American Bittern Botaurus lentiginosus: an historic first for Essex
Clarke's 1845 catalogue, an official printed catalogue, gave the Bittern entry on page 16 as
follows:
Bittern, m. f.*
The Key in EXPLANATION OF THE CONTRACTIONS on page 7 gave: "m = male; f=female;
"Those marked with a * have been procured in the immediate neighbourhood of Saffron Walden,
and others have been taken in different parts of the British isles." Also on page 7, Clarke stated,
"The printing of every name in the following list of Birds would swell it to an inconvenient bulk, and
present more matter than could well be gone through in the ordinary time generally allotted to such
collections; it was therefore considered necessary to condense it as much as utility would admit of
by avoiding repetition and omitting duplicates. The donors' names have been given at the end of
each order."
Therefore this 1845 Catalogue simply recorded whether a male or female example was present, but
the actual number is not given. The asterisk is highly significant indicating that ALL Bitterns in the
Museum up to 1845 had been collected within the British Isles and that at least one had been collected
locally. Jabez Gibson was one of the donors for this order.
Note the 'immediate neighbourhood of Saffron Walden' comment, which certainly applies to the
geographical position of Wenden.
Catalogue of British Birds and Mammals in the Saffron Walden Museum written by R.M.
Christy (1883)
This Catalogue was compiled by R.M. Christy in 1883 and was hand-written and never published in
printed form, unlike Clarke's 1845 catalogue. In Saffron Waldcn's Essex Record Office, I discovered
summaries of the Museum's archived material that included certain letters, which Sarah Kenyon
located and proved conclusively that Robert Miller Christy (initials RMC) worked for a short period
of time at Saffron Walden Museum. He catalogued and relabelled the birds in the spring of 1883
with GN. Maynard, the curator, to produce this catalogue. The entries for the Bittern specimens
read:
Date Locality Presented by
207a Guist Fen, Norfolk G.S. Gibson (Barlow coll)
X 207b 1826? Wenden? S. Salmon! E.J. Tuck?
Under the Name column, is stated: "See 208a below"
[My notes: an "X" is in the left-hand margin with a dot in each quarter, indicating a cross-
reference]
207c Norfolk Joseph Clarke
207d 1826? Wenden? S. Salmon? E.J. Tuck?
207c January 1855 Burgh male adult
lot 160 12/- at Stevenson's Sale Norwich 12/9/87.
Following the details of the above mounted specimens is more hand-written text:
"Note from Mr Tuck's diary Apr 10 1859 "A Bittern was brought me which had just been caught to
the West of Cannes in the. plane of Laval. It had evidently just arrived. I think it a female, it agrees
with Yarrell s description except that the black on the head does not appear tinged with bronze. The
neck when the skin was removed measured 11 inches to back of the head. " This appeared to be the
only specimen of the bird captured according to his Diary
GN.M."
[Note this is a skin (not a mounted specimen) and it still survives in the Museum's collection.]
Essex Naturalist (New Series) 19 (2002)
2')