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ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM DEVON AND CORNWALL. 
By JoHn GATCOMBE. 
Tue following notes made by me during the past year may 
be of interest to your readers. On January 1st I examined a 
curious hybrid between a domestic fowl and common Pheasant, 
killed in a wild state at Membland, on the eastern side of the 
River Yealm, the property of Mr. E. C. Baring. It was a 
remarkably fine bird, weighing within one ounce of six pounds. 
The plumage exhibited equally the characters of both species. 
The keeper, who shot the bird, said there were several similar 
specimens in the covers, but he thought none so large as the one 
here described. He considered it to be a cross between the 
Game-fowl and Pheasant, but from its markings I should say it 
was more likely to bea hybrid between the Pheasant and ‘ Gold- 
spangled Poland,” especially as it showed an unmistakable sign 
of a crest; but this, of course, is only surmise on my part. 
Strange to say, it had a very large and long spur on one leg 
only, the other leg being similar to that of an ordinary hen 
Pheasant. 
In the Plymouth Market about this date I saw a Woodcock 
with five toes on one foot, the hinder toe having another quite 
perfect growing from it. I also observed another with several 
pure white feathers at the back of the neck. 
Plymouth Sound, towards the end of January, was full of 
Razorbills, Gulls, and Scoters. On the 28th, after a severe gale, 
there were three immature Black Redstarts about the rocks at 
the Devil’s Point, Stonehouse, amongst them an adult male with 
black throat, breast, and white patch on the wing. 
On January 31st a Cornish Chough was brought to the 
Stonehouse birdstuffer, making unfortunately the fourth trapped 
in a gin within two months. The stomach of this bird contained 
the remains of beetles and some fine sand. A few days later I 
observed, through a powerful telescope, a curious malformation 
in the beak of a Jackdaw, the upper mandible being so short 
that it did not extend beyond the ends of the feather covering 
the nostrils, the lower one being apparently of the usual length. 
The bird seemed to be in good condition, and after a while flew 
