NATURAL HISTORY OF THE BERMUDAS. 95 



was the cover that all my efforts to rise the Bittern were of 

 no avail, and I had very great difficulty in forcing my way 

 out again. 



December \},th, 1848. — Examined a specimen of the 

 Gallinula chloropus, or Common Moor Hen, shot by 

 Mr. Wedderburn, at the sluice gates. It measured over 

 twelve inches in length. Bill and frontal membrane, olive 

 green — the former yellowish at the tip. Had every ap- 

 pearance of being a bird of the present year. 



Mr. Wedderburn also tells me that he shot three Snipe 

 and saw a fourth, in a small piece of marsh at Somerset 

 last evening. Two of these Snipe were observed at a con- 

 siderable height, coming in (as Mr. Wedderburn supposed) 

 from the westward ; wind south-west. 



Went this afternoon to witness some Seine fishing by 

 Captain Rollo and Mr. Wedderburn of the 42nd Regiment, 

 at Boss' Cove ; while so employed an Osprey glided, with 

 the speed of thought, over the neighbouring hills of Point 

 Shares, and, circling twice over the shallow bay near us, 

 disappeared higher up the Creek. Some time afterwards 

 his Kestral-like note was distinctly heard on the opposite 

 side of the bay, and the bird itself discovered sitting on the 

 summit of a tall palmetto stump. Mr. Wedderburn im- 

 mediately went over in his dingy, and succeeded in killing 

 it. It was not so large as some former specimens shot 

 here, but its plumage appeared to be that of an adult bird, 

 probably a male. The upper parts were of the usual colour 

 — the lower, pure white with the exception of a few brown 

 streaks about the lower part of the neck. Third quill- 

 feather longest ; four first quills remarkably diminished in 



