250 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
seen on the larches in Bickleigh Vale, and four were obtained ; 
their stomachs were full of insects. I heard from a friend 
in Ireland that Siskins were plentiful in the County Armagh, 
where they sometimes breed. In my last notes (p. 47) I 
mentioned that a large number of Long-eared Owls had been 
received by our local birdstuffers, and a short time since I was 
told by a clergyman that a flock of above thirty had been seen in 
Sheviock Wood, near St. Germans, Cornwall, at this date. 
Lesser Black-backed Gulls were congregating in pairs, pre- 
paratory to the breeding season, all in full plumage, and making 
a great noise. 
On April 6th an adult Buzzard was brought to one of our 
local birdstuffers. Its plumage was rather worn and much 
bleached by exposure to the weather, but there were new feathers 
of a fine fresh brown appearing in different parts of the neck and 
back. I have kept Buzzards in confinement—two of them for 
fourteen years each—and remarked that they were a long time 
completing their moult, sometimes the whole summer. [This is 
always the case with Peregrines, and doubtless with other birds of 
prey.—Ep.] ‘They both eat fish, and were rather partial to 
earth-worms, which they would regularly hunt for on the grass- 
plot after rain. I shall never forget the instinct displayed by one 
of these birds on my throwing towards it a dead suake. At once 
its wings and every feather of its body were raised, its eyes 
appeared to flash fire, and, standing as high as it could on 
its leys,—I suppose to avoid being bitten,—it suddenly darted 
out one foot, and, clutching the reptile just behind the head, 
held it, so to say, at arm’s length, never for one moment relaxing 
its hold, but, with continued jerks and convulsive grasps, kept it 
firmly fixed until it was supposed to be dead ; when, lowering its 
wings and laying every feather perfectly smooth, it began quietly 
to enjoy its meal, not tearing the animal in pieces, but merely 
picking off the flesh from head to tail, and leaving a tolerably 
good skeleton, which, I remember, remained in our garden 
for some months. I was the more struck with the instinct 
displayed in dealing with a snake because the bird had been 
brought up almost from the nest, and therefore could not have 
come in contact with many reptiles in a wild state, though, 
of course, its parents may have brought some to the nest. 
On i 
April 16th another Buzzard was similarly trapped. i 
