s
once, in its wanderings, reached the Channel Islands, and was shot in
Guernsey on the 27th October, 1870, and was duly recorded by me in the
'Zoologist' for 1871; it is now in my collection. This is the only
occurrence of this bird in the Channel Islands yet recorded; but as the
bird occasionally crosses to this side of the Atlantic--several
specimens having occurred in the British Islands--it may possibly occur
in Guernsey or some of the Channel Islands again. It may, therefore, be
as well to point out the principal distinctions between this bird and
the Common Bittern last mentioned. Between the adult birds there can be
no mistake: the longer and looser feathers on the fore part of the neck,
which are slightly streaked and freckled with dark brown, may be
immediately distinguished from the much shorter and more regularly
marked feathers on the neck of the adult American Bittern. This
distinction, however, is not perfectly clear in young birds; but, at
any age or in any state of plumage, the birds may be immediately
distinguished by the primary quill-feathers, which in the American
Bittern are a uniform dark chocolate-brown without any marks whatever,
while in the Common Bittern they are much marked and streaked with pale
yellowish brown; this may be always relied on at any age or in any
plumage.

The American Bittern is not mentioned in Professor Ansted's list, no
specimen having been found in the Channel Islands till after the
publication of his list, and of course there is no specimen in the
Museum.

133. LITTLE BITTERN. _Ardetta minuta_, Linnaeus. French, "Heron
Blongios."[22]--I only know of one occurrence of the Little Bittern in
the Channel Islands, and that was towards the end of November, 1876; and
Mr. Couch writes to me as follows on the 3rd of December: "A very good
Little Bittern was caught alive in the Vale Road; after being shot at
and missed by two men, a young man in the road threw his
pocket-handkerchief at it and brought it in to me alive." Mr. Couch also
informed me, when he forwarded me the specimen, that it was a male by
dissection. It is now in my collection, and is a young bird of the year.
I am rather sorry that as Mr. Couch got it alive he did not forward it
to me in that state, as, unless it had been wounded by the two shots, I
have no doubt I should have been able to keep it alive and observe its
habits and changes of plumage as it advanced towards maturity.

The Little Bittern is inc