NATURAL HISTORY OF THE BERMUDAS. l6l 



Justice's pond, which was far too distant for the young 

 commercial Nimrods to follow it. Determined to search 

 the surrounding country for so rare a bird, for I presumed 

 it to be no other than the Ardea egretta (Great American 

 Egret of Audubon), I visited the Chief Justice's ponds, 

 where I disturbed a common Night Heron, and gave him 

 the contents of both barrels, without success. The report 

 of my gun disturbed a flock of six cedar birds, which very 

 provokingly passed directly over my head before I could 

 charge. Saw a Kingfisher dash into the pond in pursuit of 

 prey, and heard the note of the Carolina Crake, calling in 

 two different portions of the sedgey margin. I then 

 walked to Hungry Bay, here I found nothing ; but at Mr. 

 Harry Tucker's pond I put up a Great Blue Heron, hit him 

 hard, and pursued him to the top of an adjoining hill where 

 I toppled him out of a cedar tree. It was in beautiful 

 adult plumage, and weighed four and a half pounds, its 

 condition being full and plump. On my return to the 

 Chief Justice's pond, I recognised the familiar note of the 

 American Robin {Turdus migratorius) among some tall 

 cedars, and soon found two of those birds, which I followed 

 through some neighbouring cedar groves ; here the number 

 increased to five or six, all strong on the wing and rather 

 wild. Saw Mr. Wedderburn on his return from the 

 Governor's Marsh in the evening; was told he had met 

 with one " Robin," and one Herring Gull, neither of which 

 were shot. No other birds were seen. In my ramble this 

 morning I met Colonel Macdougall riding in from St. 

 George's, and learnt from him that Captain Drummond 

 has been out, in the vicinity of that town, endeavouring to 

 shoot a Wheatear (Saxicola cznantke), which has recently 

 appeared there. 



March i^th. — Mr. Marriott (who lives near the Chief 

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