American Bittern - 1894

Botaarus lentiginosis

A very rare, accidental straggler from America — only one specimen — that obtained at St. David's, in October, 1872 {vide Zoologist for 1883, p. 341). This bird was seen and identified by Mr. Cecil Smith, the author of ! 'The Birds of Somerset." Mr. Smith states that he saw it in the possession of Mr. Greenway, who had shot it. Mr. Greenway had recorded it at the time in Land and Water, with some doubt as to its being the American Bittern. It is singular that only two stragglers from America, this species and the Yellow-billed Cuckoo, have occurred on the coasts of Pembrokeshire, while upwards of a dozen have been noticed on the no very distant coasts of Devon and Cornwall. We can only surmise that others may have visited us without having been noticed or recorded.

Mathew M.A. 1894, Birds of Pembrokeshire and it's Islands