5O A Curious Statement. 



water, on that particular day, had got too 

 warm for them, and that they came out 

 for a change. As I walked along the bank 

 they clumsily scrambled back. 



MASCALL AND THE "KINGES FISHER." 

 A Curious Statement. 



After describing how to catch a king- 

 fisher with bird-lime, Mascall has this 

 note : " Also they say this bird, being 

 dead, if he be hanged up by the bill with 

 a thread in your house where no winde 

 bloweth, his brest will alway hang against 

 the winde, whereby ye maye knowe per- 

 fectly in what quarter the winde is at all 

 times both night and day." 



THE " DOBCHICKE." 



Our English trout-river keepers are all 

 unmerciful to the dabchick, or "Dob- 

 chicke," as Mascall calls it, and not with- 

 out reason, if he is right. He says : "The 

 Dobchicke will be always commonly on 

 rivers and pooles, and they are nigh as 

 great as the Teales, and are of cullour 

 blacke, and they will commonly dive 

 under the water to take young fish, as I 

 have scene in rivers and brookes." And 

 he then illustrates and describes a pecu- 

 liar method of taking them, viz. : " The 



