THE BITTERN. 
163 
Roscommon. Mr. G. Jackson (now gamekeeper to the Earl 
of Bantry) shot a bittern, on the 30th August 1832, in a rushy 
swamp about the middle of a bog near Belanagar. The pointers 
followed the scent for a very considerable distance, so that the 
object of their pursuit was thought to be an old cock grouse, 
until it rose on wing. Another was shot by him in a young 
plantation at Erenchpark in the winter of 1836-37, when there was 
much snow on the ground. — Mayo. A friend has often seen bitterns 
in the early spring — four or five in a day — from the year 1838 to 1843, 
in Muckanagh bog, on the shore of the lower lough Conn. The place 
was inaccessible to shooters in winter from being always flooded. The 
author of the ‘ Wild Sports of the West’ describes, in his usual graphic 
manner, his shooting a bittern in the wilds of Connaught, about Bally- 
croy, and remarks that the species is now “ extremely scarce ; ” an 
observation which will, I believe, apply generally to the more western 
and wilder parts of that province ; but about Portumna, on the 
banks of the Shannon, co. Galway, 1 was told, a few years ago, that 
bitterns are killed every winter. 
Clare. Until the year 1836, at least (when the information was 
supplied), bitterns were stated to be not uncommonly on sale in 
Ennis market. — Tipperary. A few years previous to 1842 (when 
the circumstance was communicated), Mr. R. Davis, jun., received for 
his collection a female bittern, which was shot early in August, about 
three miles from Killenaule, when rising from her nest ; the young- 
birds were at the time unfledged. The species was then considered to 
be very rare in the county ; but it was added that “ a winter rarely 
passes over without one or more specimen being shot.” In the season of 
1840-41, a bittern was killed near Cashel ; but none was known to have 
occurred in the following winter. — Wexford. Mr. Wheelock (bird- 
preserver) mentioned, in Nov. 1841, that three of these birds only were 
known to him as havin^been procured there. In the winter of 1846- 
47, one was obtained (Poole). — Waterford. Dr. R. J. Bnrkitt of 
Waterford, in a letter dated Nov. 19, 1841, observed that bitterns are 
not uncommon there, and that he had seen eight which were killed in 
the county within the preceding six years. In 1831 he saw five that 
were shot at the one locality of Kilbarrey ; “ they were very numerous 
that year about Waterford, and have been much scarcer since.” One 
was procured there in Nov. 1848. — Cork. Smith, in his History of 
