THE BITOERN. 
161 
were preserved but onej that in pursuance of the custom of the olden 
time was served up at table.* Three of these were killed within five 
miles of Belfast ; — at Holywood Moss, Dundonald (Nov. 5, 1824), and 
Conswater Point, — the last locality near the town. Another was pro- 
cured at Killileagh (Nov. 1826), and one or two were at Killinchy. In 
August 1836 I was informed, by the gamekeeper at Tolly more Park, 
that a few years previously three or four bitterns frequented the bogs 
at the base of the mountains in that quarter during a winter. About 
the same time one was killed at Kirkiston flow, in the Ardes. In the 
winter of 1837-38 one was shot near Downpatrick, a few years before 
which time several of these birds had been killed there in the course of 
a winter. A bittern, sent on the 12th Dec. 1838 from Portaferry to 
Belfast to be preserved, came under my inspection ; its stomach looked 
amazingly large, containing, as it did, a rudd {Leuciscus erythropthal- 
mus) eight inches in length, and two and a half in depth. With the 
exception of the head, this fish was quite perfect and unchanged in 
colour. In addition to it were the remains of another fish, and of a full 
grown frog ; likewise the head of a boat-fly {Notonedd ). — On Nov. 24, 
1841, I saw a beautiful specimen of this bird, which was also shot near 
Portaferry ; the greater portion of an eel, which, when perfect, must — 
according to the bird-preserver — have been about two feet in length, 
was found in its stomach. — March 1, 1845. A male bird, shot at Tul- 
lygirvan, came under my notice; it weighed 3 lbs. 13 oz. ; the stomach 
contained the remains of five or six full grown frogs. — Antrim, 
Jan. 27, 1811. One found wounded in the bog meadows, near Belfast, 
was taken to Mr. Templeton. — 8th Peb. 1838, a recent specimen killed 
at Claggan came under my examination ; its stomach was filled with the 
bonesof full grown frogs. — InFeb. 1839 another was shot near Ballymena. 
— Donegal. Mr. J. V. Stewart, in his paper on the Birds, &c. of this 
county, published in 1831, remarks, — “ I am informed that bitterns 
were very common in this county thirty years ago ; from increased 
cultivation and population they are now, however, very rarely to be 
seen.” In a letter subsequently received from that gentleman, he men- 
tioned having met with only two pair of them, one of which frequented, 
in the breeding season, an inaccessible marsh at the borders of a 
lake near Milford. From, the constant resort of the birds to the 
* In a fashionable quarter of London, some years ago, I remarked a bittern ex- 
posed for sale during a fortnight without meeting with a pm'chaser, and the bird had 
at last to be thrown away. 
VOL. II. 
M 
