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IX. — Natural History. — Notes on the Ornithology of Cormvall 

 from May, 1869.—% E. Hearle Eodd. 



I THINK my last annual chronicle of the production of rare 

 and interesting birds in Cornwall — up to May last, when your 

 Spring Meeting was held — recorded that the " Spoonbill " had 

 been observed on Tresco Ponds, Scilly, dui-ing some days previ- 

 ously. From that time, for several months, I find nothing of any 

 note in my Journal; certainly nothing of any special interest 

 turned up, neither do I see in the pages of the Zoologist any notes 

 from other ornithologists which will add to the already extensive 

 list of Cornish British Birds. 



There is a beautiful little bird, the "Dartford Warbler," which 

 is found locally distributed in different parts of England, and which 

 I have been looking out for during the last thirty years in Cornwall, 

 being convinced that, from one or two well authenticated instances 

 of its opcurrence in the neighbourhoo,d of Penryn many years since, 

 similar localities in most parts of West Cornwall, viz., furzy heaths, 

 offered the same attractions and chances for it as the Penryn 

 country. The past year has been the first to reward my curiosity, 

 and I am glad to record the first that has come under my notice, 

 from a specimen or two captured on the grounds of the Eev. J. 

 Daubuz, at Killiow, in your immediate neighbourhood. This took 

 place, I think, in the fall of last year. Since that period, and in 

 the autumnal months, several were observed at Trevider, a wild 

 furzy valley in the parish of St. Buryan ; and I have no doubt 

 that there was a pretty general distribution of them throughout, 

 at least, the West of Cornwall. This little Avarbler is one of the 

 most diminutive of our soft-billed birds, and is remarkable alike 

 for the uniform and peculiar vinous-purplish tint of the whole 

 plumage, as also for its slender and elegant shape, with an elong- 

 ated tail, which rather adds to its elegance. 



Some time after your last Spring Meeting a male and a 

 female " Night Heron " were obtained from the neighbourhood 

 of Hayle. The Night Heron has occurred on several occasions in 

 Cornwall, in the Land's End, the Lizard, and the Scilly Isles dis- 



