178 
a naturalist’s notes IN NORTH DEVON. Aug., 1890. 
differentiation as inside and outside, cell-wall and nucleus, &c., 
would be ample to start with. With multicellular individuals 
the only variations are those arising from the mixture of those 
previously produced in lower forms. 
(To be continued.) 
A FIELD-NATURALIST’S NOTES IN NORTH DEVON. 
BY O. V. APLIN, 
MEMBER OF THE BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS’ UNION. 
(Concluded from page 151.) 
West of Ilfracombe the cliffs were inhabited by Stock 
Doves, which no doubt bred on the numerous ledges, or in 
the crevices. Seen from below, when the absence of the con¬ 
spicuous white patch at the root of the tail would not be 
noticed, they might easily be mistaken, and no doubt often 
are, for the rarer Rock Dove. Here a Sparrow Hawk was 
sometimes noticed skimming swiftly along the cliff face, ready 
to snatch up an unsuspicious Linnet or plump Rock Pipit. 
Altogether, although birds were not numerous, nor of course 
conspicuous at that time of year, I managed to identify fifty- 
five species. 
I don’t think I ever saw so many Kestrels anywhere as in 
North Devon, two or three were often in sight at once, 
beating over the rough hill sides, and on one occasion I 
remember seeing four close together, wheeling round over a 
bit of cliff top above Combe Martin. The Buzzard, which still, 
it was pleasant to hear, breeds in the district, was not met 
with ; but one morning the bird-stuffer’s shop contained a 
very fine specimen in the flesh, which had been trapped near 
Brandon. The same man had also recent examples of the 
Raven, which still lingers. I did not fall in with one alive, 
but was more lucky with another species of the Corvid#, 
which I had hardly hoped to see. Iliad ascended the Little 
Hangman from Combe Martin one morning. A rather conical 
hill, for some distance it rises almost perpendicularly from 
the sea, which surrounds it on three sides. Half way up I had 
dropped down among the sheep-bitten gorse bushes to watch 
the evolutions of a pair of Kestrels, which were carefully 
beating the hill-side, utterly unaffected by the stiff westerly 
breeze which made one's precarious footing on the short, 
slippery turf doubly difficult to maintain. They were, 
probably, feeding on beetles or some other insects, as they 
