The Zoologist — June, 1873. 3563 



some pied wagtails, all in perfect summer dress ; and in a bird- 

 stuffer's I saw a beautiful shag in splendid plumage, with a full crest, 

 killed on the 7th ; also a cormorant with the white spot over the 

 thigh and a crest appearing, from the gullet of which was taken a 

 large wrasse, thirteen and a half inches long, four inches and a 

 quarter deep, and nine inches and a half in girth, weighing one 

 pound eight ounces : so far down and firmly fixed was this fish in 

 the bird's throat, the end of the tail only protruding, that it was 

 with great difficulty extracted, the small and slippery portion of the 

 tail affording such an insufficient grasp for the finger and thumb, 

 that the feat had at length to be accomplished by the aid of the 

 boatman's teeth. I examined the bird myself, and secured the fish, 

 which I carefully weighed and measured, therefore there can be no 

 mistake as to its size. 



March 11. Saw many starlings entering the holes of the walls in 

 which they bred last year. Observed also a beautiful variety of the 

 common sparrow with a white head and neck, the ordinary brown 

 plumage of the back and wings being also splashed with white. Re- 

 marked about a hundred mews {Lams canus) feeding in a grass field 

 in the neighbourhood of Plymouth, but some miles from the sea. 



March 14. Another black redstart at the Devil's Point, Stone- 

 house : these birds increase in number on the sea-coast just before 

 their departure for the summer. A chiffchaff was seen in a small 

 garden at Stonehouse on the 17th, after a very strong and cold wind 

 on the previous day. Many razorbills in summer plumage off the 

 coast,' and titlarks constantly mounting in the air from the summit 

 of the cliffs, and descending singing with outspread wings and 

 elevated tail, as if already nesting. 



March 18. A great many lesser blackbacked gulls still in the 

 harbour, mostly in full summer plumage, but with some brown ones 

 among them. Observed several wheatears and two black redstarts 

 on the coast. 



March 21. Wind north-east, very cold with sleet. Went to the 

 Dewerstone Rock, near Dartmoor, on which I observed a pair of 

 ravens; and on my way home, through Bickleigh Vale, met with 

 several longtailed tits in pairs, some goldcrests, and a very large 

 flock of ring doves feeding in a ploughed field. 



March 22. Examined a very fine old male scoter which had been 

 killed in the neighbourhood, and some golden plovers with tolerably 

 black breasts^ 



