THE ZooLocist—OcToBER, 1876. 5127 
(Galium verum), and the air was perfumed from its golden blossoms, we left 
the lonely church, and came out on the side of the cliff, with the wild 
promontory on which one portion of the old castle stands immediately before 
us. It wasa glorious July day; the sea below caught the sun-light and 
answered back with “ countless laughter”; the scent of the sea pink wafted 
all around was itself a delicious reminder that we were on the coast; the 
curious ruins on the hill-side shimmered in the sun; a few kestrels were 
poising themselves athwart the deep blue of the sky; and the silvery 
herring gulls were sailing solemnly in little parties of threes and fives but 
a few feet above the ground, all pointing northwards, and all seeming to 
follow the line of flight which those before them had taken, which tracked 
with hardly any deviation the many windings of the cliffs. Slipping quietly 
a little further down the hill-side above the sea, we placed ourselves under 
this path in the air which the birds had chosen, and, sitting behind a frag- 
ment of ancient masonry, soon had some of the gulls passing overhead ; 
and so close did they come, that, had we stretched out a walking-stick, we 
' might, perhaps, have tickled some of them on the breast. But they were 
not startled; one or two gave a glance as they swept solemnly on, as much 
as to say ‘‘ All right, old fellow!” and so grave and silent were they that 
there was something ghostly about them; they might have been the 
transmigrated Knights of the Round Table keeping watch over the scene of 
their former revels. We looked anxiously for the choughs, but they were 
nowhere to be seen. An aged birdstuffer at Boscastle told us that they 
were all engaged with their nests, which are placed in deep crevices among 
the cliffs; and that until the young choughs are advanced enough to sit 
out upon the rocks the old birds are seldom seen, as they keep close at 
home with their young. —Murray A. Mathew; August 25, 1876. 
Greater Shearwater in Devon.—I have just examined a greater shear- 
water, which was killed off Plymouth at the end of July last, but I could 
not get the exact date. It is a very fine adult bird, with the under parts 
much whiter, or apparently more bleached, than they are just after the 
autumnal moult, with scarcely a shade remaining of the dusky patch on 
the belly, so conspicuous on the birds generally obtained at the beginning 
of winter. I understand there were no others with it when shot.—John 
Gatcombe. 
Acipenser huso.—A fish of this rare species, in a decomposed state, was 
washed ashore between Brook and Freshwater, on the 9th of August.— 
H, Hadfield; Ventnor, Isle of Wight. 
Red Mullet and Salmon Peal taken at bottom on a Spiller.—On the 
7th of September Mr. Symons, of Mayon, captured a red mullet on hook 
and line: it was taken on a “spiller” baited with lugworm and pilchard. 
Which sort of bait the fish took it is, of course, impossible to say. 
