THE ZooLocist—FEBruaky, 1875. 4341 
recent hard frost. Near Snape, in Suffolk, all the inland waters were more 
or less frozen over, and the cold was so severe that the blackbirds and 
thrushes were dying about the roads, while larks and other small birds 
might almost be caught in the hand. A heron struck down a dunlin as it 
rose from a ditch, and, having disabled it, was flying off with the unfortunate 
bird, when a man on the other side of the river, shouting out, caused it to 
drop its prey, which he secured for himself. On the next day, and near the 
same place, another—or perhaps the same—heron, while flying slowly along 
the river bank, suddenly darted at and seized a snipe as it was flying quickly 
by, and carried it off in triumph. Mr. Johns, in his ‘ British Birds and 
their Haunts,’ mentions a tame heron which was wont to perch on an 
old carriage-wheel in the corner of a court-yard, and to lie in wait for 
sparrows and martins. One of the latter it was seen to pierce while 
flying, and immediately descending, with outspread wings, to run to its 
trough, and, having several times plunged in its prey, to swallow it at 
a gulp.—Arthur J. Clark-Kennedy; 14, Prince’s Gardens, S.W., Jan. 12, 
1875. 
Bitterns in England, Ireland and Wales—From the ‘ Field’ and other 
newspapers we learn that bitterns have repeatedly occurred during the last 
six weeks in various parts of the kingdom. ‘Two at Stratford-on-Avon ; 
one near York; two in Derbyshire; one in Kent; four in Oxfordshire; 
two in Lincolnshire; one in Cornwall; thirteen in the county Cork; 
and five in North Wales. I have again to regret that many of these 
records are comparatively of little value from the absence of name and 
address.—E. Newman. 
Bitterns in Nottinghamshire—Two very fine bitterns were shot during 
the last week in December, on the side of the Trent at Shelford, near 
Nottingham, and one was seen near Calverton. One or two of these birds 
are killed most winters in this county.—J. Whitaker. 
Bitterns in Norfolk.—Four beautiful specimens of the common bittern 
have recently come to hand, shot in various localities in this county. The 
first, a female, from Hemsby, on the 5th of December ; a male on the Ist of 
January, in the neighbourhood of Stalham; another male, the same day, 
from Horning Ferry; and a female near Norwich, on the 8th of January, 
1865.—T. E. Gunn. 
Brown Snipe near Southport.—In 1873 I obtained a snipe that I could 
not identify as a “solitary,” the size and markings being quite different. 
Mr. Nicholas Cooke and the late Mr. Alfred Owen saw it soon after it came 
into my possession. Upon looking over Gould’s book I at once saw what it 
was. I may add that my old friend Cooper said he once shot a specimen 
near Carlisle, and the tail being barred so differently from the other snipes led 
him to suppose what it might be—J. B. Hodgkinson; 15, Spring Bank, 
Preston, January 9, 1875. 
SECOND SERIZS—VOL. Ix. L 
