4228 The Zoologist — November, 1874. 



appeared so tall, the neck at times being so stretched as to bring 

 the whole body in an almost perpendicular line. All these birds 

 were in perfect nuptial dress, very ruddy on the back and a large 

 patch underneath. On the moors were many whinchats, black- 

 headed buntings, and a few curlews. Whinchats, I am told by a 

 friend, are very plentiful in Wiltshire this season, and I observed 

 several perched on the furze-bushes by the side of the line on my 

 way to Epsom from London Bridge, in June. 



18th. A greater spotted woodpecker was brought to one of the 

 Plymouth birdstuffers to-day, also a young one of the green wood- 

 pecker in its prettily barred plumage. The Sound appears full of 

 herring and lesser blackbacked gulls fishing in flocks, most of them, 

 1 should say, non-breeders, for when llie tide has receded a large 

 number may be seen resting or feeding on the mud-banks for hours 

 together, far away from the breeding haunts. 1 have, however, 

 lately remarked that when a large number of gulls were congregated 

 at the sterns of the men-of-war, picking up the scraps thrown over- 

 board after the dinner-hour, that they made the same noise that 

 they do at the breeding-stations. 



JOLY. 



14th. Visited the river Tamar, near Lifton, and was much pleased 

 to find several pairs of sand martins breeding in its banks. I also 

 observed, in a small stream adjoining the river, a common sand- 

 piper, which it appears had already left its breeding place on the 

 moors, and was making its way towards the coast. Examined the 

 contents of the stomach of a nightjar, which consisted of between 

 twenty and thirty almost perfect specimens of a small kind of cock- 

 chaffer [Amphimalla solstitialis], besides many moths and beetles. 



15th. Heard the notes of many whimbrels and sandpipers passing 

 over the town after dark. 



19th. Cormorants are now leaving their breeding stations, and 

 may be seen flying np our tidal rivers in small flocks, where they 

 remain to fish during the greater part of the day: they sometimes 

 rest on the mud-banks for hours when the tide is out. The nuptial 

 dress of this species is lost very early. 



23rd. Visited the breeding place of the herring gulls at Wem- 

 bury, near Plymouth, and found that most of the young had left 

 their nests and were congregated in some small groups on the 

 grass on the top of the cliff, but on our approach were quickly 



