The Zoologist — November, 1874. 4227 



about two hundred, all of which, with the exception of one, were 

 apparently in their full nuptial dress, and most seemed to have 

 uests, from the noise and anxiety they displayed, flying round and 

 hovering within ten yards of our heads during the whole time we 

 remained. I much fear some of the nests had been robbed, as we 

 found fragments of egg-shells on the top of the cliffs. The day 

 after, a boy was liilled by falling from the rocks when searching for 

 gulls' eggs at a breeding-place near the Rhame Head, on the coast 

 of Cornwall, not far from Plymouth, and I have lately read of 

 another having shared the same fate further to the eastward towards 

 Ex mouth. On the 15th I examined an exceedingly fine female of 

 the common buzzard, which was killed near her nest, and I am 

 sorry to say the male has since shared the same fate. The stomach 

 of the latter contained nothing but the remains of rats and mice. 



16lh. Observed many swifts and a whimbrel. The latter species 

 seems to have been very scarce on our immediate coast during the 

 present month, but swifts, on the contrary, are rather plentiful. 

 A dealer in live birds has had no less than twenty-five young ravens 

 brought to him lately, taken in Devon and Cornwall. 



June. 

 14th. Visited Dozmare Pool, on the Cornish moors, about ten 

 miles from Liskeard, on which were se<'eral adult herring and lesser 

 blackbacked gulls : these I was rather surprised to see, considering 

 it was in the middle of the breeding season, and the pool so many 

 miles from the coast. On the grassy margins were several dunlins, 

 some of which I think were breeding, from their extreme tameness, 

 constantly alighting very near to, and then running on before as if 

 to lead us away from, a particular spot; but when closely followed 

 they would fly off, making a short circuit, quickly returning, and 

 constantly uttering the curious trilling pipe peculiar to the breeding 

 season. These notes were frequently heard, apparently close by, 

 when we could not see the bird ; but on carefully noting from what 

 direction they came, we were sure to find it, generally standing 

 bolt upright on some little eminence among the grass, watching us 

 intently and uttering its cry all the while : on our approach it did 

 not fly, but ran or walked off" until we came too close, when it would 

 take wing, making a short circuit as before. At another part of the 

 pool I observed a small flock of five or six together. Indeed, I could 

 hardly have believed that a dunlin when standing erect could have 



