Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 2 (1878).djvu/456

432 On July 26th, Herring Gulls were still at Wembury, and Curlews were plentiful on the mud-banks of our rivers and estuaries. A friend told me that when fishing on Dartmoor he had found several nests of the Common Sandpiper this summer, one of which was close under the shelter of a furze-bush.

An adult Peregrine Falcon was taken in the neighbourhood of Plymouth. It was a small male, and beautifully marked, with the white extending further down on the breast, and purer than I remember to have observed in any previous specimen. The spots and bars, too, were unusually small. Its stomach was supposed by the birdstuffer to contain some remains of a pheasant.

In August, the first young Herring Gulls were to be seen in the Sound ; but many, I am sorry to say, were being daily shot. A few Wheatears appeared on the coast from their inland quarters, and I also heard a few Whimbrels which appeared to have returned from their breeding-haunts rather earlier than usual.

I think the past summer must have been a good season for young Kingfishers, for I saw many on the estuary of the Laira at the entrance of the River Plym. By the middle of the month Cor- morants were to be seen daily ascending our rivers and estuaries of a morning to fish, returning at eve in small flocks like wild geese, most of them showing the white belly peculiar to this time of the year.

On August 22nd our harbours were full of both old and young Herring Gulls, and I observed some Black-headed Gulls just returned from their breeding quarters and many Whimbrels. A Manx Shearwater was brought to one of our birdstuffers about this date. Common Redshanks and a few young Sanderlings, with their prettily mottled backs, were to be met with on the coast.

A short time since my attention was called to a case which, I fear, is but too frequent, of young Sparrows and other small birds being dragged out of their nests and being killed by Jack- daws. I recollect having recorded similar instances in ' The Zoologist' a few years ago.

On the 1st September there were several flocks of old Ring Dotterels with very black collars on the mud-banks of the Laira ; but, strange to say, I did not detect any young ones amongst them, although I examined them carefully with a powerful telescope.