By the Rev. A. C. Smith. 



57 



has been taken in Wiltshire, but no particulars of the capture, 

 the locality, or the date, are recorded by him : I presume however 

 i that he derived his information from Colonel Montagu, who relates 

 that a bird of this species was shot at Boyton, in Wiltshire, by 

 Mr. Lambert, in 1775, and that mention is made in the Minutes 

 of the Linncean Transactions, vol. iii., that Mr. Lambert presented 

 a drawing of the bird, April 4th, 1797. 1 It is an Asiatic and 

 African bird : the delicate buff-colour streaked with dark lines of 

 the upper plumage ; the pure white of the under parts ; the hair- 

 like feathers of the back, whence the specific name comata ; and 

 the general shape and bearing of the bird combine to give it an 

 elegance unrivalled even in this graceful family : but it is a very 

 rare bird in the British isles, and its appearance is annually be- 

 coming more and more infrequent. 



"Little Bittern. " (Botaurus minutus.) This is a very rare bird 

 in England, though common enough in France and Germany, and 

 I have met with it on the Simplon Pass in Switzerland : it is a 

 diminutive member of the great Heron family, and a very prettily 

 marked species. I have a record of one killed in the neighbour- 

 hood of Bath, but whether in Wilts or Somerset there is no 

 evidence to show : but I have information of two undoubted 

 specimens being taken in this county: one killed about 1850 in 

 the parish of Seend, and in the possession of Mr. Taylor, of 

 Baldham Mill, as I was informed by the late Mr. Withers; the 

 other shot by Mr. Jervoise's keeper at Britford, near Salisbury, 

 about ten years since in the month of June ; for the knowledge of 

 which I am again indebted to my good friend, the Rev. George 

 Powell, Rector of Sutton Veny. The chief characteristic of the 

 Bitterns, wherein they differ from the true Herons, consists in the 

 plumage of the neck, which, in the hinder part is bare, or scantily 

 clothed with down, but the front and side feathers being long and 

 extending backwards completely cover the naked space : these 

 feathers can also be expanded laterally at will, when the bird 

 assumes a strange appearance, reminding one of the voluminous 

 folds of cravat in fashion in the palmy days of Beau Brurnmel : 



1 Montagu's Supplement to Oruith. Diet, in loco. 

 VOL. XII. NO. XXXIV. F 



