Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 1 (1877).djvu/189

Rh birdstuffer's shop one day I at once recognised the poor bird lying dead on the table. On examination I found that, as I suspected, it was an old bird in full winter dress. The stomach contained some crabs and a few stones, but no fish-bones.

Shags were very plentiful in January, and it was astonishing to see the ease with which they dived in the midst of a tremendous surf amongst the rocks without the least injury; indeed I have sometimes seen them washed clean over the top of a rock by a large wave. Many Gannets were obtained by the fishermen off Plymouth, either with a baited hook or the old plan of a board and fish; many also were washed ashore.

On the 6th January a large Glaucous Gull was seen flying up the Hamoaze, and on the 14th of the same month I saw another: they were both in immature plumage. On the 15th there were immense flocks of Golden Plover and Lapwings on the Plymouth Racecourse, or Chelson Meadows, which are very swampy at this season of the year. The following day a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker was killed near Plymouth. Great Black-backed Gulls were very numerous in our harbours and on the coast.

On January 19th I observed two adult Swans flying up the River Tamar at a great height, and some days afterwards the following paragraph appeared in a Cornish paper:—"Two wild Swans, perfectly white, were killed at St. Endellion on Monday, the 25th." No doubt, the same birds seen by me.

The Bartailed Godwit seldom remains with us during the winter, but one was shot near Plymouth on January 28th. On the 31st I bought a very fine Rough-legged Buzzard, in the flesh, which was shot on Ditsworthy rabbit-warren, Dartmoor, by the warrener's grandson, a little boy about eight years of age, who killed a splendid old Snowy Owl at the same place in March, 1876. This buzzard was extremely fat, and its stomach contained the remains of a small rabbit; when shot it was in company with another bird of the same species. Rough-legged Buzzards, however, are rarely obtained on Dartmoor.

I saw several immature Black Redstarts during the month of January, and I am told that some Gray Phalaropes were seen swimming off the quay at Penzance on the 25th of that month.

In February many Great Northern Divers and a few Red-throated Divers were brought to our birdstuffers; indeed the