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The Birds of Devon.

ODE TO A PAIR OF RING-OUZELS.

A deep and solemn silence broods

Over the breezy solitudes

Whereon the mountaineer intrudes
To crown a summer climb:

The soaring lark, a dreamy bee,

A pipit twittering from the lea

Beguiled the journey, but no glee
Disturbs the peak sublime.

Yet music haunts it, and ere long

From some wild crag will float a song,

Perchance the protest loud and strong
Of one who brooks no guest ;

Perhaps a love-plaint true and clear,

Meant to attract the distant ear

Of wandering mate called back to cheer,
Or mind the busy nest.

Sweep the grey boulders, and you soon
Shall see the form whence flows the tune,
And mark a crescent like the moon,
Beneath a sable throat,
With golden lips that warble till
The yearnings melt into a trill
Of joy, as flitting round the hill
The truant hears his note.

Marcus 8. C. Ricxarps, M.A., F.LS.,
in “ Songs of Universal Life.”

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THE HOME OF THE RING, OUZEG

From a sketch by the late William Henry M.D'Urban

THE

BIRDS OF DEVON.

BY

W. S. M. DURBAN, F.LS., F.E.S.,

FORMERLY CURATOR OF THE ALBERT MEMORIAL
MUSEUM, EXETER,

AND

Tur Rev. MURRAY A. MATHEW, M.A., F.LS.,

MEMBER OF THE BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS’ UNION,
VICAR OF BUCKLAND DINHAM, SOMERSET.

WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND SOME REMARKS ON THE
MIGRATIONS OF DEVONSHIRE BIRDS.

ILLUSTRATED BY COLOURED PLATES, PHOTOGRAPHS, AND MAPS.

LONDON:

R. H. PORTER, 18 PRINCES STREET, CAVENDISH SQUARE.
1892.

[ All Rights reserved.|

PRINTED BY TAYLOR AND FRANCIS,

RED LION COURT, FLEET STRECT,

THIS BOOK
On. THE: BikbDps—OF- DEVON
IS INSCRIBED
TO THE MEMORY
OF
FOUR OLD FRIENDS,
FELLOW WORKERS IN DEVONSHIRE NATURAL HISTORY,

WILLIAM BRODRICK,
JOHN: GATCOMBE,

JOHN HELLINS,
WILLIAM STRONG HORE,

IN ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF ASSISTANCE
RENDERED BY THEM
Lo LHE AUTHORS

IN BY-GONE YEARS.

G20 Ee eee

FAL SETS OE

7

CONTENTS.

Page

DEDICATION ..... BR ec ate 2a ail neo: 8) nd a Se, Sa he Vv
ras ORO LELUSTRATIONS . 2+. 220-0040 Se OA aE ee ix
TRVAUAS Se cieu sides vtse Reacts oe ilu (cox Sod SA ROY See de Ee aan ot Ae x
MINE GE EOTIO NGS sir cluta cc icbe ts trode enh Suse yates SRG PEPER AE xi
GnoGRAPHICAL PositIon AND PuysicaL Asprot oF Duvon .. XVil

ee artmootwa ase eee SPEC a ae eee X1x

Il. The South Hams....... Dette heey hs PN PR as XXIV

Slanprn ey sos 42s erer. cece tin oie oe XXVii

Bast WD evolie a ors see Oe lt Sth) a Pee aN ere. XX1X

VE North Weyonh se 2 occ ae ae oe ihe wae rae XXXil

The Estuaries of the Taw and Torridge.... x xxiil

The: Braunton Burrowseesee se oe eee ee. XXX1V

TheOlits of tiie Coantwie a nso 6 ode ea haces XXXV1

Wy, ney TSEAAG oes, Sa Re FR ere vihgiptedehs XXXVii

Cancers In THE County OpNIS ...........5-00- Ce Mioers ee 5 xh
Tap Faunistic Posrrion oF SPHCTHS ........c0 00 sen ecees ar xliv
HR ORICEMGB ier ose a seve c arg a Ee OL Se ae ERE eee xlvil
Summer Migrants ....... RPI MDE gl aK rei We a ahd aes xlix
Winter ViSIGOTS 6c dake vic eee NR RAGLAN ie Pad Ne at l
Pare OF VPANMIONE VISIGONS sx vv be ee vip oes Riek eeu ed ee li

AD ARTIS MRVAGIEOUS flats eyeliner laces. dottc Wala Shee s Leto ete. li
Accidental Visitors ..... ee Lore Le as Sith saturn are liii
Introduced or Naturalized Species ....... Sree ees oe lvi
CoxLzections oF Brrpos In DEVONSHIRE............. 5 dare tare lvii
BRUM R WEGRATION 2, a0: 4 vod see's aelvs aod 3 Seana Me ep ae May: lx
List or Works AND MaGazine ARTICLES ...... SM AGHME Aa ats lxix

og

Vill CONTENTS.
Page
List oF AUTHORS QUOTED OR REFERRED TO ..........--.. lxxiv
List oF Past WorKERS IN DEVONSHIRE ORNITHOLOGY...... lxxxiv
List or AUTHORITIES FOR Provinctat NAMES .......... oo ieeaevis
CATALOGUE OF THE Brrps oF Devon :—
Order PassERES .......-. Pe eae Shae Pit Pe 1
Oe 5 11)5 0. ne re a MEME ANE. eee ge 105
> ERIGES <Sy.-.. > 5 wow Ov upon see oe ee 125
op - PADICRP TRS (oo So 6 oe ald dais MS ome, Se 139
s» STEGANOPODES ..... és bead oie ade ane eee 172
os A ARBBODIONES 5... 50. au vietes g ces On eee 179
Pe ERNE iy cist clove viens Os i sod ek 200
pe OMB TE ovis. eine eee ote in ele ee 249
Jey WEOSEROOLETRS: oo Faves & my Clie whir ow ww 258
sp, MEAL 5 ose CO Saye ne ee ee 261
jy | MONAIE 0. cod cs sin ee ho eee Pe 274
99) ARTROTORIDES 2. ss 5s» 2.4 ssa, )8a is, ie ee 286
ee os a ee re he A 294
A oT. ey oe ov ar ie © ald ts Be S57
da” BEARS oa vie 8.8 nb wc ost be SA ie 398
teh ee Se ly 409
Avoaups anp CompniceypA .. <0. chan ees ooh ss eee eee ee 433
MRSS aoc. 4 Fone he oa dial © ated tkade bait aC ee ee 443

List or SUBSCRIBERS.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

—= = <=

Frontispiece: Yes Tor, ‘The Home of the Ring-Ouzel,” from
a sketch by the late William Henry M. D’Urban .... to face Title

* Tue Brrps at Lunpy.” Photograph from an oil-painting by

Ponda Naish, of Tifracombe ieita es s/o ste -tegitalele sheteustens page XXXix
Plate I. Brack Repsrart, adult Male, and young Male in second

year’s plumage (“‘ Ruticilla cairti”)—Keulemans ......., page 13
Tue Starr Licurnouse.. Photograph ............0.+ ohtea egl Ae

Plate II. Montagu’s Harrter, adult Male and Black Variety—
MSE ESTER UNS) Q'v wy are Pu ar tt Sy dawsidnee Spice Soh © DRA mts Pg oP ects » 143

Plate WIL. Roves-teacen Buzzarp, Black Variety—Keulemans.. ,, 148

BM THY, ENOLOPTAD, 6 a eine f'n vee pee hire eh enisie x sir » 200
Plate TV. Great Brack-HEapep Gurr—Keulemans .........- 9) OOl
Tue Eppystonz LigutHovuse, Photograph...........0++++5- », 401
ERM GIAO Gs 5 hg eda deh ne do ha eRe emai aiae at end of
Maps to illustrate Lines of Migration, No, 1, No.2 ........ } Book,

ERRATA.

