420 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



which was killed by flying against a telegraph-wire ; several were 

 brought to a Stonehouse birdstuffer on the 19th, together with a 

 male Nightjar, as well as a pretty pied variety of the Rook, and 

 a pure white Robin, both young. 



On June 15th, in company with two friends, Messrs. Brooking 

 Rowe and W. S. M. D'Urban, I visited the breeding-place of the 

 Herring Gulls at Wembury, but found that the nests must have 

 been sadly robbed ; for we could only perceive a few young birds 

 and a single egg, where on former occasions I have seen numbers 

 of both. I have since been told that some persons had previously 

 visited the place almost daily for a fortnight, endeavouring to 

 pull up the young ones with a stout cord and hook, or something 

 of the kind, and appear to have been tolerably successful, as a 

 friend of mine who happened to be fishing on the Yealni, just off 

 the cliffs, saw them haul up two or three young birds not nearly 

 able to fly. He then thought it time to put a stop to their fun 

 by rowing in and giving them a bit of his mind on the subject, 

 upon which they actually pretended to have been perfectly ignorant 

 of the Sea Birds Act, and only wanted a few young gulls for their 

 gardens. This is not all, for I understand that the farmers' boys 

 of the neighbourhood frequently lower themselves by ropes to 

 take both eggs and young. It is a great pity that such wanton 

 destruction of bird-life should not be stopped, as the number of 

 breeding gulls appears to be getting less every year, and the 

 farmers themselves take care to shoot or trap every Peregrine 

 that ventures near the cliffs in which they used annually to nest. 

 The only other breeding-place for the Herring Gulls near 

 Plymouth is at Rhame, on the Cornish coast. I was told by a 

 man who is in the habit of shooting gulls and other sea birds, 

 and on whom I think I can depend, a singular incident concerning 

 this colony of breeding gulls. Last summer, as he was fishing 

 off the Rhame Head, he was astonished to see these gulls actually 

 diving in the water just off their breeding-place, and after 

 remaining under for several seconds, would immediately fly with 

 what they had caught to their nests and young on the cliffs ; and 

 so astonished was he at seeing gulls dive, that (as he expressed it) 

 he "could scarcely believe his eyes," and pulled his boat in to 

 satisfy himself of the fact ; they were swimming about and diving 

 just like sea ducks, but did not remain under water half so long. 

 He thought they must have been diving after some small fry 



