ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES. By G. BOLAM 107 



Shortly before the hard weather of the present winter set 

 in, a large number of Bitterns reached this country, the 

 greater number being, as usual, reported from the south of 

 England. In our own district one was killed, by a duck 

 shooter, who was waiting for the flight, at Beal Point, on 

 the evening of 1 4th December. Another example was killed, 

 under similar circumstances, on or about the 12th of the 

 same month, on the shores of Budle Bay. The good-wife 

 of the man who shot the latter bird " didna knaw rightly 

 what te di wi' sic an' a strange beast," and so they ate it! 

 The wings, however, were preserved as ornaments for a hat, 

 and so served the purposes of identification. "It wasna 

 sic bad eating outher," I was informed, "but tarble sma' 

 i' the body, and maistlies a' legs an' neck." 



Another Bittern was caught alive in the back yard of a 

 house at Cullercoats, on the 30th or 31st of December last. 



Black-throated Diver. Colymbus arcticus, Linn. 



Is far from common in the neighbourhood of Berwick. 

 On 4th February 1899, I saw an adult, in winter plumage, 

 which had been shot on the Tweed, near New Water Haugh, 

 where it was in company with a young Eed-throated Diver, 

 which was killed at the same time. 



Cormorant. Phalacrocorax cahro (Linn.) 



Cormorants have, during recent years, very greatly increased 

 in numbers about the mouth of the Tweed, where they may 

 be met with nearly all the year round. They must no 

 doubt devour considerable numbers of young salmonidce, 

 while these are descending the river, but flat-fish form a 

 very favourite food. The increase, so far as the Tweed is 

 concerned, only began to become marked about the end of 

 1895. On 17th March 1897, there is a note in my diary 

 that I had counted no less than seventeen Cormorants that 

 morning, sitting together, on the rocks behind the pier, 

 drying their wings. I have, since that date, frequently seen 

 even larger congregations there, and along the rocks to the 

 north, as well as up the river, two or three birds together 



