American Bittern Botaurus lentiginosus: an historic first for Essex
The next heading is for an American Bittern:
208a 1826 Wenden?
The accompanying text for 208a states:
"This bird according to the judgement of Mr H Seebhone is the American Bittern. " The entry was
originally hand-written in pencil, but was later overwritten in black ink with Seebohm misspelt as
Seebhone.
Therefore in 1883, four mounted Bittern specimens and a skin survived, and another mounted
specimen was purchased in 1887. Two Bitterns, numbers 207d and 207b/208a, were collected at
Wenden with dates, localities and collectors having question marks assigned by Christy. The 1883
Catalogue links original reference number 208a with 207b and indicates that the American Bittern
had been first tentatively re-identified in 1883, the donors and/or procurers being given as S. Salmon!
and E.J. Tuck?
E.J. Tuck had several references in the Museum's Accession Register (Maynard 1897), the entry for
a Bittern being 1878.1.67 [i.e. year 1878, donation number 1, specimen 67], on page 222 with
"2076?" written against it. The register recorded that Mrs Tuck, widow of Reverend George Robert
Tuck of Wallington Rectory, Herts, had donated the collection of her son Edward John Tuck to the
Saffron Walden Museum in 1878. With further research. Sarah Kenyon showed that Edward John
Tuck only lived from 1840 to 1860 and that his bird diary (Tuck 1860, page 132) clearly showed
that the Bittern skin in his collection was brought to him from near Cannes, France, in April 1859.
The note following specimen 207e (see above), quoted from his diary, confirms this and the skin still
survives in the Museum.
Ttie Saffron Walden Gazette A series of newspaper articles entitled "A Ramble Through
Saffron Walden Museum" written by G.N. Maynard (1892)
I had a fruitless search for contemporary newspapers, but Sarah Kenyon found an archived reference
in the form of a book of collected newspaper articles dating from August 1891 and written by the
Curator GN. Maynard. Careful inspection revealed that they were published in The Saffron Walden
Gazette and are in a series entitled "A Ramble Through Saffron Walden Museum", describing the
history of the Museum and the natural history specimens that were on display. The book has been
annotated in inked handwriting with the specimen common names, specimen numbers and display
locations to the side of each article. The pertinent newspaper article is dated April 7th 1892 and the
entry for the American Bittern on page 92 reads as follows;
No 208
case 27
The American Bittern
"Near to this bird [Night Heron] will be seen a specimen of that rare British bird, the American
bittern (botaurus lentiginosus), which was taken at Wenden, Essex, in 1826. This specimen was
originally placed with the common bitterns in the collection, hut now turns out to be the rarer one
alluded to above. It is a native of North America down to Guatemala, being in the country but a rare
visitor....." A description then follows on how it can be distinguished from a Common Bittern.
This article confirms that the 1826 Wenden specimen was accepted as a Common Bittern and links
the specimen with other 1883 documentation. Therefore the record was publicly announced in a
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Essex Naturalist (New Series) 19 (2002)