Tuer Zootocist—Aveust, 1872. 3167 
that of the titlark and sedge warbler, the almost pure white line 
surmounted by a dark one above the eye, giving the head a great 
resemblance to that of the latter bird, and I have wondered whether 
they could possibly be the young of some other species—the gray- 
headed, for example (if there be any difference between the young 
of the two)—or only in the first plumage of a late brood of Rayi. 
Puffin, Buzzard, Nightjar, Kingfisher.—June 7th. A puffin 
has just been brought in by some fishermen, which got “ meshed” 
in their net: it was, I think, a young bird of last year, the bill 
being rather small and the cheeks dusky. Puffins are not at all 
common near Plymouth, and do not breed in the neighbourhood. 
A fine old common buzzard was brought into the town to-day, 
killed in the neighbourhood, and offered for sale at sixpence, but 
no purchaser found, I believe. Also a brood of young kingfishers, 
I am sorry to say, which soon died from neglect. Nightjars seem 
to be plentiful in our neighbourhood this season, as I have heard 
several in the neighbourhood of Bickleigh Vale. 
Herring and Lesser Blackbacked Gulls —I am very happy to 
observe and record the good effect produced by the Sea-bird Act 
on the Devon and Cornish coasts. Herring gulls are breeding 
. plentifully at the Rhame Head, near Plymouth, and a few days since 
I watched with a telescope a flock of more than one hundred and 
thirty herring and lesser blackbacked gulls, in adult and immature 
plumage, resting on the “ West Mud,” mostly lying down, but a few 
feeding ; also a host of others flying about the harbour at the same 
time; and whilst I am writing this I can see from my window an 
extraordinary “ play” of gulls, consisting of three or four hundred, 
hovering in a mass close over a shoal of fish in the harbour, then 
suddenly dashing down, and in their eagerness apparently settling 
on each other’s backs in the water. A week since I visited Dart- 
mouth, going down the river from Totnes, and from thence walked 
to Berry Head, Torbay, where I was pleased to find a great number 
of herring gulls breeding, and in some instances could see the young 
ones running about and standing at the edges of the holes and 
fissures in the cliffs eagerly waiting to be fed by the old ones, 
which appeared in a great state of alarm and anxiety, circling close 
over my head and making the place resound with their incessant 
cries. One large rock, I suppose half a mile from the shore, was 
almost white with herring gulls. There were also several cor- 
morants on other rocks, drying or expanding their wings, one of 
