418 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM DEVON AND CORNWALL, 
By Joun GatcoMBE. : 
On April 10th, wind E.N.E., several Swallows-and Sand 
Martins made their appearance in the neighbourhood of Plymouth; 
and on the 13th, after snow, the wind blowing extremely cold, 
I observed the first Wheatear on the coast, the Common Sand- 
piper, anda solitary Black-headed Gull in full breeding plumage, 
which had not yet left us for its nesting quarters. During the 
remainder of the month several Manx Shearwaters were captured 
and brought in by our fishermen. 
On May Sth there were several pairs of Turnstones and a 
single Knot on the Plymouth Breakwater. The Knot, although 
apparently an adult bird, was still in perfect winter plumage. 
By the 6th Whimbrels were numerous on the mud-flats. Swifts 
made their appearance in pairs on the 7th; and on the same day 
a fine young Brown Owl, almost fully fledged and nearly as large 
as its parents, was brought to one of our birdstuffers. Mr. Rogers, 
dealer in live birds at Plymouth, had three fine young Peregrine 
Falcons sent to him from the coast of Cornwall, and I am sorry 
to say that I heard of old birds having been trapped or shot 
during the spring, one of which came under my own inspection. ° 
A friend, writing from North Devon, a short time since, stated 
that a Peregrine had just carried off a good-sized young fowl 
which the farmer’s wife was feeding in front of a farmhouse; it 
had also killed two and knocked down more of his own pigeons, 
and after having committed other depredations took its departure. 
On May 9th a. Great Northern Diver, in nearly perfect summer, 
plumage, and weighing eleven pounds and a half, was kindly sent 
to me by Mr. Stephen Clogg, of Looe, on the Cornish coast, off 
which port it was hauled up—meshed and drowned, I believe—in 
a trammel-net three miles from the shore and from a depth of 
twenty fathoms, which shows the wonderful diving powers of the 
species. Had it lived a few weeks longer it would have com- 
pletely assumed its full summer dress, which from examination 
I have ascertained beyond doubt is ‘attained by a regular moult, 
and not by a change of colour in the feathers only, as some have 
supposed. ‘The above-mentioned bird was a female, but the eggs 
in the ovary were not much developed, the largest not being 
