THE MYRTLE BEE. 87 



&(;., in its mouth, which, upon being called to, it dropped. This was picked 

 up by Mr. Isherwood, with the observation, "now I wonder if he has got 

 anything there," immediately followed by, " lauk ! look here, what a little 

 brute," or some such expression; and sure enough there was a bird, but such 

 a bird as never was seen before. Being both keen fishermen, the first thing 

 that naturally occurred to them was, has it got any feathei'S fit for flies? 

 But after a careful inspection, that was found to be a hopeless case ; and 

 Mr. Isherwood exclaimed, " what a worthless little devil ;" but, as Captain 

 Brow^n thinks, pocketed the bird, and his description of it is this : It was 

 not half as big as a common Wren; (in the Notes and Queries he says, 

 *' half," not wishing to put it lower ;) the tail being long in proportion to the 

 body, probably two-thirds, but square ; the whole length about two inches. 

 The plumage, sooty, gray-black ; the only variation being round the A'ent, 

 where the feathers were yellowish ; but one peculiarity much struck him, 

 namely, that the tongue, which protruded, in consequence of the dog having 

 crushed the little creature, was long, horny, and very sharp ; the head was 

 small in proportion, and the neck short ; and the legs and feet the tinyest 

 things you could imagine. This was the description of the bird, and this 

 the manner in which ocular demonstration was obtained of its identity. 

 Immediately that, I believe by a casual mention of the circumstance, this 

 discussion arose, Captain Brown set to work to get con-oborative evidence ; 

 but Time, the destroyer of all this, was greatly against him. First, the 

 locality wore a totally new face, the ground had been drained, the quaking 

 bog had ceased to exist, the " Bog Myrtle " had been taken with the Peat 

 in which it grew, and had boiled many a lowly kettle. Mr. Isherwood and 

 the Captain's father had paid the debt of Nature, and therefore old Spong 

 and Mr. Mumford were the only available witnesses. But here again he was 

 foiled ; old Spong had died in the union, the year before, and Mr. Mumford 

 was in fact on his death-bed, so that the fact rested, and now rests on the 

 Captain's sole testimony. He says, indeed, that a Captain Shepherd, of 

 the Royal Navy, was with him on one occasion, and saw the birds flying to 

 and fro ; but whether he is living or dead, or whether, if living, he would 

 remember the circumstance, is, of course, doubtful. 



To this account. Captain Brown adds, that on another occasion, and in 

 another locality, namely, near Rapley's Farm, Bagshot Pa]-k, he met with 

 the birds, but had never seen them elsewhere. Now, I know, that all ex- 

 traordinary tales are at once repudiated as simply fabulous, by a large class 

 of persons ; and again, there are others who incline to an immediate belief, 

 with somewhat of a superstitious awe ; the true medium is, of course, the 

 safest. I confess that I cannot disbelieve Captain Brown's statement ; and 

 then comes the question, whether his memory is defective on the subject, or 

 being no Naturalist, he mistook some very small known bird for a non- 

 descript. The Rev. Mr. Isherwood has been communicated with, that 



