68 
ILLUSTRATIONS OF 
Passing on to the waders^ and water birds, Graltoe 
and Palmipedes, the heron, Ardea cinerea, is of very- 
frequent occurrence, although no heronry now exists 
in the county, and the nearest is in the park adjacent 
to Warwick castle/ The bittern, A. stellaris, has 
been often shot on the banks of the Severn, and 
Pennant remarks that a specimen of the little bittern, 
A. minuta^ was shot as it perched on a tree in the 
Quarry at Shrewsbury. Both the crane, Grus cine- 
rea, and the stork, Ciconia alba, have been shot near 
Fladbury, but it is uncertain whether they were 
truly wild.^ The water rail, Rallus aquaticus, and 
the spotted gallinule, Gallinula por%07ia, are some- 
times found in damp sequestered spots, while the 
common gallinule, G. chloropus, is often to be met 
with, as is the coot, Fulica atra, dashing over the 
pools on sable wing. A beautiful specimen of the 
grey phalarope, Phalaropus lohatus, shot in Novem- 
ber, 1833, as it was hovering over a pool at Mr. 
Wheeler's of Newnham Court, near Tenbury, adorns 
our Museum, and other rare contributions of a similar 
kind will eventually shew, I trust, that our efforts in 
establishing a museum will prove beneficial in a high 
degree to every department of Natural History. The 
avocet, Recurvirostra avocetta, was shot a few years 
ago close to Worcester bridge ; and the curlew, 
^ A heronry existed some years ago at Croome, but the birds being troublesome, 
and making too free with the fish of the ponds, it was destroyed. 
^ Mrs. Charlotte L. E. Perrot, on whose authority this information is given, says, 
that " the crane and cicoriia were both shot by the late Mr. Perrot's keeper, but I 
should be inclined to think that they had escaped from some private collection.'* 
