554 ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES. 
The abundance of Turtle-Doves, Quail, and particularly of 
Corn-Crakes strikes me as singular, the last-mentioned bird 
occurring even in localities not quite suited to its habits. The 
Nightingale is also exceptionally common in the few places 
near Prague that afford it good accommodation, for with us it 
altogether avoids the coniferous woods and only frequents 
the thick leafy bushes on the sides of streams and damp 
hillsides, where it lives in close companionship with other 
members of its group. 
On the 28rd I saw three fully-fledged Tawny Owls and some 
Hooded Crows of the year. 
On the 27th I found a very handsome old male of the Little 
Bittern on a steep slope thickly covered with hazels, beyond 
the Beraun. 
On the evening of the 28th, as I was walking through a 
pine-wood near the fields, a Woodcock suddenly flew close up 
to me, and fluttered round several times. I had probably 
gone too near its nest. 
On the 30th I observed a pair of Barred Warblers (Sylva 
nisoria) by the bushy margin of a little irrigation-ditch in a 
garden near Prague. Several pairs of Red-backed Shrikes 
inhabited the same locality, and I saw an old male strike 
down from a tree a young but full-fledged Sparrow, which he 
was beginning to devour on the ground, when my sudden 
appearance drove off the robber, and allowed the Sparrow, 
which was only slightly wounded, to fly off into the nearest 
bushes. 
I will conclude by devoting a few more words to the 
Blackcock. 
The drumming-season of this bird, which in the districts 
that fell under my observation had lasted a long time, came to 
an end in the middle of May. But in one part of the ground, 
where almost all the nests both of the Partridge and the 
