3444 The Zoologist— March, 1873. 



croak, croak," off flew the male raven towards the Reannies, and 

 • immediately up got all the gulls with an immense cloud of dunlins 

 and ringed dotterel, hovering and wheeling round, apparently in 

 great consternation, but the cormorants did not move. For a 

 moment I wondered what had caused all this commotion, when I 

 espied the old raven perched on the highest pinnacle of the rocks, 

 croaking " like mad," the cormorants still sitting quietly, but the 

 gulls and dunlins did not venture to again alight until his ravenship 

 had left for the shore. I have on several occasions found the 

 remains of dead, and sometimes wounded birds on these rocks, 

 which would fully account for the visits of the raven. 



Northern Diver. — Dec. 11. Three northern divers off the Hoe, 

 one of which caught a large fish, with which it dived frequently, 

 keeping down for nearly a minute at a time, but at length came up 

 without the fish in its bill, having swallowed it under water; this I 

 have seen shags often do. A man was carrying a live northern 

 diver about the streets of Plymouth a few days ago ; and the 

 stomach of one I examined contained nothing but crabs and some 

 good-sized stones. I have seen the shags catch crabs also. 

 Northern divers rarely rise from the water when pursued in a boat, 

 but a few days since I saw one get up and fly away on the 

 approach of a steamer, and I have often seen them very high in 

 the air when going to or coming in from sea. Redthroated divers, 

 on the contrary, frequently make use of their wings when chased. 



Dec. 18. Notwithstanding the severe gales the weather is 

 exceedingly mild, and this morning I caught the great tortoise- 

 shell butterfly on the coast. This seems more strange as the 

 species is rare in Devonshire at any season. 



Wigeon. — Dec. 19. Early this morning a great flight of wlgeon 

 was seen at Laira, and at night I heard large flights whistling 

 overhead on their way to the rivers. 



Redlh ranted Diver, Qainiet, cCr. — Dec. 22. Examined six 

 kittiwakes, a great blackbacked gull, and a redthroated diver, which 

 had been killed in the Sound. Many gannets were seen outside 

 the breakwater, and one was brought in by some fishermen. 



Cornish Choiujh, Kestrel. — Went to Whilsand Bay, on the 

 Cornish coast; weather exceedingly fine and mild. Birds singing 

 as in spring; observed several kestrels and two Cornish choughs, 

 which latter are very uncommon so near Plymouth. 



