162 
AIlDEIDiE. 
place at that period of the year, he believed it to have been selected 
for their nest. One of them was wounded by a person employed to 
procure birds for his collection ; but it escaped, and they both from 
that time forsook the haunt. — Londonderry. Wm. Ogilby, Esq. in- 
formed me, in 1845, that about twenty-five years previously, he com- 
monly, when walking in the calm, still, autumnal evenings, in the 
neighbourhood of D ungiven, heard the bittern boom from the marshy 
and grassy hollows. The sound he always considered to proceed from 
a bird on the ground. Of late years he never heard it. The species 
is there called bog-hluiter [bleater], as the snipe is heatJier-hluiter .- — 
Fermanagh. A statement similar in all respects to the last has been 
made to me by a gentleman in reference to this county. — Armagh. One 
killed at Loughall, in Oct. 1 842, was kindly sent to the Belfast Museum 
by Mr. John Nicholson. 
Westmeath. A few years ago bitterns frequented the margin of a 
very deep lough in the middle of the bog called Loughnabrone, near 
Tyrrel’s Pass. They may do so yet, as the place is very rarely visited, 
and the ground so soft and dangerous as to be seldom accessible. One 
wounded here in the wing was kept for several years at a place in the 
neighbourhood, and had liberty to walk about the house. It was par- 
ticularly wicked, and was in the habit of standing somewhat in the way 
a heron does, apparently asleep, with its head and neck covered up ; 
but if any one approached, it suddenly shot out its head with great 
violence, always directing its aim towards the eye of its disturber.^ 
— Dublin, &c. In the winter of 1830-31, bitterns were much more 
numerous than usual here, and in the neighbouring counties, whence 
they were sent to the metropolis. Many of them were exposed for sale 
in the market. In the last week of Dec. 1844 eight fresh specimens were 
seen, by Mr. P. Ball, in the shop of Mr. Glennon, bird-preserver ; others 
were in the market there about the same time. In the winter of 1848- 
49, they were also unusually numerous ; five were sent to Dublin 
during one week in January to be set up.f — Kildare. The late 
Archdeacon Butson, about thirty years ago, has killed two or three 
bitterns in the course of a day’s shooting in the Bog of Allen : one 
wounded by this gentleman lived two years in his garden. In 1842 
I was told that the species continued to breed there.- -Queen’s- 
couNTY. Some years ago a bittern was observed by a gentleman of 
my acquaintance during a walk near Portarlington. 
* Mr. H. M. Pilkingtoii. f Mr. R. J. Montgomery. 
