14 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 
who muster plentifully there; though indeed where are not 
our countrymen to be found ? 
By train to Berlin was about the longest journey without 
a break I ever made, occupying nearly forty-two hours ; and 
so sparsely furnished with birds was the tract through which 
we passed, that I saw nothing worth recording. 
The Zoological Gardens at Berlin are not equal to ours at 
London, though I think the grounds are larger. The 
Society is well off in Accipdtres, and a pen of fifteen Little 
Egrets and Squacco Herons was a beautiful sight <A 
mouse, which my approach frightened into the Crane's en- 
closure, was caught up in a twinkling.* 
The trade in Thrushes, carried on in the open place by 
the theatre, is quite a business. This was the only market 
I could find. I sawa Great Bustard (O¢¢s tarda) in it, but 
nothing else worth mentioning. 
I thought none of the Berlin sights better worth seeing 
than the Aquarium. In fish it has now been eclipsed by 
that at Brighton, but in addition to the fish there were 
many birds of considerable interest and rarity. 
The Museum is too renowned to call for any praise from 
me. It is in the left wing of the University. In passing 
through the Thier Garten to see the Royal Necropolis, I 
had a capital view of a Greater Spotted Woodpecker. I 
have been told they are rather common. 
My next stage was to Hanover. The Zoological Gardens 
there are decidedly good, and the Raptorial birds well cared 
for. In one cage was a nearly white Buzzard, and in 
another two more with a great amount of white. 
From my bedroom window at the hotel I observed a 
* Some years ago my father kept a pair of Purple Herons. Some 
rats burrowed a hole in the ground at the bottom of their cage. Acan 
of water was poured down to bolt them, and two half-grown ones ran 
out, but they only escaped drowning to be instantly captured and 
swallowed by the Herons. 
