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ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM NORTH DEVON. 



By Bruce F. Cummings. 



On May 1st, while on Braunton Burrows, near the Hospital 

 Ship, I heard a Grasshopper- Warbler (Locustella ncevia) " reel- 

 ing " for some minutes, and eventually caught a good view of the 

 bird as it crept to the top of a bush in which it was concealed, 

 and then flew off to another. This Warbler is a rare bird in North 

 Devon, and Messrs. Matthew and D'Urban state, in * The Birds 

 of Devon,' that they were never able to detect it here. I watched 

 subsequently, but I do not think the bird remained in the 

 district. 



A Green Woodpecker (Gecinus viridis), found frequenting the 

 sandhills, was shot by Mr. C. Petherick, a mariner, who has 

 "been abroad," and, to his surprise, it was not a Parrakeet. 



A French Partridge (Caccabis rufa) was picked up under the 

 telegraph-wires, near Barnstaple, in March of last year. Our 

 wet climate seems very uncongenial to the bird, and it is rarely 

 reported, at all events in the north of the county. 



Three nests of the Buzzard (Bateo vulgaris) were said to have 

 been found last spring in the woods around Combe Martin, 

 while in the Lynton district this bird breeds even more freely ; 

 but the woodmen appear to have become corrupted beyond all 

 salvation, and I am told that they robbed something like fifteen 

 nests of the Buzzard last year around Lynton alone ! I saw one 

 nest at Lynton in the " lap "of an oak with a huge girth, which 

 contained a couple of eggs which subsequently were stolen, much 

 to my regret. 



The Watersmeet Valley, Lynton, during the summer, is alive 

 with the song of the Chiffchaff (Phylloscopus minor) and the 

 Wood-Warbler (P. sibilatrix). I have never seen the latter 

 before in any other part of the county, and it is, most distinctly, 

 a very local bird. In the same valley I saw a pair of Redstarts 

 {Ruticilla phcenicurus) , which were obviously breeding. The 



