62 THE BIRDS OF DEVONSHIRE. 



last year (1889) on the cliff, facing the sea, near 

 Hallsands, Start Bay. The nest was in a sort of 

 little hole formed by the rock and an old stump. I 

 saw the birds frequently the whole of last summer" 

 (in lit. March :3rd, 1890), 



Suhfamily Iyngin^. 

 WRYNECK.— ///^.r^ torquilJa, Linn. 

 An ireegular summer visitant, rare in N. Devon 

 and only known to me as a straggler in the South. 

 Mr. Gatcombe recorded a Wryneck killed at 

 Plymouth in April, with the remark that the species 

 is rare in the West of England. Dr. Scott reported 

 another caught at Exeter, in 1848, adding that 

 although he was assured that the Wryneck was found 

 near the city not unfrequently, yet he could find very 

 few people acquainted with the bird, from which he 

 inferred that it was seldom obtained, A specimen 

 in the Exeter Museum was killed at Topsham, May 

 30th, 1841 ; two others, both shot at Ilsham, exist 

 in the Torquay Museum. The Wryneck was 

 reported to Mr. A. G. More (1865), as being " very 

 rare in Devon ;" the Rev. Murray A. Mathew has 

 never found it to breed in the County, although on 

 the look out for its doing so for the last twenty-five 



years. 



Family Alcedinid.e. 



KINGFISHER.— ^/6w/o ispida, Linn. 



A RESIDENT, breeding in the neighbourhood of most 

 of our rivers, the Exe for example, which is a good 