—_ ¢——

Tne Authors regret that. in transcribing certain portions of their manuscript for the
press, slips were made which escaped their attention when revising the proofs. Round
brackets should have been put to the names of the original describers of the Wheatear,
Yellow Wagtail, Meadow-Pipit, Tree-Pipit, Water-Pipit, and Rock-Pipit. The name
Sylvia cinerea (p. 17) was Bechstein’s, and Regulus cristatus (p. 21) was K. L. Koch's,
neither being Linnean names, and Regulus ignicapillus (p. 22) was C. L. Brehm’s, not
Temminek s,

Page line
62 2 for Aberdavine read Aberdevine.
63 10 for being from read being made from.
64 15 for Withycombe vead Widecombe.
77 19 for concentric read crescentic.
86 8 for Austin read Anstice.
99 5 for Muswell read Morwell.
102 4 for In read On.
114. 29 for Seaward read Seward.
158 7 for Spriddlestowe read Spriddlestone.
164. 45 for Chebiton read Chebitor.
185 28 for 1878 read 1870.
186 15 for Tapeley read Tapley.
190 36 delete Dusky Shearwater.
194 26 for Foot read Foote.
206 25 for Street read Strete.
214 43 for shot at Bude, Seven read shot at Bude and seven.
217 «16 for when read where.
222. 17 for waning read waxing.
236 20 delete two after only.
262 2 for Pheasant read Pheasant’s.
268 6 for with white “ horse-shoe ” on read with a white “ horse-shoe ” on the.
272 «81 = delete under before the sole protection.
275 19 for perdu read perdus.
365 34 for Foot read Foote.
412 38 for Lydstone read Lydston.

INTRODUCTION,

Tue County Histories of Birds, so many of which have been
published of late years, have helped to show that in the British
Isles, considering their area, the Avifauna is very dissimilar in its
distribution. The East differs from the West, the North from the
South, an inland county from a maritime one, in variety and
number of species. This arises from many causes, the chief
depending upon the points at which migrating birds arrive and
depart, and these landing-places are selected according to the
position of the mountain-ranges and the character of the coast-
line. County histories of birds also serve to indicate the changes
in a local Ornis since pre-railway times. Much might be written
as to the influence of railways upon our native Fauna: they
have invaded quiet bird-sanctuaries ; they have rendered others
accessible to gunners from a distance; they have carried the
* collector” everywhere ; they have prompted and made possible
the improvements in agriculture of the present day, which while
they have banished some birds have conduced to the multiplication
of others.

Devonshire, with a list of birds almost equal in extent and in
interest to that of the favoured county of Norfolk, or perhaps
even of Yorkshire, is classical ground, because of the home it afforded
for some years at Kingsbridge to Col. Montagu, one of the Fathers of
British Ornithology, who there made some of his most important
observations. It has been with a deep sense both of the import-
auce as well as of the difficulties of their task that the Authors of
the present book have attempted to prepare such an account of its
Birds as may be worthy of so grandly diversified a county. They
did not fail to meet the difficulties which arose from the obscure
determination of some birds by earlier writers ; from lists of old

Xil INTRODUCTION.

collections containing specimens of rarities obtained from dealers ;
from the multiplicity of records not free from mistakes, some of
them detected, others possibly still unwittingly perpetuated in
spite of exhaustive inquiries; and in several instances statements
made on what appeared to be reliable authority were only at the
last moment discovered to be erroneous. And yet the Authors
may claim with some confidence their title to present (if any can)
a satisfactory statement of the Ornis of their county. They are no
crude beginners, likely to be led astray by enthusiasm to adopt,
without careful sifting, the startling reports of occurrences so
frequently brought to their notice. They both had for many years
the privilege of being associated with naturalists of established
repute, such as William Brodrick, one of the authors of ‘Falconry
in the British Islands, the Rev. W. 8. Hore, the Rev. J. Hellins,
E. H. Rodd, Cecil Smith, and last, although not least, J. Gat-
combe, whose valuable notes on the birds of the district immedi-
ately around Plymouth were for so many years contributed to the
‘ Zoologist.’ They themselves resided for a long period at localities,
one in the north, the other in the south of the county, which gave
them special opportunities for observing the birds of important
districts, and none of any rarity could escape their knowledge.
One of them has been a keen sportsman who in the spring and
summer has wandered with his fly-rod by most of the delightful
Devonshire trout-streams, while in the autumn moor and marsh,
oozes and sand-flats, both in the north and south, have echoed to
his gun, and many of the rarer birds have thus been studied in
their haunts. The other, from his position for many years at the
Albert Memorial Museum at Exeter, possessed facilities for
acquiring information, as most of the rarities obtained in the
south of the county were either brought to him or were at once
reported : he has also been much abroad in South Africa, Canada,
and California, and so has had opportunities of becoming acquainted
with many rare British birds visiting those countries and of
enlarging his experience. The one, some years ago, had projected
and almost finished a work of some ambition, which should give an
account of the Birds of the South-west Peninsula ; the other had
long been collecting notes with a view to publishing a more
accurate County List of Birds than had as yet been compiled.

Bi)
Pod |

INTRODUCTION. xill

Although a work on the ‘ Birds of Devonshire’ has already been
issued by Mr. W. E. H. Pidsley, it did not seem so thoroughly to
exhaust the subject as to exclude another which should deal more
fully with the numerous points of interest in the County Ornis.
Directly the Authors began to consult on their project they at once
perceived that it would be necessary to cover a somewhat wider
field than the one to which that gentleman and his able editor,
the Rev. H. A. Macpherson, had restricted themselves, if they
were to produce anything more than a mere catalogue; for
Devonshire forms but the central portion of the South-west
Peninsula, and the migrations of birds, especially, can hardly be
understood unless the adjoining counties to the east and west be
considered with it. Some interesting facts bearing upon the
preference of certain of the Ducks for the more opaque waters of
the Bristol Channel have thus been brought to light; and the
differences between the opposite portions of the county itself in
their summer migrants, in the classes of the rare accidental visitors
which either may expect to receive, as well as in the shore-birds
which winter on the south while they desert the northern estuaries,
have become apparent.

Devonshire has been the home of many eminent ornithologists,
and although the existivg dooks upon its birds are few, the litera-
ture bearing upon them is somewhat bulky, owing to the numerous
county and local lists, and the many fugitive notes which have been
supplied to the Transactions of learned societies, Guide-books,
Magazines, Newspapers, &c. during the last century—some of
them of interest and importance, of which the Authors have availed
themselves, while many others of equal value have doubtless
perished. They have naturally made use of their own notes, com-
municated in bygone years to the ‘ Zoologist,’ which for half a
century has furnished a storehouse for ornithological occurrences
reported from every part of the kingdom ; as also of information
supplied them by numerous friends and correspondents—many
of these, alas! no longer with them, such as those whose names
have been already mentioned: and they have received much
help from others—younger naturalists—who are keeping a close
watch upon their respective districts, and may make their acknow-
ledgments in the north of the county to the Rev. H. G. Heaven,

X1V INTRODUCTION.

who is always ready to inform them of bird-affairs on his most
picturesque island of Lundy ; to Mr. H. A. Evans of Westward Ho!
College, Bideford ; and to Mr. James Rowe of Barnstaple: while
in the south Mr. E. A. S. Elliot and Messrs. H. and R. P.
Nicholls of Kingsbridge have supplied numerous valuable notes
respecting their favoured neighbourhood and the closely adjoining
and celebrated Slapton Ley ; and the Rev. G. C. Green, of Modbury
Vicarage, has been their correspondent who has recorded the rarer
birds which he has noticed on the banks of the Erme. Nor
must they fail to acknowledge their indebtedness to the President
of the British Ornithologists’ Union, Lord Lilford, who has not
only taken great interest in their book while it was in progress,
but has placed his notes on Devonshire birds at their disposal.
Nor does this by any means exhaust the names of those who
have kindly contributed information, of whom mention is made
further on.

Some difficulty has been experienced in fitting together two
manuscripts prepared independently of each other, and it was
impossible to avoid occasional repetitions without recasting the
whole. As the Authors reside far apart, a constant correspond-
ence was necessary to settle all the details of the work, and this
has entailed much extra labour and created much difficulty.

The nomenclature and arrangement which have been followed
are those adopted by the Committee of the British Ornithologists’
Uniou in the List of British Birds known as the “ Ibis List,”
published in 1883. A few alterations have been made here and
there, rendered necessary by the publication of Mr. Howard
Saunders’s useful ‘Manual of British Birds.’ Although the
Authors have thought it desirable to follow this List, as the best, it
can only be regarded as provisional, and it is to be hoped it will
soon undergo revision, as neither the position nor the names of
the species are always to be considered as satisfactory.

All the Provincial names for the birds used in Devonshire have
been given, and also sometimes those employed elsewhere in England,
to enable residents in other counties to identify the species. In
collecting these names much assistance has been afforded by several
friends, a list of whom we have given on page Ixxxvii.

