THE ZooLogist—Manxcu, 1875. 4373 
9th. Three fine shieldrakes were in the market to-day: this 
species is rarely met with in this neighbourhood, except during or 
just after severe weather: the stomachs of these birds were full of 
very small shells and fine sand. Many coots have lately appeared 
in the market—another sign of cold weather. During the last 
few weeks immense flocks of lapwings have visited our estuaries, 
together with a few knots and redshanks. Another bittern has 
been killed near Plymouth within the last few days; also some 
tufted ducks and a lesser spotted woodpecker. 
14th. Went to Teignmouth to see a rorqual whale which had 
been towed on shore by some fishermen, when I observed several 
_northern divers along the coast. 
21st. Some fine male pochards in the market, and I examined a 
large northern diver just killed: there were many spotted feathers 
among its plumage, just as in summer, but these feathers were not 
new ones. 
22nd. Two more northern divers killed and many others seen in 
the Sound. Kittiwakes also plentiful. 
26th. Little auk shot in the Sound: on examination I found its 
stomach to contain nothing but three very small dark-coloured 
shells, quite perfect. This morning I saw a flock of thirty scoters 
flying from the Tamar across the Sound seawards. 
28th. Remarked a flock of wood larks feeding close to the public 
promenade on the Plymouth Hoe—a rather strange place for them, 
especially during the present mild weather. Nothing has been 
Seen on our coast of the immense flight of sky larks noticed to 
have passed Brighton, flying westward, at the beginning of the 
late cold weather, although I daily watched for them. 
JoHN GATCOMBE. 
8, Lower Durnford Street, Stonehouse, Plymouth, 
February 9, 1875. 
Instinct of Birds: Olfactory Power of the Vultures. 
By Captain Henry Hapriexp. 
Dr. BREE, in a letter to the ‘Times’ of the 28th of December, 
says—“ The question about vultures and their prey was settled for 
ever by Charles Waterton forty-three years ago: he proved, in the 
paper referred to, that the vulture will pass within a very short 
distance of a dead body which is concealed, but not in a state of 
SECOND SERIES—YOL, X. P 
