NIGHT-HERON—BITTERN. 
201 
In the Hart collection are specimens procured July 22nd, 
1868 ; August 7th, 1879 ; and an immature one, November 
5th, 1884 — all from the district. 
A female was shot on the Stour, at Christchurch, on 
November 6th, 1891, by a river keeper and Mr. Turner- 
Turner exhibited one in Bournemouth in 1901, which had 
been killed at Avon Castle. 
It is a native of Southern Europe, Africa, and temperate 
and Southern Asia. 
Genu s — Botaurus. 
152. Botaurus stellaris. Bittern. 
A rare winter visitor. 
Formerly a resident in suitable localities in the county 
and Isle of Wight, but now merely an occasional visitor, 
except perhaps in the valleys of our three largest rivers, 
where it occurs pretty regularly in winter, and occasionally 
in such numbers that it might be considered a regular 
winter visitor to these places. 
The names Bitterne (near Southampton) and Bisterne 
(near Ringwood) are no doubt relics of the former 
abundance of this bird in these neighbourhoods, and 
large numbers of their bones were discovered, — as well 
as those of herons, cocks and hens, — beneath the founda- 
tions of Christchurch Priory.^ 
Our earliest record is in the following passage, which 
has not hitherto been published in full, from Gilbert 
White's Journal, under the date of January 14th, 1774 : — 
" A bittern was shot in Shrub Wood. A dog hunted 
' "Zoologist." 1 89 1. 
' Warner's " South-Western Parts of Hampshire," vol. ii., 1793. 
