280 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
the entrance of the River Yealm, where some two or three hundred 
Herring Gulls were assembled at their annual breeding place, but 
[ could uot distinguish any nests, although from the actions of the 
birds I feel sure there must have been many. A solitary adult 
Blackheaded Gull was observed off the Plymouth Hoe during a 
severe gale on the 17th, long after the rest had left for their breeding 
stations. On the 25th | walked to Whitsand Bay, on the Cornish 
coast, where I observed a Common Sandpiper—the first I had seen 
this year—and five Scoters. Several Swallows came in direct from 
the sea, and many were afterwards observed along the coast: 
weather bright, but the wind blowing hard from the south-east. 
Again visited the gulls at Wembury on April 28th, and then 
observed several nests, some of which contained eggs. A pair of 
Peregrines had a uest in the same locality, and the male kept flying 
swiftly round, making a great noise. I was sorry to see a number 
of boys searching for nests amongst the cliffs: they had collected 
upwards of forty eggs of the Jackdaw and one of the Herring Gull. 
The Peregrines are also occasionally robbed of their eggs and 
young. Some years ago a shipwright’s lad took three young 
ones from a nest at Wembury, one of which 1 purchased and kept 
alive for a long time; and afterwards, hearing that he had still 
auother left, 1 thought 1 would endeavour to get that also. On 
calling at the yard in which the young man worked, he told me 
that he lived on the other side of the water, but that if 1 would not 
mind wailing until six o’clock, the time he left work, he would row 
me across to see the bird. On my asking whether he kept it con- 
fined in a cage or in a garden, he replied that it was quite free and 
flew about wherever it liked, but would come to his call or whistle 
from any distance within sight or hearing. On landing and walking 
into the village, my companion began to call and whistle, when 
suddenly, to my astonishment, I saw the falcon swoop down from 
the corner of a high building at the end of a street, and alight on 
his shoulder. 1 did not purchase it because | found that it had 
injured and disfigured its bill, the tip of which was completely 
broken off, from a habit it had of striking at and trying to tear 
stones thrown to it by the boys of the village. 1 have often since 
regretted that 1 did not buy this docile bird, for possibly the bill 
might have become right in time. 
On the rocks at Wembury | remarked a Cormorant in rather 
peculiar plumage. The whole of the lower parts, from the chin 
