234 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
and sent to Mrs. Petherick’s as a Summer Snipe, which she considered it 
to be till I saw it. Onthe 11th February Mr. Coates, birdstuffer, Taunton, 
brought me a male Blackcap, which he said had been killed in a trap set 
for Blue Tits and baited with fat. It was in ordinary summer plumage, 
with a pure black cap, and showing no trace of the brown head of the female, 
which would probably have been the case had it assumed the brown cap of 
the female. Prof. Newton says that in winter some if not all the males 
lose their black caps and have their heads coloured like those of the females 
(Yarrell’s Brit. Birds, 4th ed. vol. i. p, 422). I mention this for, besides 
Prof. Newton’s note above referred to, the subject has been mooted in 
‘The Zoologist’ for 1875 and 1876. I did not see or hear anything of the 
Chiffchaff till the 31st March, when one of my daughters told me she 
heard one, and the next day I saw one. I did not see a Swallow till the 
16th April, when, as I was driving to Williton, I saw one or two at Tor- 
weston, near that place, and on our return late in the afternoon, I saw 
several about the house here, though there had been none when we left in 
the morning; these probably passed on, as after that first arrival they 
disappeared, and we did not see any more for a day or two. The first 
House Martin I saw in the street of the village on April 18th, and, last of 
the lot, the first Sand Martins on the 22nd, when I saw two or three about 
their old nest-holes in my quarry, rather reversing the usual order, as the 
Sand Martins are usually the first to arrive; they were rather scarce for 
the first few days, but now they are here in more than usual numbers, and 
the colony which frequents my quarry must be more than double its usual 
number this year. On the same day, April 22nd, my son told me he had 
seen a Swift at Williton, when drilling his volunteers; but I think 
Williton, though only ten miles off, is generally nearly a week before us— 
the occasional reports of summer migrants from that place in ‘ The Field,’ 
I think, show the same thing. The Cuckoo did not make itself heard till 
April 24th, and even then was rather hoarse. I did not see a Redstart 
till the 27th, when I saw two in one of my orchards, and on the same day 
several Whitethroats made their appearance. I also saw a single Whinchat 
on a hedge by the road to Taunton, but not far from here; though the 
Stonechat is tolerably pumerous, and not unfrequently remains throughout 
the winter, the Whinchat is by no means common, as I have not seen one 
here since May Ist, 1869, and they never remain to breed; in other parts 
of the county, especially about Clevedon, I have seen Whinchats tolerably 
numerous, and evidently breeding. None of us saw a Blackcap till the 
1st of May, but I suppose they escaped observation, as one of my daughters 
found a Blackcap’s nest with eggs on the 6th. I saw the first Yellow 
Wagtail on May Ist. As early as the 19th January the Red-legged 
Gulls, Larus ridibundus, in confinement began to show their dark heads, 
and by the 24th February one of them had completed the change and the 
ic a Al a i i i a i eh 
