ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES. 539 
most of the females were sitting, but not so hard as the 
Cormorants. 
On March 28th, when looking for Blackcock in a clearing 
of one of those high-lying wooded districts near Prague 
which are quite destitute of any large streams or marshy flats, 
three Herons, tired with some long journey, came slowly 
flying along at sunrise, one after another, and close to the 
ground. I knocked down the leader, but in spite of the shot 
the two others settled in an adjacent field of young corn. It 
was a cold morning, and a succession of snow-showers were 
being brought up by a strong west wind. The Herons were 
flying from a south-easterly direction and were battling 
against the wind. 
In the neighbourhood of Prague I saw the first Starlings 
(Sturnus vulgaris) at the end of February. On March 21st 
I arrived at a shooting-lodge situated at the edge of a great 
forest in Northern Bohemia. During the first part of the 
afternoon the temperature was very high, the weather quite 
like spring, and pairs of Starlings were sitting in front of my 
window on the numerous nest-boxes. Towards evening there 
was a heavy storm, succeeded by a very decided change of 
temperature. The next morning brought with it cold showers 
of rain, and the Starlings had all left their breeding-places, 
and were flying about the fields in large flocks. On the 
following day the country was covered with snow, and it kept 
getting colder and colder. I was out of doors the whole day, 
but did not see a single Starling, for they had begun to 
beat a retreat. Two days afterwards the weather improved, 
the temperature rose, the sun shone pleasantly, and on looking 
out of my window in the morning I again saw the Starlings 
busily employed at their breeding-boxes. 
The Capercaillie (Tetvao urogallus) also seems to have been 
much influenced in its breeding by the mild weather of the 
present year, for close to Prague on the evening of March 
