THE BITTERN. 
165 
rather plentiful in the Dublin market^ which is supplied from 
several counties ; and one was obtained in the county of Down. 
In that of 1848-49, they were killed in different parts of Ireland; 
five (as already noticed) being sent, during one week in January, 
to Dublin to be preserved; one was shot, in November, near 
Waterford ; and another, late in the winter, in the county of 
Kerry.* 
Winter being the season at which bitterns chiefly visit Ireland, 
their migration from more northern latitudes is thereby indicated. 
They annually breed in Scandinavia. I have not seen sufficient 
data to enable a satisfactory conclusion to be arrived at respecting 
the frequency of the visits of this species to England or Scotland; 
and hence cannot with confidence draw the usual comparison 
respecting the numbers found in the three countries. The 
bird is, however, probably as often met with in Ireland as in 
England ; and more frequently in the former country than in 
Scotland.! 
Mr. E. Ball remarks that — ‘’^Bitterns in confinement exhibit 
an extraordinary power of remaining fixed in any position in 
which they happen to be, when a spectator fixes his eyes upon 
them. In the instance of one kept in a garden at Youghal, the 
owner came suddenly on the bird, which was at the moment in 
an attitude of some difficulty ; it seemed as if seized with cata- 
lepsy. The gentleman sat down near, and watched it for two 
hours, during which time the bird did not make the slightest 
movement, and finally exhausted his patience.’’^ The Great 
Plover (as will be seen by a note under that species) has a 
similar habit ; and Audubon, in his description of the American 
bittern, remarks — In Lower Louisiana it is called the ^ Garde 
Soleil,^ because they say it will stand on one foot for hours, with 
* Three bitterns, all fine speeimens, were stated, in the communication from Mr. J. 
Wright, Lymington, Hants, to the Zoologist^ to have been shot within a few miles 
of that place in the three weeks preceding Jan. 11, 1849. On the 8th of this 
month one was shot in the connty of Norfolk. (Zoologist, May 1849, p. 2421.) 
t Mr. St. John remarks, in reference to the year 1848 : — “The bittern is rare [in 
Sutherland] ; hut I have heard its cry near Shinness on loch Shin.” (Tour in Suther- 
land, vol. i. p. 138.) 
