BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 233 
in a letter to Mr. R. Service : " It is probable that I may 
have told you that I have heard of a local Little Bittern, 
killed in your faunal area, but whether or not, you will 
understand that as soon as I heard of it, I undertook to 
investigate its character for you. To-night, I met the man 
who had told me of it, and got him to take me to see it. 
Undoubtedly, it is a Little Bittern, a lovely bird in full male 
dress. It was shot at a place called the " Woodhouse," 
on the Kirtle River, between Kirkpatrick and Kirtlebridge, 
by its present owner, Mr. Sharp, of Hodgson's Court, Cumber- 
land Street, Carhsle, in the early summer of 1874. It was 
brought to Carhsle and stuffed by Sam Watson, the verger 
of Carhsle Cathedral. You may therefore rely entirely 
on the character of its pedigree." This bird is also described 
by H. A. Macpherson in his Vertebrate Fauna of Lakeland 
(p. 226) as shot in June, 1874; and the name of the man 
who shot it is there given as Steel, in whose possession it is 
then (1892) said to have been. 
A Little Bittern, said to have been more recently taken near 
Lochmaben,* has baffled the efforts both of Mr. R. Service 
and myself to verify the allegation of its occurrence. 
This species in summer is found in suitable locahties 
throughout Europe south of the Baltic and in north Africa ; 
and in winter it is found in Africa as far south as Nubia. To 
Great Britain it is only an irregular summer- visitor, and 
has mostly been met with in the southern and eastern 
counties of England, where it has sometimes bred. 
THE BITTERN. Botaurus stellaris (Linnseus). 
Local names — Bittour ; Buttour ; Bog-drum ; Miredrum. 
Formerly not uncommon ; is now a rare accidental winter-visitor. 
The improvement in agriculture and the draining of suitable 
locahties has deprived the Bittern of many of its favourite 
* Trans. D. and G. Nat. Hist. Soc, April 20th, 1905. 
