Least Bittern
Ixobrychus exilis (Gmelin, JF, 1789)
Photo © Dominic Sherony, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
STATUS
North America and Latin America. Polytypic.
OVERVIEW
Species not admitted nationally (BOU 1971).
NOT PROVEN
0). 1852 Yorkshire Near York, obtained, autumn, now at Dorman Museum, Middlesbrough.
(Nelson, 1907; Mather, 1986).
[Not in BOU, 1971].
History Nelson (1907 (2): 397) says: 'On 26th September 1852, one was procured at Redcar, and about the same time a specimen was killed in the neighbourhood of York, and acquired by the late Joseph Duff of Bishop Auckland. This individual is now in my collection.'
Mather (1986: 93) says: 'When Nelson died in 1916 his widow presented his collection of stuffed birds to the Dorman Museum in Middlesbrough. The bird above is in case number 116, and on checking the specimen with P. J. Stead, determined that it was in fact an American Least Bittern I. exilis. It is a mystery why Nelson didn't spot the smaller size and the richer sides of the breast, but it is unlikely there was an attempt at fraud as no money exchanged hands. I believe it to be the bird claimed as shot near York, but misidentified.'