An attempt has been made to trace the history of each species

INTRODUCTION. XV.

in Devonshire from the earliest records to the present day, and
chapter and verse have been nearly always given for any statement
not made on the Authors’ own responsibility. It may be thought
that the particulars relating to some species are too minute, and
that more instances of occurrences have been supplied than were
necessary ; but to naturalists wishing to trace the first appearance
or the disappearance of a species, its increase or decrease, or its
extension of range to east or west, north or south, it is of little
service to simply place words such as “ common ” or “‘ rare”’ against
its name. Dates, too, are of great importance, and often enable
an investigator to trace a wave of migration across the kingdom.
In a large county like Devonshire, with so varied a surface, some
species are common on one side, though rare on the other, and in
one purtion appear in winter and in another in summer. Such
differences can only be made apparent by carefully recording the
dates of occurrence as well as the localities. By such means
unlooked-for facts may be brought to light. It should never be
forgotten that local catalogues ought to furnish the materials for
generalizers to work upon, so that there is every reason to believe
that the references which have been given, and which have been
carefully verified, will be found useful to students.

Some species, such as the Purple Sandpiper and Black Redstart,
are common in the south-western part of Devon, but are rare in the
eastern portion. Others, like the Common Redstart, Turtle Dove,
and Sanderling, are more frequently met with in Eastern Devon
than in the south and west. Again, the Pied Flycatcher, Twite,
and Wood-Sandpiper are almost unknown in the south, but are
not unfrequent in the north of the county, and some, as the’
Oyster-catcher and Puffin, are far more plentiful on the north coast
than on the south; whilst, on the other hand, Geese, some kinds
of Ducks, and Terns appear more frequently on the south coast
than in the northern part of Devon. About thirty-four species,
mostly accidental wanderers from the Continent of Europe, have
occurred in South Devon which have not yet been recorded from
North Devon, and eight species, mostly American,—perhaps nine,
if we include what was possibly a Vireo seen on Lundy,—have been
observed in the northern part of the county which have not been
procured in the south.

XV1 INTRODUCTION.

Some species come in flights at more or less distant intervals of
time, such as the Crossbill, Sand-Grouse, Quail, Bittern, Snowy
Owl, Rough-legged Buzzard, Grey Phalarope, Skuas, &c., their
occurrence at other times being rare, so that the Authors think
it of much importance that the dates of such events should be
carefully recorded in Local Faunas, in order that the route the
birds follow may be ascertained.

The difficulties experienced have been due rather to the great
abundance of material that has come to hand than to lack
of information with regard to most species, and it has often
been hard to decide what to reject or what to retain from the
mass of observations available in various publications or kindly
contributed by friends, and in some instances the Authors had
collected forty or fifty references for a single bird.

No bird which has not been actually obtained and examined
by competent persons has been admitted in the census of species
occurring in the county, with the exception of the Black-headed
Warbler, Water-Pipit, and Hawk-Owl, about which the Authors
entertained no doubt ; perhaps strictly they should have adhered
to their rule in these instances as well.

They have considered it advisable to mention in their proper
place all birds which have been recorded as occurring in the
county, even though they have thought it necessary to exclude
them in the enumeration of species, either because they have not
been actually obtained, or were incorrectly identified, or were
admitted into previous lists upon insufficient evidence; all such
species are included in square brackets [ ].

No doubt it is most desirable to eliminate all birds from the
County List that have been added to it upon insufficient evidence ;
but at the same time it seemed proper that the reasons for so
doing should be stated in all cases, otherwise it would be impos-
sible for a student to ascertain whether a species was omitted
purposely or through oversight. The Authors have preferred to
allow their readers to judge for themselves by citing all the evidence
available in these cases.

While they are only too conscious of omissions and possibly
of errors which they fear may be detected in their work, and for
which they venture to apologize in advance, they yet hope that

GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION, XVii

their love for their beautiful county, and the long period of forty
years during which its “careless, happy birds” * have provided
them with a most delightful study, may be looked upon with indul-
gence as their excuse for placing the results before the Public.

W. S. M. DURBAN.
April 1892. MURRAY A. MATHEW.

GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION AND PHYSICAL ASPECT
OF DEVON.

DevonsuHire has the largest area of any English county excepting
Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. Its extreme length from the Start
Point on the English Channel to I!fracombe on the Bristol Channel
is about seventy miles, and its average breadth is close upon fifty
miles. According to the Registrar-General it contains 1,621,746
acres, or 2534 square miles. It lies between the parallels of
50° 12’ and 51° 14! North Latitude, and 3° and 4° 30' West Longi-
tude. Forming the broadest and most central portion of the
South-western Peninsula of England, jutting out between the
Bristol and English Channels, it is bounded on the east by Somerset
and Dorset, and on the west by Cornwall. Like the last-named
county it possesses both a North and a South Coast, the former
being about 50 miles and the latter about 100 miles in length.

Unlike many other English counties whose boundaries are
purely arbitrary, Devonshire is a well-defined and natural district,
differmg in many respects from any other part of the British
Islands, and its Fauna possesses distinctive characteristics which
separate it from the counties immediately adjoining it on the east,
and in a minor degree from Cornwall on the west, although Corn-
wall, Devon, and West Somerset are intimately connected and
allied in character, and might be advantageously treated of as a
whole.

* “xo: hovdwr pidov dpviwv.”—Sopuoc es, ‘ Antigone,’ 343,

XVlll GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION.

The geographical position of the county is not without its effect
on the Avifauna, and its coasts receive visitors arriving by several
of the great streams of migration from the north, east, and south-
east, whilst its proximity to the Continent on the south, and to
the Atlantic Ocean on the west, adds some interesting species to
the richness of its Fauna. Its diversified surface—bleak, barren
moorlands ; steep, rugged sea-coasts; sand-hills; extensive muddy
tidal estuaries ; freshwater “ leys”’; deep, sheltered “ coombes,”
and wooded valleys,—offers attractions to birds of varying habits
and predilections. The dependent Island of Lundy, off the north
coast, with its precipitous sides affords an advantageous breeding-
station for some sea-birds which we should not otherwise be able
to claim as residents for our county. With so many inducements
for migratory species to visit us, it is not surprising that Devon-
shire can boast of more species of birds than most other English
counties, being probably only exceeded by Yorkshire in the number
fairly included in its List. Three species—the Black-headed
Warbler, the Buff-backed Heron, and the Great Black-headed
Gull—have so far never been met with elsewhere in the British
Islands, and two out of the three British-killed Rufous Warblers
have occurred in Devon. In the opinion of some authorities the
only occurrence of the Little Egret in Britain about which there
cau be no doubt is the specimen killed on the estuary of the Exe
in May 1870.

The Western Boundary between Devon and Cornwall is marked
by the course of the Tamar for nearly its whole distance. This
fine river rises at Wooley Barrows, five miles south of Hartland in
North Devon. It supplies the Bude Reservoir and runs out of it,
and after a winding course of fifty-nine miles flows into Plymouth
Sound by Mount Edgecumbe. In conjunction with its large
affluent the Tavy, which rises on the northern part of Dartmoor,
and has a course of twenty-three miles, and some small streams
and inlets of the sea on the Cornish side, it forms a magnificent
estuary, being tidal for seventeen and a half miles from the sea.
That portion lying between Saltash, on the Cornish side, and
Devonport is termed the Hamoaze. The river Plym, also rising on
Dartmoor, forms a lateral estuary called the Laira and Cattewater,
and discharges into Plymouth Sound just below the “ Hoe.”

DARTMOOR. IK

The Eastern Boundary between Devon and Somerset is formed
by the wild moorlands of Exmoor, on which the Exe and its tribu-
tary the Barle take their rise, and after crossing the valley of the
Tone, to the eastern escarpment of the Blackdown Hills, which
it skirts, to Yarcombe, there meets the boundary line between
Somerset and Dorset. From thence to Lyme Regis the county
boundary between Devon and Dorset runs over a broken hilly
country, becoming more open as it approaches the sea.

The County may be conveniently divided into five well-marked,
and more or less natural, districts, as follows :—I. Dartmoor ;
II. The South Hams; III. East Devon; IV. North Devon (each
of the last three abutting on the first); and V. Lundy Island off
the north coast.

