206 



IX. — Notes on the Ornithology of Cornwall for the year 1874-5.- — By 

 Edw. Hearle Eodd, Member of the Institution. 



Read 2\st May, 1875. 



THERE is not much to chronicle in the Ornithological depart- 

 ment of our natural history in "West Cornwall since your last 

 spring meeting, but, as long as I have the opportunity, it will 

 afford me pleasure to give jous Society the benefit of my notes 

 and observations for the year, as I have been accustomed to do, 

 thus giving a simple account of the ornithological occurrences in 

 the county as they have presented themselves to me, and which 

 may be worthy of a place in your transactions, as a current record 

 from year to year, of what may be worth noting as Cornish 

 productions in the Avifauna of the County. I have no doubt that 

 the sad blank that has occurred in the pursuit of the natural 

 history science of the Scilly Isles, by the death of the late Lord 

 Proprietor, and by the cessation of the periodical visits of some 

 of his scientific friends, will be filled by his successor, who, I 

 know, will be very happy to give your Society the benefit of any 

 observations on the natural productions of the Islands, as they 

 may occur or be presented to him. We have had very rich 

 supplies of ornithological specimens from the Islands from time 

 to time, which their extreme westerly position, and their being 

 the nearest land to America, have afforded means of supplying 

 beyond any other district in the country. Our southerly position, 

 too, has had, no doubt, something to do with our good luck, as 

 we are within easy reach of the main continent of Eta-ope. This 

 brings me at once to a very interesting occurrence of a very" 

 curious and rare British Bird, which tiu-ned up a month after 

 the last spring meeting, from the neighbourhood of the Lizard 

 in the '' Collared Pratincole " (Grlareola), and which I had the 

 opportunity of examining in the flesh. 



The notes I made at the time I will transcribe, without 

 troubling you with further remarks, except by saying that it 



