Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 1 (1877).djvu/190

164 former birds have been more plentiful during the present winter than I can remember for many years past. Mr. Stephen Clogg, of Looe, Cornwall, informs me that he observed two of them fishing above the bridge at that place—a circumstance which he had never previously noted during a residence of forty years. Through the kindness of the same gentleman, I was enabled to examine a beautiful variety of the Arctic Tern, which had been killed by a boy with a stone during the past autumn. It appears to be a young bird of the year, pure white, with the bill and legs red, but unfortunately the colour of the eyes was not noticed. It is now in the collection of Mr. J. Marshall, of Belmont, Taunton, who informs me that he has lately obtained a milk-white Jay (shot near York), a white Pipit, a pied Red-breasted Pipit, and a buff Red-breasted Flycatcher—the three latter procured in the neighbourhood of Constantinople.

During the early part of February Razorbills and Guillemots appeared in some numbers on our coasts, and many adult and immature Great Black-backed Gulls were shot. A Shieldrake—a species seldom obtained in this locality except during very severe weather—was killed in the neighbourhood on the 13th.

By February 16th Cormorants had well advanced towards their breeding plumage, gray feathers appearing about the head and neck, and the white patch above the thighs very conspicuous. A Great Spotted Woodpecker was brought to a Stonehouse birdstuffer on the 17th of that month, and another on the 23rd: this species is much more commonly met with near Plymouth during winter than at any other time of the year. On the 22nd I observed a Black Redstart on the coast. By that date Chaffinches were in full song, and many Black-headed Gulls had assumed the dark hood. By February 26th Guillemots had assumed the perfect breeding-plumage.

 

During the last few seasons I have had considerable experience in egg-blowing, and though endowed by nature with a good pair of natural bellows, I frequently found that blowing a hundred large eggs in an evening was no light task, and it occurred to me 