NOTES FROM DEVON AND CORNWALL. 197 
a letter written by my friend Mr. Clogg, of Looe, Cornwall, con- 
cerning the starving birds. He says:—‘‘ Woodcocks and Snipes 
were seen in our streets during the severe weather, and Starlings, 
Larks, Redwings, &c., were constantly to be seen hopping about 
the streets, looking most miserable. ‘The boys of this place and 
Polperro are great adepts at bird-catching with bent pins attached 
to a short string, one end fastened to a peg, which is driven into 
the ground, the pin baited with a worm. I have this year heard 
for the first time of five Woodcocks having been taken by that 
method. I was at Liskeard on New Year’s Day, and on visiting 
the birdstuffer there, I saw a variety of the Common Thrush, 
bright buff on the back, and all the other parts usually of a much 
darker colour, with the black spots on the breast replaced by 
a very pale brown. It was in excellent feather and well mounted. 
On my visiting the same shop, I believe in September last, I saw 
a Red-necked Phalarope, which had been shot a week or two 
before at Dosmare Pool, and was in full winter plumage.” 
The severe weather had a great effect on the Green Wood- 
peckers, numbers of which were brought to our birdstuffers ; 
the males in exceedingly fine plumage. A few Common Buzzards 
and many Long- and Short-eared Owls were also obtained. On 
January 28th, I examined a fine old Herring Gull, which had 
already assumed the pure white head and neck of the breeding 
season, also some adult Waterhens with splendid crimson and 
yellow bills and red garters. I have not as yet met with any kind 
of Merganser except a single immature Smew. 
. On February Ist an adult male Scoter was killed off Mount 
Batten, in Plymouth Sound, and on the 4th I examined an adult 
Common Guillemot in perfect breeding plumage. It was probably 
this early assumption of the nuptial dress which misled Colonel 
Montagu, and in a great measure tended to confirm him in his 
belief that the-plumage of the Guillemot was the same at all 
seasons ; for, in the Supplement to his ‘Ornithological Dictionary,’ 
he writes:—‘‘In the latter end of January, 1805, as cold and 
severe a winter as for many years had been experienced in the 
West of England, several of these birds were shot in the estuary 
of Kingsbridge, some of which we examined, &c. These had the 
exact plumage of those which frequent our rocks in summer, and 
in every respect so exactly corresponded with the summer 
dress of the ‘Foolish Guillemot’ that it should seem to prove 
