ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES. 537 
and on March 21st and the following days I saw many of 
them in Northern Bohemia, where they were looking for 
insects on the fields and flying about the large ponds in 
flocks. No paired couples were noticed at that time. 
In Northern Bohemia, after a long spell of unnaturally 
warm weather, there came on March 22nd a pretty severe 
snowfall, with a sudden fall in the temperature, and the 
strong north-east wind seemed to have a great influence on 
the migration of the birds, for on a little stream that flows 
through woods and meadows, and that usually harbours as 
resident birds only a few pairs of Mallards, | found on 
March 22nd a Double Snipe (Gallinago major), and soon 
afterwards a Bittern (Botaurus stellaris). Both seemed to 
be much tired with a long journey, and rose very slowly 
before the dogs. The Bittern is extremely rare in this 
locality, and few of the keepers knew it. 
The Wood-Pigeon (Columba palumbus) was first observed 
near Prague at the end of February. On the 14th of March 
I saw large flocks both of this bird and of the Stock-Dove 
(C. @nas) in the meadows of the Danube below Vienna, and 
also found paired couples of the two species in their customary 
haunts. 
The Woodcock (Scolopax rusticola) came to the neighbour- 
hood of Vienna in the beginning of March, and was un- 
usually searce both in the auen of the Danube and in the 
Wiener Wald, for the dryness of the ground and the hot weather 
drove them quickly to their breeding-places. Hven when we 
were out shooting, these birds, which are generally so sluggish 
during the day, were singularly active. 1 saw some that 
were flushed rise high in the air, wing their way over woods 
and valleys, and disappear for good. 
On March 20th I found many Woodcocks in the woods 
west of Vrague, where they breed every year in the damp 
valleys among the dense pine-forests and birches. According 
