Birds, 513 



circumstance seems rather extraordinary, perhaps some corre- 

 spondent will please to inform me whether it is known usually 

 to occur among birds of the gull kind : — As I was returning 

 from collecting fossils in the neighbourhood of Charmouth, 

 Dorsetshire, my attention was drawn to a large seagull dart- 

 ing down into the river, and taking up in its feet (or bill ?) a 

 small gull (which afterwards proved to be akittiwake) to some 

 height in the air ; when it let it drop, and caught it again, 

 several times, till it came at last down towards the river : when 

 I ran to the spot, and shouted as loud as I could ; and made 

 the large gull drop the bird, which I secured at last, in a 

 dying state, by jumping into the river ; and, having taken it 

 home, preserved it for my brother's collection. The large 

 one, however, hovered over for some time, with the view of 

 obtaining it again. As the captured bird has, instead of a 

 fourth toe, only a small warty protuberance, so remarkable, 

 that we noticed it before we referred to Montagu or Bewick, 

 it is impossible to mistake this for any other species than the 

 kittiwake. 



[The Kittmake is common on the Coast of Dorsetshire J\—^ 

 It is rather remarkable that Montagu should mention the 

 kittiwake as a rare bird in the south of England, he having 

 stated only one instance as occurring, in which three birds of 

 this species were washed ashore in Devonshire. My brother 

 and myself shoot them more commonly than those of any 

 other species of gull. I may also mention 



A few rather rare Bii^ds that are met with in this neigh- 

 bourhood; namely: — Purple sandpiper (Tringa maritima), 

 grey phalarope (Phalaropus lobatus), bee-eater (Merops 

 apiaster), whimbrel (Numenius minor), ash-coloured falcon 

 (Circus cinerarius), merlin (Falco ^'salon), cirl bunting 

 (Emberiza Ctrlus), red-legged crow (Graculus rufipes), red- 

 necked grebe (Podiceps rubricollis), stone curlew (Charadrius 

 cedicnemus ; and the forked-tail petrel (Procellaria LeachzV), 

 which was found dead in a field at Charmouth. All of these, 

 except the Merops, are in our collection. The Merops is 

 now in the collection of Dr, Roberts, at Bridport : it was shot 

 at Chidcock some years since. 



In the Sherborne paper, another instance is mentioned of 

 this bird having been shot, somewhere near Plymouth, on 

 April 1. 1818. It is now, I believe, in the British Museum. 

 — Beverley B. Morris. Charmouth, Dorsetshire, Feb. 1. 1834. 



A common Heron, which I kept for some months in my 

 garden, would, when disturbed, disgorge the contents of its 

 stomach. This is probably a provision of nature to aid the 



Vol, VII. — No. 42. ll 



