American Bittern Botaurus lentiginosus: an historic first for Essex
1832. Its collections of British and foreign flora and fauna were housed in Hill Street, Saffron
Walden, until the Society's purpose-built museum on Castle Hill was ready to open in 1835 (Pole
1985).
The Museum's first Catalogue (Saffron Walden Natural History Society 1832-35)
This hand-written Catalogue consists of four main parts with:
(A) Scientific Order with various taxidermy cost labels pasted onto the back of the fust few pages
with (E) on page 4j and (F) on page 4a. All specimens appear to have been donated by SWNHS
committee members.
(B) Valuations in scientific order. The first section lists specimens donated by the SWNHS
committee of management. The 'Miscellaneous British Birds1 section lists other donations.
(C) Printed Bird Labels with annotations by Joseph Clarke
(D) Original Notes.
(A) "Specimens Deposited in the Museum of the Natural History' Society at Saffron Walden,
Essex, before the opening of it on April 1835 or previous io the admission of the Public, which
were collected by the then self-elected committee"
Within the index to British Birds on page 15, three entries arc listed under Bittern (table shown
vertically, instead of horizontally, for convenience) with: -
Scientific classification B. stellaris do do
Common name Bittern do do
Sex m f [illegible]
Cost of skin 3s 6d 6s 0d [£ s d]
Total Cost £1 0s 0d
Locality Yarmouth Saffron Walden Cambridgeshire
Artist SS Travers Senr SS
Donor JhC JG Thos Smith Esqr
Obtained from Harvey JG's coll:
Note that no procurement date is given for any of these specimens. The locality for the highlighted,
local specimen is stated as Saffron Walden, not Wenden (a village about three miles away to the west
of the town). The key to the abbreviations in the Catalogue shows that this specimen had been
donated by JG (Jabez Gibson) from his collection (JG's coll). The artist (taxidermist) was Travers
Senior. The total cost, cited in a different column, was £1 Os Od, which is expensive compared to the
cost of skins of the other two Bitterns of 3s 6d and 6s Od. All birds were clearly obtained in England.
Other abbreviations are: SS (Stephen Salmon) and JhC (Joseph Clarke), both prominent people
associated with the Museum.
The next entry in the Scientific Index in pencil is:
B. mokoho American Bittern DESIDERATA,
Therefore the Museum desired to procure an American Bittern, but ironically was unaware that it
already possessed one. This strongly suggests there was no fraud, rather a simple misidentification.
Essex Naturalist (New Series) 19 (2002)
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