one of my eyes by 

 a well-directed thrust of his stiletto-like bill. I had been warned by Jenkins, who was an expert, 

 but this personal experience made me far more careful afterwards. Now, nearly all this country 

 is covered with smiling farms, supporting contented homes, and old Jenkins sleeps with his race in 

 the picturesque churchyard at Otaki. What Bitterns are left have retired to the great Makererua 

 swamp, further up the coast ; but this, too, is rapidly yielding to a great system of drainage. A 

 few, as already stated, have taken refuge with me at Papaitonga, and these will receive all the 

 protection they need. Through inadvertence one was shot on the wing when crossing an arm of 

 the lake, but this is not likely to happen again. 



Under date of August 15th, 1903, Mr. W. W. Smith, of Ashburton, sends me the following 

 note : — 



It will afford you pleasure when I state that the Bittern {Botaurus pceciloptilas) continues plentiful, not- 

 withstanding the very rapid advancement of settlement. In the months of November and December these 

 birds inhabit the sedge and cress-choked creeks entering the Hakatore, or Ashburton Eiver, on the open plains, 

 subsisting on the young fry of several species of introduced trout and the native goby. A friend of mine, when 

 out shooting in April last, shot a Bittern on the river-bed whose stomach contained a young trout, over three 

 inches long, together with a mass of half-digested watercress {Nasturtium officinale). All specimens that have 

 passed through my hands for several years appeared to be subsisting chiefly on cress, as the vegetable part of 

 their diet. In April and May they become prodigiously fat, but the flesh is strong-flavoured, in whatever style 

 it may be cooked. 



In the Tring Museum there is a specimen several shades lighter than ordinary ones, thus 

 showing a tendency to albinism. 



Mr. T. W. Kirk has described a specimen from Foxton, in the Manawatu district, with a large 

 white patch on each shoulder and on the back of the neck, the remainder of the plumage being of 

 the normal colour. 



Mr. Hamilton has recorded that, many years ago, when shooting at Tongoio, in the Hawke's 

 Bay district, he put up as many as sixteen in one day. Since that time the bird has become 

 very scarce in all the parts of the country where drainage operations have been carried on. 



The late Mr. Bobson, in a letter to me, said : " I remember, one summer in Hawke's Bay, 

 shooting on the same day and in the same locality two very fine Bitterns which were, to all 



