4372 Tue ZooLocist—Marcu, 1875, 
31st. Bittern shot near Plymouth, and some mountain finches 
seen in a garden in Stonehouse. 
I omitted to mention in my last notes that when in Somersetshire, 
in October, I found green woodpeckers and cirl buntings very 
plentiful a few miles from Bridgwater. The cirl bunting was in 
song, and I particularly observed its peculiar habit of tossing or 
throwing back the head every time it uttered its notes. 
JANUARY, 1875. 
Ist. I do not remember ever having known fieldfares so plentiful 
close to the town as they are at the present time. Large flocks of 
bramblings have also been noticed, and some specimens were 
actually caught in small gardens in the centre of Stonehouse. 
Black redstarts may be daily seen in some of the quarries and 
about the rocks on the coast in our immediate locality. Northern 
divers are becoming plentiful after the late severe cold and con- 
stant gales: I saw one to-day struggling with, apparently, a large 
bullhead, which it at length succeeded in swallowing: they seem 
very partial to this species of fish, which 1 often see brought to the 
surface when the diver is fishing near the rocks, and | have also 
frequently found them entire in their stomachs: the pipefish, too, 
is a favourite morsel. 
2nd. Our markets now abound with fieldfares and others of the 
thrush family, and among these birds might be found bramblings 
and a few snow buntings—two species generally uncommon in our 
part of the county. I saw to-day, at a birdstuffer’s, a dipper, 
several brown owls, and a buzzard, all of which had been killed 
during the past few days. I have observed that dippers sometimes 
appear in the small streams quite close to the town during severe 
weather. 
3rd. Observed flocks of ducks flying up the river Tamar, and a 
large number of great blackbacked gulls in the harbour. A great 
crested grebe—the first I have seen for a long time in Plymouth— 
was killed to-day: its stomach contained, apparently, fine vegetable 
fibres and feathers, completely saturated with a dark green fluid, 
which, however, stained my fingers of a chrome-yellow colour. 
6th. Two great blackbacked gulls were killed this morning in 
the Sound, and I remarked a female goosander in the market. 
The weather has now become quite mild, and it is really cheering 
to hear the birds singing so soon after the frost. 
