RAMBLING NOTES. 



143 



There are unprincipled poachers enough, who make it a glory to harass 

 our waters with net and lath ; who annually diminish, by some millions, 

 the healthiest fry of our salmon ; who depopulate many a river by means 

 of their nocturnal enginery. But we wish not to see, classed with these, 

 the humane and virtuous, the true and patriotic angler ; who should be 

 above employing his energies on such indiscriminate slaughter ; caring 

 not to check the growth of some future salmon, by the unprofitable and 

 childish act of destroying the infant fish. 



RAMBLING NOTES. 



BY J. H. ANDERSON, ESQ. 



As you deemed my last rambling notes worthy of insertion in your 

 January Number, I am induced to offer a few more, for any future 

 number, when you have not more interesting matter to give us from 

 other correspondents. A few days after the date of my last epistle, 

 I was so fortunate as to fall in with and capture a bilcock or water rail 

 (Rallus aquations) . I never had the pleasure of handling and exa- 

 mining one before, nor was I aware that we had got this interesting- 

 species so near us. You may be sure I was very much delighted with my 

 prize ; aye, not even a sailor could be more so, when his gallant foe has 

 struck in bloody fight, nor the soldier when the leaguered town is won. 

 Montagu gives an excellent description of this bird at page 33. The 

 only variation was in weight j his weighing four and a half, and mine 

 exactly five and a quarter ounces. 



Mine is a male bird, and was very fat when taken. 



In Vol. I. at page 272, of the Field Naturalist, Ruricola says he 

 found the nest of a yellowhammer (Emb&riza citrinella) built in a 

 hedge about eighteen inches from the ground. I can add^my testi- 

 mony to his and Colonel Montagu's, that they do sometimes, though 

 rarely, build in such situations. I think I shall be under the mark 

 when I say, I have seen not less than half a dozen in my time, and 

 more than that in furze bushes. I recollect an instance of finding one 

 in a hedge about three feet from the ground perfectly well, from the 

 attending circumstances thereof. The old bird was on the nest at the 

 time we found it ; and so, taking it as a mark, my comrade let fly an 

 arrow from his bow, which pierced through nest and bird together. 

 The horrid crime thus perpetrated has riveted the place and circum- 



