Page:The Zoologist, 1st series, vol 4 (1846).djvu/156

1322 throughout the year, and nests with us, but its numbers are very limited, and evidently decreasing.

We have reason to suppose that the numbers of this species are augmented during the winter months by occasional migratory arrivals. The bittern is mentioned in the household accounts of the Lestranges, and also by Sir Thomas Browne, who says of one which was kept in a garden, that in default of its usual food " making a scrape for spar- rows and small birds, the bittour made shift to maintain herself upon them."

The young bird represented in the engraving, was taken at Ran- worth several years ago, by Mr. D.B. Preston, from the nest, in which an addled egg was also found.

Night Heron, Nycticorax Gardeni. Has occurred several times in this district, but is an uncertain, and of late years a very rare visitant.

A specimen was killed several years since at Yarmouth, which had a larger number than usual of long white feathers growing from the back of the head, from which circumstance, and from the greater straightness and rigidity of these feathers, it was supposed to be a dis- tinct species. We have no doubt, however, upon an examination of the bird in question, that it belongs to the species under considera- tion, and that the distinctions above mentioned may be referred to the more perfect plumage of the adult bird. It is mentioned in the list of the Messrs. Paget as the "Cayenne Night Heron."

White Stork, Ciconia alba. One or two of these birds are generally killed in Norfolk every year, generally during the spring months, and in the vicinity of the eastern coast.

White Spoonbill, Platalea leucorodia. Occurs in Norfolk in nearly the same numbers, but is somewhat more frequently taken in autumn, and is less confined to the eastern coast, than the preceding species.

It is said by Sir Thomas Browne that it "formerly built in the hernery at Claxton and Reedham ; now at Trimley in Suffolk." The spoonbill has long ceased to breed in this district.

An adult male spoonbill which was killed in Norfolk, fell far short in all its admeasurements of the usual size of the species. It is pro- bable that this effect was produced by an old fracture of the thigh- bone, which was discovered when the bird was dissected for pre- servation.

Glossy Ibis, Ibis falcinellus. Has occurred of late years in Nor- folk only in small flocks, and at very long and uncertain intervals, but