WHITE STORK. 
125 
with on the marshy parts of Bosworth pool or ‘ Big river.’ It has been met 
with also at Swithland. It occurred in the winter of 1854-5 at Carlton Curlieu.” 
He further recorded that it “ occurred in December, 1855.” Mr. Sebastian Evans, 
writing to Mr. Babington, referred to a notice in the ‘ Leicester Journal ’ of 29th 
Jan., 1847, of the occurrence of a Bittern at Swithland a few days before. Mr. 
■\V. Brookes, of Croft, informs me that a friend of his shot one at Elmsthorpe 
somewhere about 1848. The late Mr. Widdowson wrote me that he had “known 
about six killed in his neighbourhood in about twenty-five years.” The Museum 
contains a fine example (probably a male) shot at Enderby, and presented by 
Mr. William Simpson, 21st Dec., 1871. I saw a fine specimen in the possession 
of C. Adcock, who told me that it was shot at Thurmaston, on 28th Dec., 1878. 
I gave ]\L’. IMacaulay a note of two Bitterns, said to have been shot near 
Lutterworth in 1881, which he recorded in the ‘Midland Naturalist,’ 1882, p. 77. 
I have since had reason to believe, however, that this was a fraud, and that 
the birds were purchased in Leadenhall Market. Two which I purchased in 
1885 at the sale at Bosworth Hall, I was assured were shot in Bosworth Park some 
years previously. A female Bittern, kindly presented to the Museum by Mr. E. 
Willars, engineer, on 4th March, 1885, was shot at Cropston Keservoir. It had been 
seen about the place for two or three weeks, evidently in a wounded condition, 
and the man who killed it, being too near, unfortunately mutilated it still more, 
so that it reached the Museum with both legs and one wing badly shattered, 
and the lower part of the back nearly blown away, but, after being washed and 
submitted to several technical processes, it came out a very fine specimen, and 
is now in the “local” collection. The measurements were as follow: — Extreme 
length, 26 inches; tarsus, 3|- ; wing, 11|^; culmen, nearly 2f. Colour of beak, 
yellowish-grey; around eye, lighter greenish-grey; eye, bright yellow; legs and 
toes, greyish-yellow, like a Snipe’s. 
In Rutland. — As in Leicestershire.^ — The Rev. J. B. Reynardson writes me 
that one was shot in Pickworth Wood about 1850 or 1851, and is now preserved 
at Holywell. Mr. R. Tryon states that one was shot in Grreetham Wood, 
November, 1876, and I have seen a very beautiful specimen, apparently a 
male, in the possession of the Earl of Gainsborough, which was shot at the 
ponds in Exton Park, in January, 1887. 
Family CICONIID^. 
WHITE STORK. Ciconia alba (Bechstein). 
Of accidental occurrence in Britain. — Harley recorded that one was obtained 
near jMelton jMowbray in 1849, and the narrative of its capture was related 
to him by a resident of that place, Mr. Widdowson, who had the bird in his 