I. DARTMOOR.

Dartmoor*, the Mother of Streams, occupies a considerable
part of the south-west area of Devonshire. From Belstone, near
Okehampton, in the north, to the Plymouth road between the
rivers Erme and Avon in the south, it extends nearly 22 miles ;
and from Blackdown to Ilsington it stretches 17 miles from east
to west. Its average breadth is about ten or twelve miles, and it
altogether covers an area of about 275 square miles, or 176,000
statute acres; but a large part of this is taken up by private
estates, common ground belonging to various villages, warrens,
and ‘‘ New Takes,’ where small pieces of the moor have been
drained and enclosed, and the balance representing the property
of the Duchy of Cornwall is put down at 53,644 acres, which is
mostly on the granite and in a state of nature. Viewed from the
north, Dartmoor rises like a vast fortress, its numerous ‘ tors’
present the appearance of fortifications; but once its steep sides
have been surmounted all resemblance to a mountainous district
is lost,—one finds one’s self on a great granitic plateau some 1400
feet above the sea-level, where rounded hills of no great height
succeed one another like rolling billows; bogs and streams are in
their peaty hollows; there are no lofty precipices to suggest to the
eye of the lover of birds that he is wandering where once the Eagle

* The name is said to be derived from the British dwr, water, and mor, a
reservoir—as we learn from the Introduction to Carrington’s Poem.

xx DARTMOOR.

may have had its eyrie. Dartmoor is the great watershed of the
county. Three of its principal rivers, the Taw, the Teign, and the
Dart,—the last two flowing south into the English Channel, and the
first northwards and uniting with the Torridge at Appledore,—rise
in close proximity near Cranmere Pool. Besides these, the Oke-
ment, a tributary of the Torridge, to the north, and the Avon,
Erme, Yealm, Plym, and Tavy, all flowing south, with many
another minor stream, owe their source to the heavy rains which
fall on the elevated moor. It contains the highest land in the
county—High Wilhayes, 2039 feet, and Yes Tor near it, 2027 feet ;
while there are several other Tors, which rise from 1700 to 2000
feet, such as Great Mis Tor, 1760 feet, Fur Tor, 1877 feet, &c.
In the summer-time there is no more delightful district; the
elastic air, the hills all purple with heather, the extensive views to
be had from the rocky tors of “‘ Devonia’s garden-fields ” stretched
a fair panorama beneath, the prehistoric barrows, hut circles,
ancient stones, and numerous streams here and there crossed by
bridges formed of great slabs of granite resting upon boulders,—all
lend a romantic charm, so that it is no wonder that Chagford on
the east, an old Venville town, which may be regarded as the
capital of the Forest, is becoming every year a more frequented
resort, and that many a jaded invalid finds health and strength in
breathing “ the freshness of the moorland gale.” On the principle
of “ omne ignotum pro magnifico” the early ornithologists of the
county, with the exception of Col. Montagu, who could never be
betrayed into such a mistake, were wont to regard the moor as
the nesting-place of Goshawks, Eagles, Grey Plovers, and of most
of the Waders to be found on our shores, and Great Bustards were
supposed to have their home within its unexplored fastnesses.
But Carrington, the poet of the moor, had a truer perception of
the almost entire absence of life in its central wastes, when he

wrote—
“ |... nothing that has life
Is visible; no solitary flock
At will wide ranging through the silent moor
Breaks the deep felt monotony; and all
Is motionless, save where the giant shades
Flung by the passing cloud glide slowly o’er
The grey and gloomy wild.”

The ornithologist who is well acquainted with the moor will

DARTMOOR. XX1

perceive at once that it presents no suitable abode for many of the
birds which were supposed to frequent it: the Great Bustard, for
instance, which has only occurred as a rare straggler on its
confines, would find no ground to meet its requirements; the
Common Buzzard and, perhaps, the Hen-Harrier, and occasionally
Montagu’s Harrier, are the largest of the Raptores which may
still nest upon the plateau of the forest, with the Snipe, Curlew,
and Common Sandpiper, the Ring-Ouzel, the Wild Duck, and
perhaps the Teal. Cranmere Pool, situated in a dreary swamp,
where the walking, or rather leaping, from oue high tussock to
another is sufficiently fatiguing on a hot summer’s day, has also
by its name provided a trap for the unsuspecting ornithologist,
who rashly conjectures that it may have once been the haunt of
the Crane, Grus communis. But, in the first place, the Common
Heron in the West Country is called the Crane, and the pool
might well be supposed to take its appellation from the common
and local bird; and, in the second place, we are assured that the
pool in reality has no connection whatever with birds—“ Cran ” or
“Cron” being the British for a stream, and “ mere” or “‘ mor ”
being British for a source of waters*. As a fact, hardly a bird is
ever to be seen in the neighbourhood of Cranmere Pool. We well
remember one hot day in early autumn, when in company with a
keeper, a moor-man, and three noble Gordon setters, we started
off in search of a brood of Blackgame reported as frequenting a
hillside near the pool. We had some difficulty in discovering our
point, as even the most experienced moor-men are sometimes at a
loss to find Cranmere, and as we approached its dreary morasses
birds became scarcer; by the bog which represented the pool,
long since drained, there was a solitary Heron, and some young
Ring-Ouzels were the only other birds we saw.

Dartmoor is the home of mists, which, even in the summer-time,
will suddenly pour their white fleecy waves over the rounded
hill-tops, blotting out all the landscape, and in late autumn and
winter are of such constant occurrence that it is not wise to
wander on the moor without a compass, or one might be easily
lost and compelled to spend a night among the bogs. It was our
lot to be enveloped in a thick fog one November afternoon when

* Vide Introduction to Carrington’s ‘ Dartmoor,’

Xxil DARTMOOR.

Snipe-shooting ; rain came on at the same time—such rain as can
only be experienced on the moor—and, being without a compass,
we were in great perplexity, wandering on, quite lost as to our
direction, until we luckily came across a little running stream
which brought us out on the high road near Post Bridge, from
whence we managed to find our way back to Chagford, which we
reached late at night.

We must not omit to add that numerous bogs and mires, and
extensive beds of peat, sometimes 13 feet in depth, form peculiar
features of the Dartmoor country. Some of the mires are not
safe to walk across, as the unwary might sink in and find extri-
cation difficult. All patches which present a bright green surface
should be especially avoided, as the brilliant colour is a sure index
of a treacherous peat-hole concealed beneath. At one time we
were attended on the moor by a keeper fresh from a dry district in
Norfolk, and great used to be his dread of venturing far on the
quaggy surface of Raybarrow Mire! Indeed he took no pleasure
in any part of the moor. Signs of the long-continued action of
water meet the wanderer in the forest on every side—not only in
the bogs and mires, and in the numerous streams which issue
from them, but in the narrow fissures in the hollows between the
rounded hills, worn many feet deep by the constant erosion of tiny
runnels; in stepping across one of these the horns of some
unfortunate bullock may be detected far below, the gap having
been just wide enough for the beast to slip through, and once
in all escape has been impossible. The Dartmoor ponies have a
reputation for great sagacity in recognizing dangerous ground,
and some we have tested in this particular could never be
induced to advance far upon a mire; but they are not all equally
clever. One day when we were shooting Snipe we were joined
by a friend who was mounted on a good-looking cob, and when
we questioned him as to the cob’s willingness to venture on boggy
ground, we were assured that the animal was “very safe” ; but
the words had hardly been uttered when it deliberately stepped
into the midst of a verdant patch, sinking up to the girths in the
liquid mud !

The name of “ Forest” (which signifies a “ chase” or tract of
country set apart for game) might lead some people to expect that

DARTMOOR. XXill

there would be trees upon the Dartmoor plateau; but there are
none beyond the grove of stunted old-world oaks known as
Wistman’s Wood, and tree-frequenting birds are consequently
absent ; the lill-sides are bleak and bare, strewn in places with
great blocks of granite, and the only shelter afforded the sportsman
who may be caught by a sudden tempest is offered by the noble
clumps of Flowermg Fern (Osmunda regalis) which grow in some
of the hollows. So cold and desolate is the whole district of the
Forest, so little bird-food can be procured from its peaty swamps,
that it is not surprising that birds give it a wide berth, and pass
beneath it either on its northern or southern side. Our conclusion
is that Dartmoor, wild and extensive as it is, as a bird-haunt
possesses but little interest. Nevertheless, it plays an important
part with respect to our Devon Ornis as a distributer of migrating
birds. Rising like a barrier on the south-west of the county, it
presents its bleak heights to the flights approaching from the
south-east on their way to the north-west. It is well known that
birds on their migrations shun any opposing highlands, and thus
the advancing streams of birds deflected from the Dartmoor ranges
turn south-west, and scatter over the warm and sunny South
Hams, and along the numerous sheltered estuaries running in
from the English Channel.

In like manner birds approaching from the north and north-
east are diverted, and taking a more westerly course follow the
Tamar Valley to Plymouth Sound, and become dispersed on the
south Cornish coast and over the Land’s End district ; or coming
down the Exe valley sweep round Dartmoor to the South Hams.
The absence in North Devon of stragglers from the south of Europe,
which have frequently occurred in the south of the county, and
the greater number of American species which have been obtained
in North Devon and in the South-west of Cornwall are due to the
influences exerted by Dartmoor upon the course of migrating birds.

