598 Egret shot at Christchurch, Hants, 



away the monster with his bare hands. For a time it 

 passed into those of Mr. Ware, hair-dresser and bird- 

 stuffer, of this town; and ultimately into my own possession. 

 Its demeanour, after being captured, was very fierce : and, 

 indeed, its jaws are formidably armed for defence or aggres- 

 sion. It appears to me to be precisely the same with a bat 

 common at Montpelier, and of which, in company with the 

 late Mr. Lindley Rose of Parliament Street, Westminster, 

 I succeeded in obtaining several specimens, one evening in 

 July, 1830, by shooting them on the wing, when engaged in 

 chasing the gnats and other insects which swarm around the 

 beautiful aqueducts, supplying water for the fountains on the 

 superb Place Perou. Where no such object exists to induce 

 them to stoop from their accustomed sublimity, these animals 

 usually soar beyond the ordinary range of a fowling-piece ; 

 but, if a single corn pierces the membranous expansion 

 usually termed wings, that instant they lose the power of 

 sustaining themselves in the air, and fall, not without much 

 squeaking, showing of teeth, and using them, too, if occasion 

 offers, into the clutches of the unrelenting zoologist. Their 

 flight resembles rather the steady evolutions of some of the 

 larger birds, than the moth-like fluttering of their more 

 diminutive brethren, so renowned for their domiciliary visits, 

 and the dismay thereby occasioned to old women of both 

 sexes; an amiable trait, which the present species never in- 

 dulges, as being infra dig. in an animal that looks for subsist- 

 ence to creatures inhabiting the same elevated region with 

 itself, and whose motto, could he choose one, would probably 

 be, M Aquila non capit muscas." — Win. Arnold Bromjield, 

 M.D. Sept. I $36. 



Egret, Pratincole, Black Woodpecker, Blackchin Grebe. — 

 Not having seen an answer respecting the egret (^4'rdea Gar- 

 zetta), p. 320,, I may as well mention that I have a memo- 

 randum of one having been shot near the river Stour, at 

 Christchurch, Hants, on Wednesday (I forgot the day of 

 the month), in the beginning of July, 1822, by the late Mr. 

 William Lockyer, who sold it to Mr. Barrow of Christchurch, 

 who stuffed and still has it, I believe. I have waited thus 

 long, hoping to have had an opportunity of seeing it ; but as 

 I have not, I will wait no longer ; trusting you will publish it, 

 or not, as you think proper, till some one has identified the 

 truth of it. Most probably, the bird would have come into my 

 possession had I been in the neighbourhood at the time of its 

 being shot, as Lockyer collected insects for me ; or had he 

 thought it would have kept good till I visited that part again, 



