NOTES FROM DEVON AND CORNWALL. 281 
downwards, were almost white, and the back and wings ap- 
parently of a silvery gray, but 1 was not near enough to see 
whether the edges of the feathers were darker. It had the 
appearance of a young bird of the last year, the plumage of 
which had been bleached by the weather. Mr. Clogg mentions 
having seen a similar bird on the Cornish coast a month or 
two since. 
Lesser Blackbacked Gulls were still about on April 28th, but 
most of the old breeding birds had left. On the 30th there were 
three young Ravens, almost as large as their parents, out of the 
nest at Bovisand, flying and hopping about on the summit of 
the cliff. To my knowledge, Ravens have nested in the same 
place for forty years. A Kestrel had its nest close to the 
Ravens, and others were found breeding all along the coast. 
Returning from Bovisand across the Sound, 1 heard and saw 
two Whimbrel, and remarked a pair of Razorbills in full summer 
plumage. 
Whimbrels were numerous on the mud-banks of the River 
Lynher on May 2nd, and Whitethroats were plentiful in the 
hedgerows along the coast. A Swift was flying over Stonehouse 
on the 4th, and the first House Martins made their appearance in 
the neighbourhood on the same day; wind east, blowing very 
strong and cold. By the 7th the weather had become mild and 
warm, more Swifts were seen, and | observed Jackdaws circling in 
the air after insects, in the manner of Swallows and Starlings 
during still and warm weather—a habit I had not before noticed 
in these birds. I was also pleased to see several pairs of Water 
Ouzels on different parts of the River Erme: they doubtless had 
nests in the vicinity. 
A few days after I visited a small heronry, consisting of six or 
seven nests, which has been formed within the last three or four 
years on some oak trees in Cheviock Wood, on the Cornish side of 
the Lynher, near St. Germains. It is most probably an offshoot 
from the old-established colony at Warleigh, by the side of the 
Tavy, a Devonshire stream, some miles distant, and although small 
is I think entitled to be added to the list of British heronries. The 
old birds left the trees and their nests long before I got near them, 
but on searching among the brushwood beneath I found a dead 
young one, in the down, which had evidently been blown out of 
the nest during a very heavy gale from the N.K. a short time 
20 