In October large flocks of Fieldfares frequent the edges of the
Moor, and, as setters will always own their scent, are wont to
irritate the Snipe-shooter, and in the autumn Land-Rails are
sometimes numerous around the bogs. In the winter a few
small trips of Golden Plover may be found on the hill-tops. The
sportsman who, duly furnished with a Duchy licence, rambles

C

XX1V THE SOUTH HAMS.

over the Forest will get plenty of healthy exercise, but, however
eood a shot he may be, will hardly make a heavy bag. Five or
six couple of Snipe, a brace of birds dropped from an unexpected
covey, a chance Woodcock, with a Wild Duck or Teal, used to
make what we considered a good reward for a long round in the
direction of Cosdon Beacon, and we ever found more Snipe on
the edges of the moor than on the central bogs. The few Black-
game we encountered were too wary to suffer approach, and in ten
years’ rambling over the northern and eastern portions of the
Moor a single specimen of the Solitary Snipe, shot in a gale on
Scorhill Down, was the only rare bird which fell to our gun. The
uncertainty of the sport provided by the Moor is well exemplified
by a clever etching of a Snipe which we saw some years ago in
the visitors’ book of the Three Crowns Hotel at Chagford, beneath
which were the following lines :—

‘“ Four ardent sportsmen came to beat the Moor;
The Moor beat them, with wind and constant rain ;
Four days they braved it, but it blew the more;
Their sport shall thus immortalized remain.
(Here is an etched Snipe. ]

“°Tis he! ’Tis he! methinks I see him still :
We found him at a streamlet’s mossy head :
He rose ; four guns pour'’d echoing o’er the hill
Their deadly shower; what wonder he fell dead ?”

However, Snipe are stated to be more plentiful on the south-
west side of the Moor, near Horrabridge.

II. THE SOUTH HAMS.

This favoured district, the ‘‘ Garden of Devon,” offers a marked
contrast to Dartmoor. It is included between the estuary of the
Teign on the east, the Tamar on the west, Dartmoor on the north,
and the English Channel on the south. It is penetrated by the
estuaries of the Teign, Dart, Avon, Erme, Yealm, Plym, Tavy, and
Tamar, and the long arm of the sea extending to Kingsbridge.
Along the coast are the curious freshwater “Leas” or “ Leys”
at Slapton, Torcross, Thurlestone, Milton, and Huish. These are

THE SOUTH HAMS. XXV

small sheets of water lying close to the sea, abounding with birds,
and in winter are visited by large flights of wild-fowl. Some of
them have been drained and only occasionally contain water.

A fine view of the whole of this district may be obtained from
the top of Brent Hill, on the southern border of Dartmoor.
Looking towards the sea the South Hams are spread out at our
feet. We see a well-cultivated fertile country divided into fields,
surrounded by leafy hedgerows, and diversified with woods and
plantations. Its surface is cut into deep “ coombes” or valleys
by numerous small rivers taking their rise on Dartmoor, and
making their way to the English Channel, whilst the southern
portion is scooped out by Torbay, and deeply penetrated by
estuaries and arms of the sea at Dartmouth, Kingsbridge, and
Plymouth, whose muddy shores and sand-banks abound with
Waders, especially in autumn.

The most southerly part between the Start Point and Bolt Tail
juts out into the Channel in a sort of promontory, and being but
80 miles north-west of the nearest part of the French coast, Cape
de la Hague, is often visited by rare birds, and receives the earliest
migrants in spring. At Start Point is the well-known Lighthouse,
a station of the British Association Migration Committee.

Except in a few spots the coast is rocky, and the precipitous
cliffs of the Silurian and Devonian formations are breeding-places
for many birds, as the Martin, Raven, Jackdaw, Swift, Stock-
Dove, Rock-Dove (?), Peregrine, Cormorant, Shag, and Herring-
Gull, and perhaps the Lesser Black-backed Gull and a few
Guillemots and Razorbills.

Three large bays indent the coast-line, viz., Torbay, between
Hope’s Nose and Berry Head ; Start Bay, between Froward Point
(Dartmouth) and Start Point; and Bigbury Bay, between the
Bolt Tail and Stoke Point. These bays are frequently visited in
autumn by large numbers of Scoters, Terns, Gulls, Skuas, Divers,
and Grebes.

In the country between Dartmouth and Plymouth the climate is
about the mildest that can be enjoyed anywhere in the British
Islands, the mean annual temperature being 514°, and, near the
coast, oranges, lemons, and American aloes flourish and bloom in
the open air, and delicate exotics, such as pelargoniums, myrtles,

c2

XXVl THE SOUTH HAMS.

gum-trees, fuchsias, &c., stand out all the winter with little or no
protection. Until very recently the railroad did little more than
skirt the northern and eastern boundaries, so that the district has
been hitherto retired and secluded. It is not surprising that a
country offering such varied attractions for bird-life should be
visited by many rare species seldom met with elsewhere, and that
commoner species should abound. Consequently Ornithologists
have flourished in this district ever since Ornithology became a
pursuit and the art of Taxidermy was improved. Collections of
mounted birds are (or were) very numerous, nearly every country
house possessing one more or less extensive. The district has been
better worked than almost any other part of Devon, and in few parts
of England has Ornithology been pursued with more vigour and
success. At the end of the last and beginning of the present century,
Col. Montagu resided at Kingsbridge in the midst of this Ornitholo-
gical Paradise, and has rendered it classic ground by the important
observations on the habits of birds which he made there. He first
discovered the Cirl Bunting in the winter of 1800 and found its
nest and young in the following summer. In 1802 he demon-
strated the specific differences of Montagu’s Harrier, and in 1805
he confirmed the identity of the Ringtail and Hen-Harrier. In
1806 he discovered the nest and eggs of the Dartford Warbler. He
also first discovered the Wood-Sandpiper as a British bird, having
obtained one killed on the south coast of Devon, although but two
other specimens are known to have occurred there since his time ;
and recorded the first British-killed specimen of the Red-breasted
Snipe, which was shot on the coast about 1801, and of the Buff-
backed Heron (or ‘Little White Heron’) shot at South Allington in
Oct. 1805. The latter is the only undoubted example of the species
which has been killed in Britain. The specimen is preserved
in the South Kensington Museum of Natural History.

The exertions of many other ornithologists have made the
feathered inhabitants of this part of the county thoroughly well
known. For many years the late Mr. J. Gatcombe resided at
Plymouth and contributed largely to our knowledge of Devonshire
Birds; and Dr. Edward Moore, the Revs. Kerr Vaughan, R. Holds-
worth, C. Bulteel, and R. A. Julian, and Mr. J. Elliot, deceased,
and Messrs. J. Brooking Rowe, Henry and R. P. Nicholls, and
Edmund A. S. Elliot, now living, have each and all helped to build

THE SOUTH HAMS. XXVil

up the mass of facts which it has been our self-imposed task to
investigate and apply to the uses of the present work.

The extreme mildness of the winters tempts some of the summer
migrants to remain very late in the year. The Chiffchaff and
Blackeap have often been observed in the winter months. In
the extraordinary mild month of January 1776 the Cuckoo was
heard in several parts of the district. In fine hot summers many
southern species are induced to cross the channel, as the Hoopoe,
Bee-eater, Roller, and Little Bittern. Two outof the three British-
killed specimens of the Rufous Warbler were shot on the coast.

This district forms the head-quarters of the Black Redstart in
winter. All along the coast from Teignmouth to Plymouth it is
frequently met with. It is remarkable that the Common Redstart
should be rarely seen in summer and only occasionally in spring
and autumn. The Hawfinch, Crossbill, and Oyster-catcher have
bred within its limits. At Plymouth have occurred the following
rare species :— Blue-headed Wagtail, Richard’s Pipit, Water-Pipit,
Alpine Accentor, Fire-crest, Golden Oriole, Roller, Woodchat,
Lesser Grey Shrike, Hoopoe, Red-footed Falcon, Purple Heron,
American Bittern, Black Stork, Spoonbill, Red-necked Phala-
rope, Eider Duck, Kentish Plover, Gull-billed Tern, Whiskered
Tern, Little Crake, Great Skua, Sooty Shearwater, Black Guil-
lemot, &c.

The Kingsbridge district has produced a great number of inter -
esting species, amongst which may be mentioned Nightingale,
Dartford Warbler, Grasshopper Warbler, Blue-headed Wagtail,
Golden Oriole, Great Grey Shrike, Waxwing, Tree-Sparrow, Cross-
bill, Rose-coloured Pastor, Chough, Wryneck, Bee-eater, Hoopoe,
White-tailed Eagle, Kite, Little Bittern, Night- Heron (9 specimens),
Squacco Heron, Buff-backed Heron, Spoonbill, Glossy Ibis, Pink-
footed Goose (?), Bewick’s Swan, American Green-winged Teal,
Velvet Scoter, Little Crake, Crane, Little Bustard, Dotterel, Grey
Plover, Avocet, Red-breasted Snipe, Spotted Redshank, Black-
throated Diver, Fulmar, Buffon’s Skua, and Sabine’s Gull.

