64 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



time previously, for the end of the stump had perfectly healed 

 and had become covered with a smooth skin : the Terns also 

 were adult and in excellent plumage, scarcely showing any sign 

 of moult. Sandwich Terns are very uncommon on this part of 

 the coast : young ones are sometimes met with in the autumn, 

 but adults rarely. On the 26th a young Black Tern was brought 

 to a Stonehouse birdstuffer, also a female Peregrine Falcon, both 

 obtained near Plymouth. Common Sandpipers had by this time 

 returned to the coast from their breeding places on the moorland 

 streams. 



On October 7th a young Peregrine Falcon with jesses on was 

 sent to Stonehouse from the neighbourhood of St. Germans, 

 where it had been unfortunately shot by a gamekeeper ; it was 

 afterwards found to have been lost with another at Quethiock, 

 near Liskeard ; on examination I found it perfectly gorged with 

 a recently-killed Wood Pigeon. What a pity it is that game- 

 keepers cannot be taught to spare Falcons, especially trained 

 ones, which the presence of jesses should surely protect ! Several 

 Short-eared Owls were shot as early as October 3rd. Plymouth 

 Sound and harbour in October were full of Gulls, and among 

 them I noticed one with white flight-feathers; this I think must 

 have been a small Iceland Gull, or possibly an Ivory Gull, but 

 I could not get near enough to be quite certain. Some Curlew 

 Sandpipers were sent from Wadebridge, Cornwall ; and I also 

 heard from a friend in Ireland that several had been killed about 

 this time on the margin of Lough Neagh. Numbers of young 

 Eazorbills and Guillemots were daily to be seen along the coast, 

 apparently in a very weak and starving condition, and a great 

 many were easily caught ; I am unable to account for this, for 

 we had had no long-continued gales. On October 12th a young 

 Honey Buzzard in an interesting state of plumage was killed at 

 Spriddlestone, near Plymouth, and brought to Stonehouse to be 

 preserved ; its forehead was almost pure white, and the feathers 

 on the top and back of the head were tipped with the same, 

 reminding one much of the markings on the head of the young 

 Osprey; it also had long mystachial bands, which I do not 

 remember having before observed on the Honey Buzzard, but all 

 the specimens which had previously come under my notice were 

 adult. When raised, the basal half of all the feathers appeared 

 to be white ; the tail was marked as usual with broad and 



