2600 Birds. 



was shot in November, 1835, by Mr. Aldworth, a farmer, at Garsing- 

 ton, in this county, in whose possession it still remains. Another was 

 " said to have been killed on Denton Common, in December, 1830." 

 — R. 



Common Crane {Grits cinerea). In the spring of 1829 a very fine 

 female crane was shot at Chimney Ford, near Standlake, in this 

 county. 



Purple Heron {Ardea purpurea). A specimen of this rare bird was 

 killed on Otmoor, in this county, in the winter of 1837, and is at pre- 

 sent in the collection of Mr. Rodd, of Penzance. Another " was 

 shot some years ago near Witney.' 1 — G. 



Great White Heron {Ardea alba). " Killed on the banks of the 

 Isis, not far from Oxford, in September, 1833." — R. 



Night Heron (Nycticorax Enropaus). The night heron has been 

 met with several times in this neighbourhood. In 1833 a specimen 

 was shot near Wooton, and is now in the Ashmolean Museum. A 

 second, in our own collection, was killed near Standlake, in the spring 

 of 1835; and, many years ago, a specimen in the immature plumage 

 was shot near Thame. 



Common Bittern (Botaurus slellaris). In the bittern we have 

 another instance of the gradual disappearance of a race once well 

 known in this part of the world : although as yet a straggler may here 

 and there be met with, such events become of rarer occurrence every 

 year, and the time is perhaps not far distant when they will altogether 

 cease. In Berkshire Dr. Tomkins informs us that " the bittern was 

 formerly common between Newbury and Reading." In the county of 

 Oxford, it has been killed at Fringford by Mr. Roundell, and by others 

 near Stanton Harcourt, and on Otmoor. In this parish (Weston-on- 

 the-Green), as two boys were, many years ago, on their way to work, 

 early in the morning, near a tract of marshy ground called the Peat- 

 pits, they found a bittern which had been winged on the previous 

 evening by the gamekeeper: highly delighted, they at once attempted 

 to secure the prize, but met with so warm a reception that they were 

 soon fain to retreat to a neighbouring hedge, where they armed them- 

 selves with sticks, and again renewed the attack : at length, after a 

 spirited resistance, the bittern fell under the repeated blows of his 

 assailants, and was borne off in triumph to the village. In this same 

 spot, on the 9th of January, in the present year (1849), we were our- 

 selves fortunate enough to capture a fine male, in a manner not less 

 remarkable than the foregoing. We were snipe-shooting, and having 

 met with good sporty and, as we supposed, thoroughly beaten the 



