Page:VCH Worcestershire 1.djvu/199

 BIRDS 114. Common Heron. Ardea cinerea, Linn. ' The Heron, Jrdea cinerea, is of frequent occurrence, although no heronry now exists in the county, and the nearest is in the park adjacent to Warwick Castle.' So wrote Hastings in 1834, but since that date there has been a heronry in the park at Ragley, and a few breed there at the present time. In Worcestershire the only heronry now (1901) is in Shrawley Wood. The authority above quoted adds in a note : ' A heronry existed some years ago at Croome, but the birds being troublesome, and making too free with the fish of the ponds, it was destroyed.' 115. Night-Heron. Nycticorax griseus (Linn.). Mr. Willis Bund includes the night-heron in his list of Worcestershire birds, referring to the following instance of its occurrence. A few years since an adult night-heron was flushed from amongst the aquatic herbage of a small pool at Bradley Green, near Fecken- ham, and was shot. It was afterwards brought to Alcester for preservation, where it was seen by the writer. 116. Little Bittern. Ardetta minuta (Linn.). An adult little bittern was shot more than thirty years since on a brook between the villages of Aldington and Badsey, and in close proximity to the latter place. I have no knowledge of any other specimen having been met with in Worcestershire, but an immature one was shot in Warwickshire, and brought to Stratford-on-Avon for preser- vation. 117. Bittern. Botaurus stellaris {h'mn.). Hastings records the bittern as having been often shot on the banks of the Severn. Mr. Willis Bund, including it in his Worcester- shire list, adds : ' Formerly resident, now only a straggler,' which applies to it as a British as well as a Worcestershire bird. I can now only speak of it as a rare species in this county. Lees says that one was shot on the pool before Hopton Court in the parish of Leigh ; and Mr. W. Edwards, of Malvern, records one shot at Eastnor in 1876. A few years since a bittern was shot on the Avon near Pershore, and the occurrence recorded in the Field newspaper. 118. White Stork. Ciconia alba, Bechstein. Sir Charles Hastings, on page 68 of his Illustrations, mentions the occurrence of this bird near Fladbury, and adds the following note : ' Mrs. Charles L. E. Perrott, on whose authority this information is given, says that " the crane and Ciconia were both shot by the late Mr. Perrott's keeper, but I should be inclined to think that they had escaped from some private collection." ' Lees records one which was shot on the Severn near Tewkes- bury many years since. Most likely it was the same bird to which Mrs. Perrott alluded. 1 1 9. Spoonbill. Platalea leucorodia, Linn. The spoonbill has been shot from the large sheet of water in the park at Westwood on two occasions, but I have not the date, and the specimens are preserved in the collection of British birds of Mr. Martin Curtler, of Worcester. A spoonbill is recorded by Lees as having been shot on the Avon near Tewkesbury several years previously to 1870 (the date of his list of Malvern birds), which was at that time in the Worcester Museum. 120. Grey Lag-Goose. Anser cinereus, Meyer. The present species is recorded by Hastings as being ' of frequent occurrence in the winter season in our various rivers and pools.' It is the Jnser palustris of which he was then speaking, which is one of the names of the grey lag-goose ; and that that species did in former years pass over our county, and some- times remain to rest, there is no doubt. The larger size and lighter colour were quite suffi- cient to distinguish this from the other species of grey goose, even at a considerable distance when passing over head. 121. White-fronted Goose. Anser alhifrons (Scopoli). As with the bean and pink-footed geese, the present species travelled in considerable numbers to and from the west in the autumn, and an occasional one out of a gaggle, which had stayed to rest, was shot, and the species determined. On one occasion an adult in full plumage was taken near the village of OfFenham, and was preserved by the well- known ornithologist, Mr. H. Doubleday of Epping, who happened to be there at that time, and was placed in his fine collection of British birds. It still is found in considerable numbers in the Severn estuary, especially near Berkeley, and specimens occasionally in hard weather make their way further up the Severn to Worcestershire borders. 122. Bean-Goose. Anser segetum {GmeWn). The late Mr. John Cordeaux in a history of British Anseres, which appeared in a re- cently published History of British Birds, gives a very interesting account of the bean-goose, and explains the reason of its present scarcity, which is undoubtedly due to the enclosure of open lands in the marsh districts of Lincoln- 161