Stapton Ley.
This sheet of fresh water, running parallel to the sea and only
separated from it by a bank of sand and shingle some two
hundred yards wide, is situated in the centre of an indentation

XXVill SLAPTON LEY.

of the coast between Froward Point, at the entrance of Dartmouth
Harbour, on the east, and Start Point on the west, which forms
Start Bay. The Ley or Lake is long and narrow in shape and is
about three hundred acres in extent, stretching for more than two
miles along the coast. It is formed by the junction of three small
rivers or streams flowing from the neighbouring valleys, their waters
being dammed up by the shingle-bank or ridge of small stones and
sand thrown up by the heavy waves breaking on the low coast.
The fresh water having no outlet, except by percolation through
the beach, forms a lake of varying dimensions, according to the
amount of rainfall, being sometimes very full of water and at
others almost dry in parts. About the centre it is crossed by a
stone bridge leading to the small village of Slapton, and dividing
it into two portions, the lower or western and the upper or eastern.
The former is considerably the deepest, the latter being nearly filled
up with dense beds of reeds, where most of the Coots breed. In
the lower part there are also many beds of reeds and club-rushes,
forming a fine cover for the numerous aquatic birds, which find a
congenial resort here, as the Ley is strictly preserved. The water
is well stocked with Pike, Perch, Rudd, and Eels, all of which reach
a large size. On some occasions in violent storms the sea has
effected a breach through the shingle-bank and the salt-water
obtaining access to the Ley has killed the fish in it. The action
of the waves and there being no outlet for the pebbles to escape
either to the east or west, soon fills up any temporary gap which may
be formed. The Ley is a great stronghold for the Coots, which
breed here in vast numbers, but are largely reinforced in autumn
and winter by “ foreigners,” and numerous kinds of Ducks. At
the western extremity is situated the small fishing-village of
Torcross. Here the sea is so deep that pleasure steamers can run
their bows on to the steep beach and land passengers by means of
a gangway letdown. About the middle of the Long Sand, as the
ridge separating the Ley from the sea is termed, stands the
‘Sands Hotel,’ much frequented by sportsmen in the fishing-season,
and at the eastern end is Strete, the residence of Mr. H. L.
Toll. The Dartmouth turnpike-road traverses the whole length
of the Long Sand, and a coach passes along it between Dartmouth
and Kingsbridge daily, but otherwise there is not much traffic to
disturb the Wild-fowl. Formerly an annual Public Shoot took
place in the winter, but of late years none was allowed until January

EAST DEVON. XX1x

1891, when Mr. Lucas, who now rents the shooting from Sir
Lydston Newman, wishing to thin the number of Coots which had
accumulated, organized a large shooting-party, when 1700 Coots
were slaughtered, as will be found more fully recounted in our
account of the Coot. Amongst the rare birds that have occurred
on and around the Ley may be mentioned the Crested Lark,
Honey-Buzzard, Bean-Goose, Gadwall, White-eyed Duck, Black-
winged Stilt, Black-throated Diver, &c.

Sxtapron Ley is the most important and largest sheet of fresh
water on the coast, but there are some others known as Leys, viz.:—

Torcross Ley, an artificial piece of water made by Mr. A. F.
Holdsworth, J.P., C.C., of Widdicombe, about 1878. It is about
thirty acres in extent and is kept in by a sea-wall. It is close to
the village of Beesands and contains fish. It is sometimes visited
by Wild-fowl.

TuurR.estonE Ley is on the Thurlestone part of the Brunskill
estate, and is more of 2 marsh than a lake, having been drained.
It covers about twelve acres.

Mitton or Horswett Ley is only a lake when the equinoctial
gales dam back the water by a barrier of sand; then the fresh
water collects and a fine sheet of water is formed for a short time,
until the accumulated weight of it breaks down the barrier and the
Ley is drained into a foul-smelling marsh.

Hvuisu Ley by recent successful drainage is now converted into
a marsh and is a favourite nesting-place for the Lapwing.

III. EAST DEVON.

Under this title we include all that part of the county lyimg
between the Teign Valley and the watershed formed by the moor-
lands of Morchard Bishop, Washford Pyne, Rackenford, and so on
to Anstey Head on the west, and Somerset and Dorset on the
north and east; and all that part which on the south from 'Teign-
mouth to Lyme Regis borders on the English Channel. ‘This
eastern division of the county is traversed by several ranges of
low hills, running for the most part in a north and south direction,
such as the Haldons (800 ft.), Woodbury and Ottery Hast Hills ;
and the north-eastern portion is occupied by the mass of the Black-
down Hills. The coast-line is indented by the estuaries of the
Teign and Exe and the smaller ones of the Otter and Axe, and the

XXX EAST DEVON.

district contains the fertile vales of Exeter and Honiton. The
cliffs of the sea-coast, in some places of considerable height, are
formed by the red rocks of the Triassic, and the white chalk, the
clays and sands of the Cretaceous Periods, and form breeding-
places for Kestrels, Herring-Gulls, and Cormorants, and a few pairs
of Ravens and Peregrines. The Osprey and Gannet no longer
breed on the south coast, although the latter is supposed to have
done so in an isolated instance a little more than thirty years ago.

At the mouth of the Exe on the south-western side is a stretch
of sand-hills known as Dawlish, Kenton, or Exmouth Warren,
which in the middle of the last century covered about 300 acres,
but is now much diminished in size and is decreasing annually.
It was formerly a favourite place of resort for aquatic birds, and
here the Black-winged Stilt, Pratincole, and Red-breasted Goose are
reported to have been met with. The Avocet appears to have once
frequented it not uncommonly, and the Dotterel and Little Stint
occur occasionally. A pair of Sheldrakes have bred there of late
years, and the Ring-Plover frequently nests on its shores. ‘The
only known British specimen of the Great Black-headed Gull was
shot in the Exe estuary off Exmouth in May or June 1859, and
amongst the rocks near the mouth of the Exe a specimen of the
American White-winged Crossbill was picked up dead. We believe
we were once fortunate enough to see a Black-headed Warbler in
our garden at Exmouth, and the only known Devonshire examples
of the ‘Parrot Crossbill’ were shot at Marley, near that town, in
January 1888 ; recently a specimen of the Serin has been caught
in the neighbourhood. The Little Auk, Wilson’s Petrel, Buffon’s
Skua, &c. have also occurred.

Higher up the Exe estuary near Topsham, a splendid adult
Little Egret was shot in May 1870, and an example of the Fulmar
was captured. The Osprey has frequeutly occurred, the last being
killed in 1871. In the marshes opposite Topsham the Bearded
Tit is said to have formerly bred. One or two specimens of the
White Stork have been obtained, and the Black Stork is believed
to have been seen. Around Exeter the Nightingale and Grass-
hopper Warbler are of frequent occurrence in spring and summer,
and the Blue-throat is reported to have occurred on one or two
occasions,

EAST DEVON. XXxl

The mud-banks and marshes of the Exe and the Clyst were once
a great resort for Wild-fowl, and afforded good sport to gunners,
but are now rarely visited by Ducks and Geese, except in severe
winters, and even then their numbers cannot be compared to what
were seen in former days before the introduction of punt-guns
and the construction of the railways on either side of the river
had banished the Coots from its waters.

Between Topsham and Exmouth are extensive mud-flats, bare at
low water. They become more sandy near Starcross and towards
the mouth of the Exe; but just below Topsham the mud is very
soft and tenacious, of a deep black colour under the surface, and
exhaling most unpleasant odours, consisting as it does, in great
measure, of the sewage brought down from the City of Exeter
and the towns above. Although more mud is carried down
during the winter season than in summer, yet the surface is firmer
at the former period, because the high winds and storms press it
down and consolidate it. In some spots there are deep holes and
soft places which are rather dangerous, and we have several times
had difficulty in extricating ourselves, having sunk into them when
too eagerly pursuing shore-birds. It is related of an officer of
the Royal Artillery, who was staying at Exmouth, that wishing to
enjoy a morning’s sport, shooting on the mud near Lympstone, he
provided himself with ‘‘ mud-pattens ” (pieces of board strapped to
his feet) in order to prevent himself from sinking in the mud.
Unfortunately, after he had proceeded a considerable distance
from the shore, he staggered and crossed his feet, and to his
chagrin found himself unable to move. Notwithstanding all his
efforts to attract attention, he was not observed until the rising
tide had reached halfway up his body, when a boat put off and he
was rescued from his unpleasant position. Formerly vast flocks
of Ring-Plovers, Dunlins, Sanderlings, Knots, Godwits, Curlew,
aud Whimbrel, with occasionally some Curlew Sandpipers, Red-
shanks, Greenshanks, and Turnstones, used to be seen on these
mud-flats, especially in autumn and spring. Even now enormous
flocks of Lapwings, Golden Plover, and Dunlins visit them at times
during the winter months, but are shy and difficult to approach.
The Black-tailed Godwit and Spotted Redshank have occurred.

