4404 TueE ZooLocist—A PRIL, 1875. 
amongst reeds or long herbage.” It is curious how these two 
authors should so differ on this point, and it is very material that 
the matter should be cleared up. Will some one who has been so 
fortunate as to watch their habits tell us which is right? Selby 
wrote that this bird “ was the well-known and (by the superstitious) 
dreaded inhabitant of all the marshes and extensive quagmires 
throughout the country,” adding that, in his day, “the capture of 
a bittern is, in many parts of England, a subject of great interest ;” 
but he would hardly have believed that these superstitions would 
last till now. I hear that one good gentleman, when told of its 
appearance in this neighbourhood, became very excited on account 
of the prophecy of Isaiah (xiv. 23). I have only to add that I did 
not let the opportunity escape me of testing the quality of the 
flesh of the bittern as an article of food, and therefore cut as many 
collops as I could, had them well stewed and served up for break- 
fast, when two ladies, as well as myself, testified to its excellence ; 
and, judging from the manner two brown owls picked the bones, 
it was evident that they would have liked some more of them. 
DECEMBER. 
Condition of Birds in the Dene during the severe Frost.— 
Since the Ist of this month immense numbers of wood pigeons 
have settled in a fir plantation bordering a field of turnips, on the 
tops of which they feed: the field is sometimes covered with them, 
and when scared the noise of their wings on rising more resembles 
a continued crash of falling timber than anything else I know of. 
Large flocks of fieldfares and redwings appeared simultaneously 
with them: I think I have never before seen so many fieldfares, 
nor have I ever observed them so unsettled and wild in severe 
weather; they soon consumed all the berries: both the fieldfares 
and the wood pigeons disappeared on the 15th, the snow then being 
nine or ten inches deep. On the 18th and 19th I walked out for 
two hours and a half each day, and did not see a single wood 
pigeon, not more than half-a-dozen fieldfares, no redwings, five or 
six male blackbirds, a few missel thrushes, Royston crows, bull- 
finches, the great, blue, marsh, cole and longtailed tits—but for 
these the Dene might be said to be birdless. I had forgotten, 
however, the little goldcrest I saw in company with the longtailed 
tits; and how these little mites manage to keep up circulation in 
this weather puzzles me. The song thrush has also entirely 
Patt a ae 
