98 the zoologist. 



June. 

 19th. Received a Hawfinch from Bury, which Mr. W. H. 

 Tuck thinks had been hatched about the middle of April, the 

 time they begin to pair according to Yarrell. I protect Haw- 

 finches, and am rewarded by their eating my white-heart cherries, 

 to which I object, and yew berries, to which they are welcome. 

 At Wiveton Mr. Pashley tells me they stripped three large rows 

 of peas in one night, throwing many of them on the ground in 

 mere wantonness. When recording the two Little Bitterns at 

 Kollesby Broad last year (Zool. 1894, p. 88), I was not then 

 aware that there was also another on a small lake near Watton, 

 thirty-two miles west. More fortunate than its relatives, it was 

 carefully protected, and the owner was rewarded by the same or 

 another returning, about May 21st, to spend the summer on his 

 water. Invited to come and hear its curious note, I acquiesced 

 in its resemblance to the sound made by a paviour ramming 

 stones, or the distant barking of a dog. Nothing would induce 

 it to rise. On coming home and contemplating a young one in a 

 cage at Keswick, and noticing the extraordinary drawn-up thin- 

 ness of it (exactly like Mr. Griffith's picture (Zool. 1894), except 

 that its neck was often even more contracted in breadth, while in 

 length elongated to its utmost), and its immovability, and 

 resemblance to faded rushes, I can well understand that it might 

 be within a few feet and yet be invisible. Mr. Griffith's photo- 

 graph, though very good, does not show the peculiarity of the 

 legs. The tarsi are sometimes at different angles, and the feet 

 point in different directions, without incommoding the Bittern in 

 the least. By the end of June it was clear to the owner of the 

 lake that there were two Little Bitterns, unless they are mar- 

 vellous ventriloquists, for one " barked " on one side of the mere, 

 and one on the other. On the morning of July 25th Mr. P. 

 reported that after a heavy rain one of them sat on the top of 

 the Ducks' enclosure, sunning himself and " barking " for ten 

 minutes. I did my best to stimulate search, and a nest of some 

 kind was found, but its ownership was not proved, and no eggs 

 were laid. By the 22nd of August the birds had gone. 



28th. A new colony of about thirty Herons' nests was noted 

 at Rcedham (W. H. Hudson). A fully-fledged Hawfinch was 

 caught at Beeston Regis (T. W. Oemer), and a male Crossbill 