The Otter, which rises in the Blackdown Hills just over the border

XXXli NORTH DEVON.

of Somerset, flows into the sea at Budleigh Salterton. The marshes
near the mouth of this little river were formerly famous for the
great quantity of Wild-fowl which frequented them, attracted by
the warm springs of Tidwell that always remained unfrozen in
severe weather. A Glossy Ibis was shot here in September 1866.

At Bicton, the seat of the Rolle family, not far from Budleigh,
is an artificial sheet of water, at one time stocked with large
numbers of Egyptian Geese, Black Swans, and Ducks of various
species, few of which are now left.

Ladram Bay, between Budleigh Salterton and Sidmouth, is a
great breeding-place for Herring-Gulls and Cormorants.

The white cliffs at Beer, where freestone has been so extensively
quarried for many centuries, afford a home for large numbers of
Pigeons, but of what species is uncertain, though it is probable
they are derived from the domestic ‘‘ Blue Rock.” They breed
in the extensive galleries which have been worked in the soft
white stone.

Further east, near the borders of Devon and Dorset, are the
wonderful landslips of Bindon and Dowlands. Here are found
Stock-Doves breeding, and unusual numbers of Green Wood-
peckers. In autumn large flights of Woodcocks arrive on moon-
light nights, but do not remain long.

Inland on the high ground between Axminster and Lyme Regis
Blackgame used to be found plentifully, and some are still left
on the Blackdown Hills.

IV. NORTH DEVON.

The political boundaries of this district are quite arbitrary. It
may be considered more naturally as comprising the basins of the
Taw and Torridge. As thus restricted it occupies about a third of
the total area of the county, and may be roughly defined by the
following boundaries :—On the west the high land bordering the
valley of the Tamar, and forming the natural water-shed between
streams flowing south to the English Channel and those emptying
themselves into the Bristol Channel. On the south-west and
south, Dartmoor; on the south-east and east the water-shed
separating the sources of the Teign and the Creedy from those
of the North-Devon Rivers, from Cosdon Beacon by Spreyton,

NORTH DEVON. XXX1l1

between Copplestone and Crediton, by Puddington and Racken-
ford Moor to Anstey Hill on the border of Somerset; on the
north-east, Exmoor ; and on the north and north-west the Bristol
Channel.

This tract of country is principally occupied by the culm-mea-
sures of the Carboniferous formation, producing a heavy clay
soil, most congenial to the growth of the oak, but in the north-
eastern corner the Upper Devonian rocks are much developed. A
line of hills stretches from Morte Point to Exmoor on the north-
east, whilst on the west another line reaches from Hartland Point
to Dartmoor. Between these two ranges lies a basin of cultivated
Jand watered by the Taw and the Torridge, presenting a marked
contrast to the wild uncultivated tracts of Exmoor and Dartmoor
on the north-east and south-west of it. The rock-bound coast
bordermg the Bristol Channel is rugged and precipitous, and
exposed to the full force of the winter storms from the north-west.
It is only indented by Barnstaple or Bideford Bay and the estuary
of the Taw and Torridge.

The number of species of birds recorded from this portion of
the county is not quite so large as of those that have been met
with in the south. About 34 species have been obtained in the
rest of the county which have not yet been detected in the northern
portion. On the other hand, eight or nine birds have occurred
there which have not been observed in the south, and a few species
are more numerous in the north than in the south of the county.

Tue Estuaries or THE Taw AND THE TORRIDGE.

These two rivers unite at Appledore before joining the Bristol
Channel, and their combined estuaries form the only break in the
rocky coast, inviting migratory birds from the east and north passing
down the Bristol and St. George’s Channels to enter the northern
portion of the county. It is the district about Barnstaple that has
been the best worked in North Devon, as many excellent ornitho-
logists have collected here, and have recorded such species as they
met with in the ‘ Zoologist’ and other publications. In the
‘ Zoologist’ for 1857 (p. 5345) we wrote as follows :—‘‘The situa-
tion of Barnstaple, and the country round it, is one peculiarly fitted
to attract any birds which may be straggling westwards. We

XXXIV NORTH DEVON.

have a most diversified country: hills, fallow-lands, dry heaths,
elevated moors, extensive rushy marshes, and where the Taw below
Barnstaple flows broad and tidal, previous to its uniting with the
Torridge at Appledore and joining the Bristol Channel, we have
broad sandy flats, which are ieft dry as the tide retreats, and here
and there soft beds of ooze formed from the alluvial deposit which
the Taw has rolled down through many a fertile meadow on its way
from the wilds of Dartmoor. And when the two rivers meet there
is a large tract of dry and barren sand-hills bordered landwards by
an extensive fenny flat called the Braunton Marshes. Above
Barnstaple again there are the Tawton Marshes.”

Some sixteen years after we wrote this descriptive sketch, Mr.
G. F. Mathew, R.N. (Zool. 1872, p. 2917), stated that the oozes
of the Taw, once frequented by vast flocks of Ringed Plovers,
Dunlins, Curlew, and Turnstones, &c., were nearly deserted, and
the large autumnal flights of Bar-tailed Godwits, Knots, Curlew
Sandpipers, &c. had almost ceased to visit this once famous river.
Owing to the railways, embankments, and draining-operations,
hundreds of acres of salt-marsh had been reclaimed. Both Taw
and Torridge have now railways skirting their banks, and the
passing trains scare away the birds as soon as they arrive.

The estuary between Barnstaple and the sea has afforded some
interesting birds: Dotterel, Black-tailed Godwit (2 specimens
only), Bonaparte’s Sandpiper, Wood-Sandpiper, Spotted Red-
shank, Avocet, Fulmar Petrel, Eared and Sclavonian Grebes, and
ail the Skuas. Near Barnstaple the Golden Oriole has been
known to breed, a pair frequenting the grounds of Pilton Abbey
during one season. The Pied Flycatcher is also believed to have
bred in the neighbourhood, and it seems probable that a brood of
Night-Herons was actually hatched out in 1869 near New Bridge
on the Taw. Large flocks of Oyster-catchers frequent the mussel-

beds near the lighthouse on Braunton Burrows in the autumn
and winter.

Ture Braunton Burrows.
The Braunton Burrows are an extensive tract of sand-hills
at the mouth of the Taw and Torridge estuary, consisting of
some 3000 acres, bounded to the north by Saunton Down End,

THE BRAUNTON BURROWS. XXXV

to the west by Barnstaple Bay, to the east by Braunton
Marsh, and to the south by the river Taw. They abound in
rabbits, which feed in the grassy plains between the sand-hills.
Some of these plains are dotted over by tall clumps of Juncus
acutus, and after heavy rams in the autumn and winter become
shallow lagoons frequented by Snipe and Wild-fowl. Not being
very accessible, and being also well looked after by the lessee of
the rabbit-warren, the Burrows offer a sanctuary to many birds,
and many rare stragglers doubtless visit them without being noted.
During the years mm which we were acquainted with this interesting
country, the Crested Lark, Richard’s Pipit, the Cream-coloured
Courser, Temminck’s Stint, and the Little Crake were all observed
there ; while on the Braunton Marsh close adjoining a beautiful
adult Squacco Heron and two Pectoral Sandpipers were also
obtained, which are all in our collection. Many strange plants
are found on the Burrows, where we have come across herbalists
searching for them, and some years ago the rare Spurge Hawk
Moth (Deilephila euphorbie) used to be plentiful, but is now
extinct, its larvee, it is supposed, having all been buried beneath
the shiftmg sands. Buzzards, locally known as Black Kites,
were once common on the Burrows, attracted by the young
rabbits; and Hen-Harriers and Peregrine Falcons were often to
be seen. Short-eared Owls in the autumn and winter are to be
found there and are sometimes numerous. We one day flushed
twenty or more from one small hillock which rose out of the
flooded ground like an island, the Owls, slowly sailing round us,
settling again among the rushes on neighbourmmg mounds. One
we nearly trod on rose from a freshly killed Peewit, whose head,
the part always first devoured by Owls and Hawks, had been torn
off and eaten. The Braunton Burrows are the only locality in
Devonshire where we have ever met with the Norfolk Plover,
sometimes seeing it there when Snipe-shooting in the winter, and
one shot by Mr. G. Mathias, of Ilfracombe, is the only North Devon
specimen we have handled. In the winter large flocks of White-
fronted Geese are seen flying over the Burrows, while in October
the sands near Saunton Down End are sometimes black with
Wigeon.

