160 
AIlDEIDiE. 
In 1837 tliat gentleman told me of his having, some years before, 
seen one in a fresh state wliich was shot at Merrion, near that 
city ; and preserved for Sir William Homan. Mr. Glennon states, 
that the little bittern has been more than once killed in the marsh 
at Sandymount, near Dublin. Dr. Harvey of Cork informs ns, 
that an adult male bird in his collection was shot in the summer 
of 1842, at Woodside, by Mr. Eobert Parker, and that the Eev. 
Mr. Stopford had also killed one in that county.* About the 
1st of May, 1849, one was shot by an officer of the 9th regiment 
in a bog between Newry and Dundalk.t 
This bird has visited Ireland more frequently than any named 
in these pages subsequent to the common heron, and may there- 
fore be supposed to be of more frequent occurrence in England. 
Such is the fact. Although not procured on the mainland of 
Scotland, f one has been killed in Orkney, jj The little bittern has 
migrated so far north as Sweden, on the continent of Europe. 
THE BITTEEN, 
Botaurus stellaris, Linn, (sp.) 
Ardea ,, „ 
Once common in Ireland, is gradually becoming scarce, 
owing to the drainage of the bogs and marshes. 
It therefore seems desirable to me, in a statistical point of view, 
that such information as I possess on the species should be given 
in detail. I shall arrange my notes upon it according to localities, 
and not to dates, beginning with the northern province. 
Down. — Harris, in his History of this country, published in 1744, 
remarks that ‘‘the bittern is common in the Lower Ardes, about 
Magheralin, and other places.” In 1833 I made a note to the effect 
that within the preceding ten or twelve years I had known about six 
bitterns to have been obtained in the county of Down, all of which 
* Paima of Cork, p. 12. t Hr. R. J. Montgomery. t Macgillivray, 1846. 
II riemiug. 
