354 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 



Mrs. Turle, the late birdstuffer at Taunton, who said 

 she had had a specimen through her hands which 

 had been killed near Bridgwater, I include this bird 

 in my list. In enumerating the counties in which 

 it has occurred, Yarrell also mentions the adjoining 

 counties of Devon and Wilts, and in the ' Zoologist' 

 for 1867 is a note of its having been taken at Wey- 

 xnouth, in Dorsetshire : as it comes occasionally so 

 close round us more specimens may have occurred 

 in Somersetshire than have been recorded. It ap- 

 pears only to be a summer visitor to this country, 

 all the captures recorded being in the spring and 

 summer, and Mr. Rodd says that in Cornwall speci- 

 mens are taken, but always in the spring (April and 

 May). 



According to Yarrell the nest is said to be built 

 in trees ; Meyer, however, supposes that it is usually 

 placed on the ground in marshy places. As it is a 

 summer visitor to this country we should probably 

 be easily able to solve this difficulty, were it not 

 that the gun is so frequently brought into requisi- 

 tion immediately on the appearance of this or any 

 other rare bird. 



The food appears to be much the same as that of 

 others of the family small fish, frogs, frog-spawn, 

 Mollusca, water- beetles and other insects. 



This is a much smaller species than the last-men- 

 tioned, being only about nineteen inches from the 

 point of the beak to the end of the tail, instead of 



