‘THE BIRDS OF DEVON.’ iw 
Hearing a commotion, the keeper’s wife rushed out, and saw the Peregrine 
rising with the hen. As it did so, it happened to strike against some wire 
netting, and got its foot caught, and a blow from a stick laid it prostrate 
beside its victim. An old male bird was killed at Salcombe, in January 
1894. (EH. A. S. E. in litt.) 
Hobby (p. 163). 
As Falconers are well aware, there is a larger and a smaller race of 
Hobbies, just as there is of Peregrines, and, indeed, of most birds. The 
largest Hobbies we ever saw are the young birds we possess from Gidleigh 
Park, near Chagford ; and the smallest are some trained birds of Mr. W. 
Brodrick, that he presented to us, after mounting them inimitably when 
they died. (M. A. M.) 
Merlin (p. 165). 
We rose a Merlin from a bush of heather on Dartmoor, close to the 
banks of the North Teign, on 30th July, 1895. (W.S. M. D’U.) 
Cormorant (p. 174). 
Mr. E. A. 8. Elliot has ascertained that the Cormorant possesses the 
nuchal bone, or occipital style, but that it is absent in the Shag. 
Shag (p. 176). 
We quote the following interesting letter, communicated by our valued 
correspondent to the ‘ Field’ of April 8th, 1893, respecting the crest of 
the Shag :— 
‘*A few years ago my attention was drawn by my friend Mr. R. P. 
Nicholls, of Kingsbridge, S. Devon, to the fact that all the Shags with 
crests which had passed through his hands were hen birds, and, as the 
number of specimens during some five-and-twenty years was considerable, 
the conclusion drawn was that the males had no crest. As most of the 
ornithological works we consulted were at variance, some authors even 
figuring a bird in breeding-plumage without a crest, we thought a closer 
investigation of the subject might prove of interest. 
“The Shag, or Crested Cormorant (Phalacrocoraw graculus), is a very 
common bird on the coasts of Devon and Dorset, breeding in numbers in 
well-established colonies, and is looked upon as a perfect pest by the 
fishermen, who lose no opportunity of destroying as many as they fall in 
with entangled in their crab-pots, lines, &c. Before the Act was passed, 
which protects these and other birds during the breeding season, ‘ Shag- 
shooting day ’—a fine day in May with the wind off shore—was looked 
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