The Zoologist — August, 1873. 3631 



I examined, and all were adult, with the exception of the last 

 named. The females closely resemble the males in plumage, but 

 have the occipital plumes shorter, those of the males being six 

 inches and those of the females about three inches in length. 

 When at rest these birds generally concealed themselves among 

 the foliage of alder and sycamore trees, but the last one was on 

 several occasions flushed from an orchard in the vicinity of the 

 river. They also sometimes perched on dead branches in a con- 

 spicuous situation. The stomachs of some contained the remains 

 of small fish and eels, the slime of the latter remaining about their 

 beaks. 



3rd. Observed several young gray wagtails and young water 

 ouzels on the stones and rocks in the river Tamar. 



10th. Visited the collection of stuffed birds at Port Eliot, the 

 seat of the Earl of St. Germans, and among the specimens was 

 pleased to see the original cravat or Canada goose, figured and 

 described by Bewick ; and at the rectory close by, the incumbent 

 of which is the Rev. — Furneaux, I had the opportunity of seeing 

 a fine immature specimen of Sabine's gull, which was accidentally 

 killed at night by a wild-fowl shooter among a flock of curlews 

 resting on the mud-banks of the St. Germans river. 



14th. Observed many wood larks on my way to Weston Mills, 

 near Plymouth, and was much struck with a habit they had of 

 selecting a bare patch of earth to alight on, if ever so small, which 

 assimilated with the colour of their plumage, so that at times they 

 were hardly visible at a very short distance. 



20th. Again visited Bickleigh Vale, and heard garden warblers, 

 blackcaps and willow wrens singing constantly. Swifts were 

 plentiful, flying high over the woods at Cann Quarry. Both swifts 

 and house martins have been numerous in the neighbourhood of 

 Plymouth during the present season, but I cannot say the same of 

 the swallows and sand martins. 



23rd. Went with the Rev. Courtenay Bulteel to see the stuff'ed 

 birds at Blatchford, near Ivybridge, the seat of Lord Blatchford, 

 and examined a beautiful nearly adult specimen of the squacco 

 heron {Arclea ralloides), which was killed by the side of a large 

 pond close lo the house, in June, 1840. The date of its capture 

 and the name of its preserver, Mr. Drew, then living at Stonehouse, 

 were written on the back of ils case. 



26th. Observed a pair of rock larks carrying to their young a 



