8036 



Birds. 



screech of the railway whistle, yet the few which regularly visit us during the winter 

 months, and the large numbers thus occasionally met with, reuder it anything but a 

 "rare bird," as generally described. Persecuted to death under this delusion, like that 

 kindred martyr, in the spring and summer, the well-known hoopoe, each unlucky 

 specimen is slaughtered wherever met with, and the record of one particular capture 

 in the local papers, whilst many others pass wholly unnoticed, perpetuates from year 

 to year the " rara avis " absurdity. From some cause not easily explained, since the 

 cold during last winter was at no time so intense as in the previous winter of 1860-61, 

 the arrival of bitterns on our eastern coast since January last has been altogether 

 unprecedented. I have myself handled at least a dozen specimens sent up to Norwich 

 for preservation, and have heard, on good authority, of quite as many more sent up to 

 Yarmouth for sale. These birds have been killed on the different broads, chiefly in 

 the vicinity of the coast, and, with one exception, have been met with singly between 

 the 10th of January and the first week in April. On the 6th of March a fine pair were 

 killed right and left as they rose from a thick tussack on Hickling Broad, and these, 

 with a third specimen killed about the same time, I had the rare chance of dissecting 

 in one morning. Of the two Hickling birds one was evidently older than the other, 

 as shown by the plumage and the beautiful lilac colour, which still retained much of 

 its vividness after death, pervading the lore or naked space between the beak and the 

 eyes. I never had this tint so bright in any other specimen, the same parts being 

 generally of a bluish horn-colour, but this was probably owing to its^adult state and 

 the full vigour of the nuptial season. The companion bird, which, from their rising 

 together, I expected to find a female, proved on dissection a young male, the testes 

 being small, about five-eighths of an inch long, and dark in colour, as contrasted with 

 the same parts in the older bird, measuring an inch and three-quarters in length, 

 and perfectly white. The third specimen also proved a male, exhibiting the same 

 appearance exactly as No. 2. All three birds were in high condition, the breast and 

 abdomen covered with layers of fat, and the stomachs of all were filled with half- 

 digested food. From the first I took an eel quite entire, about six inches long; from 

 the second, the remains of an eel and of several large water-boatmen (Notonecta), five 

 or six at least, judging from the number of wing-cases; and from the third a roach, 

 five inches and a half long, and the debris of black water-beetles {Dytiscus marginalis), 

 with wing-cases complete. From a specimen killed a few weeks before, a small leach, 

 about an inch long, was taken alive, some days after the death of the bird, and when 

 placed in water revived and became as lively as ever. The following anecdote 

 respecting the singular capture of a bittern, in the adjoining county of Suffolk, was 

 communicated to Mr. J. H. Gurney by a gentleman well acquainted with the circum- 

 stance: — "Either the last week in January or first week in February four bitterns 

 were seen near the lake at Rushbrooke Hall, near Bury St. Edmunds. One was cap- 

 tured by a turnkey at Bury Gaol, who, on going his rounds at night, saw some dark 

 object stalking along under cover of the wall, and thinking it was one of the prisoners 

 attempting an escape, the turnkey closed with it, and after some time captured it, 

 a fine male bird, in full plumage." — H. Stevenson; Norwich, April 23, 1862. 



Occurrence of the Iceland Gull at Plymouth. — An immature example of the Ice- 

 land gull (Larus leucopterus) was obtained at Plymouth on the 21st of April, the 

 plumage of which was exceedingly light in colour and much worn. This is the second 

 example recorded as having been killed in Plymouth within the last few months. — 

 John Galcombe. 



