238 BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 
Bittern " had been killed on the moss near his residence 
in Dumfriesshire during the previous week, and was 
preserved in his collection. Mr. Gould was on a visit to 
Jardine Hall at the time. This is probably the first 
example shot in Scotland."* This specimen is not mentioned 
in the Catalogue of the Birds contained in the collection of 
Sir William Jardine, but is recorded in a MS. note in his 
personal copy of the Naturalist's Library as " kiUed Dinwiddie, 
in coll W J." It does not, however, seem to have been 
included in his collection of British birds which was 
bought by the Edinburgh Museum for £200 in 1876, and 
it certainly is not now in the Royal Scottish Museum, 
Edinburgh, whither this collection subsequently made 
its way. ^ „ ^ 
A second specimen is recorded by Mr. J. H. Gurney as 
follows • " A very good example of the American Bittern 
was shot at a small inland loch in Dumfriesshire on the 25th 
March, 1873, which I believe has not yet been noted in the 
Zoologist. It was exhibited by Dr. J. A. Smith to the 
Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh on the 25th of February, 
1874, and has since, I am happy to say, found a place in my 
coUection "t I ^^^^ ascertained that this bird was shot 
by a gamekeeper on the Druid Loch or Swan Pond, within 
four hundred yards of Drumlanrig Castle. It passed into 
the hands of WiUiam Hope, bird-stuffer, of Edinburgh, 
who sold it for £2 to Mr. J. H. Gurney, of Keswick HaU, 
Norwich, in whose possession the specimen stiU is. 
The American Bittern, as its name implies, is a bird of the 
western hemisphere, and there can be little doubt that most 
of the stragglers that have occurred in Great Brita,in have 
been aided by vessels in their passage across the Atlantic. 
The date of Mr. Gumey's example (March 25th) is remark- 
able, aU the other British specimens having been obtainea 
between October and February, at which seasons m 
America this bird becomes migratory. 
» Yarrell, Hiat. Brit. Birds, 1856, Vol. II., p. 578. 
■f Zoologist, 1876, p. 4929. 
