14 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



who muster plentifully there ; though indeed where are not 

 our countrymen to be found ? 



By train to Berlin was about the longest journey without 

 a break I ever made, occupying nearly forty-two hours ; and 

 so sparsely furnished with birds was the tract through which 

 we passed, that I saw nothing worth recording. 



The Zoological Gardens at Berlin are not equal to ours at 

 London, though I think the grounds are larger. The 

 Society is well off in Accipitres, and a pen of fifteen Little 

 Egrets and Squacco Herons was a beautiful sight. A 

 mouse, which my approach frightened into the Crane's en- 

 closure, was caught up in a twinkling.* 



The trade in Thrushes, carried on in the open place by 

 the theatre, is quite a business. This was the only market 

 I could find. I saw a Great Bustard (Otis tarda) in it, but 

 nothing else worth mentioning. 



I thought none of the Berlin sights better worth seeing 

 than the Aquarium. In fish it has now been eclipsed by 

 that at Brighton, but in addition to the fish there were 

 many birds of considerable interest and rarity. 



The Museum is too renowned to call for any praise from 

 me. It is in the left wing of the University. In passing 

 through the Thier Garten to see the Royal Necropolis, I 

 had a capital view of a Greater Spotted Woodpecker. I 

 have been told they are rather common. 



My next stage was to Hanover. The Zoological Gardens 

 there are decidedly good, and the Raptorial birds well cared 

 for. In one cage was a nearly white Buzzard, and in 

 another two more with a great amount of white. 



From my bedroom window at the hotel I observed a 



• Some years ago my father kept a pair of Purple Herons. Some 

 rats burrowed a hole in the ground at the bottom of their cage. A can 

 of water was poured down to bolt them, and two half-grown ones ran 

 out, but they only escaped drowning to be instantly captured and 

 swallowed by the Herons. 