The only house within the confines of the Burrows is the tall

XXXV1 THE CLIFFS OF THE COAST.

white lighthouse erected at its south-west corner to guide vessels
entering the Taw and Torridge over the dangerous bar, a red ball
hoisted on the top of a flagstaff bemg the sign that there is a
sufficient depth of water for the ships to cross it. Good flight-
shooting at Duck may sometimes be had in the winter by the
shallow ponds on the Burrows. When the ground is covered by
snow, many Woodcocks resort to the neighbourhood of the sea ;
and we have known good bags to be made at such times on
the Burrows—twenty couple a day. On the opposite side of the
water, to the south-west, is another extensive marshy flat, bounded
towards the sea by sand-hills and the well-known Pebble-ridge.
This is the Northam Burrows, once a favourite locality for Snipe,
Plover, and Duck, but no longer resorted to by birds, since the
villas and terraces of Westward Ho! have sprung up on one side of
it, and numerous golfers daily pursue their favourite game among
the sand-hills. Here, in former days, we have shot the Ruff; and
once, at the middle of April, found a great congregation of Jack
Snipe assembled previous to their departure for the north ; and here
our friend the Rev. Marcus Rickards came across a little flock of
White Wagtails on their arrival in the spring, and on September
15th, 1875, shot a very pretty example of the Grey Phalarope still
partly in the summer plumage.

Tue Cuirrs oF THE Coast.

The iron-bound coast of North Devon is of a sterner character
than that of the South of the county, fronting the Bristol Channel
with a line of precipices, at whose bases there is here and there but
a scanty patch of shingle, with deep water close in shore ; so that,
as the great merchant steamers pass up and down, they approach
in calm weather so near to land that from the Tors at Ilfracombe
it often seems as if it were possible to throw a penny upon their
decks. Countesbury Hill, above Lynmouth, looks down upon the
water from an elevation of 873 feet, and the land rises rapidly from
the coast, reaching near Paracombe to 989 feet ; while, at a short
distance, the Chapman Barrows attain to 1572 feet above the sea-
level. Anyone who takes the delightful walk from Ilfracombe to
Lynton along the cliffs, and then continues his route to Minehead,

LUNDY ISLAND. XXXVll

will see but few stretches of sand or ooze beneath him to attract
shore-birds—only a few Gulls, a pair or two of Kestrels, and per-
chance of Peregrines; numerous Jackdaws; and, if he is lucky, a
Chough or two, some Rock-Doves, and even a Buzzard may be
encountered. The waters of the ‘‘ Yellow Sea” do not begin to
get clear until one has reached Minehead coming from the east,
but off Ilfracombe the Channel has attained the green tints of
ocean. Westwards from Ilfracombe there are the extensive
Woolacombe sands, Croyde Bay, and a fine stretch of sand along
the shore of Barnstaple Bay bounding the Braunton Burrows,
after we have turned Baggy Point, a famous bird-station ; then
comes the Bar at the entrance to the united estuaries of Taw and
Torridge; and on its western side we have the Pebble-ridge
guarding the extensive flat known as the Northam Burrows from
the Atlantic rollers. After this the coast is again bounded by
lofty cliffs, and passing romantic and beautiful Clovelly, and
following round Hartland Point, we soon come to “the sounding
shores of Bude and Boss,” and to the black precipices of the North
Cornwall coast, which, trending south to the Land’s End, are here
and there indented with some sandy “ porth” edged with the white
margins of the breaking waves. But, like the North Devon coast,
these Cornish shores have no abundance of bird-life. It is only
when we reach the warm and sheltered bays extending from
Penzance eastwards along the south coasts of Cornwall, Devon, and
Dorset to Poole Harbour, that we can realize the multitudes of sea-
fowl which, at almost all seasons of the year, keep their sun-lit
waters “shadowed by their wings.”

V. LUNDY ISLAND.

Lundy, the Isle of Puffins, distant about fourteen miles from
Hartland Point, lies well out in the entrance of the Bristol
Channel, and being much nearer to Devonshire than it is to South
Wales (30 miles) may be justly regarded as pertaining to that
county, although according to Drayton, in his ‘ Polyolbion,’ there
was in old times a controversy between Wales, Devonshire, and
Cornwall as to which had the best claim to it. Strange to say,
Mr. T. V. Wollaston found that the Coleoptera (Beetles) of the

~~ ee

XXXVill LUNDY ISLAND.

island were quite dissimilar from those of the north coast of
Devon and Cornwall, but were very like those of the south coast
of Wales. The island lies N.N.W. by S8.S.E., contains about
1200 acres, is nearly three miles long by a mile broad, and con-
sisting almost entirely of granite, rises from 300 to 500 feet out of
the sea. It is most interesting to the antiquarian, the botanist,
the artist, and, not least, to the ornithologist. The last might, from
its position, expect it to prove a second Heligoland ; its tall light-
house, casting its rays far over the waters, must certainly attract
many a passing migrant. But the American Yellow-billed Cuckoo,
picked up dead on the ground beneath, is the only rare straggler
recorded as procured through the influence of the light. Mr, J. R.
Chanter, of Fort Hill, Barnstaple, in 1875, communicated to the
Devonshire Association an excellent account of Lundy Island, in
which its history and antiquities are fully described. At the end
of his pamphlet he also gives lists of the birds, plants, &. to be
met with. In bygone years the island maintained a larger popu-
lation than it does to-day: moss-covered mounds mark the site of
old cottages, some of these ruins still bearing the names of their
former tenants, and are remarkable as providing the botanist with
examples of old-fashioned plants no longer in general cultivation ;
while, in the winter-time, the sportsman will find that Woodcocks
seek them for shelter. The top of the island, where not cultivated,
is a bare plateau: stunted heath, furze, grass, and rush form the
only cover; the slopes towards the sea, known as the “ sidlings,”’
are strewn with masses of granite cropping up through the fern,
some of the weather-worn blocks taking fantastic forms—one in
particular, from its resemblance to a helmeted warrior, is called
the Templar ; and, following the coast-line, scenes of picturesque
beauty are continually presented—the wild rocks, with the surges
beating against them far below; the numerous races, where the
tide rushes like a mill-stream between the small islands off the
north end; the far blue of the horizon; the countless cliff-birds
if it be the summer-time; and the mingled colours of the wild
flowers will furnish the artist with many a delightful theme.
Some water-colour drawings of Lundy, which are hanging at the
present time in the billiard-room of a mansion in South Ken-
sington by Mr. Albert Goodwin, are “joys for ever.” At the

nt tna
LLL A A itera ttt iti ttt still

‘aqueosvafyy fo ysmn *D uyof hq Sugg v woasy

‘AGNNT LV Squid FHL

. LUNDY ISLAND. XXX1X

south-west of the island are the Gull Rock and the Shutter Rock,
the last well known to the readers of Charles Kingsley’s ‘ Westward
Ho !’ as the spot where the Great Galleon, so long pursued by Sir
Amyas Leigh, was wrecked, and sank to the bottom with all hands.
The scene in which Sir Amyas, struck blind by the lightning in
the great storm, is led to the top of the island in order that he may
stand above and face the spot where his long-sought vengeance had
been wrested from him by a higher power, presents a description
of Lundy by a master hand: “So on they went to the point where
the Cyclopean wall of granite cliff which forms the western side of
Lundy ends sheer in a precipice of some three hundred feet, topped.
by a pile of snow-white rock bespangled with golden lichens. As
they approached, a Raven, who sat upon the topmost stone, black
against the bright blue sky, flapped lazily away, and sank down the
abyss of the cliff, as if he scented the corpses underneath the surge.
Below them, from the Gull Rock, rose a thousand birds, and filled
the air with sound ; the Choughs cackled ; the Hacklets* wailed ;
the Great Black-backs laughed querulous defiance at the intruders,
and a single Falcon with an angry bark dashed out from beneath
their feet, and hung poised high aloft, watching the sea-fowl
which swung slowly round and round below” (‘ Westward Ho!,
chapter xxxii.).

Through the kindness of Mr. John G. Naish, of Ilfracombe, we
are enabled to give a photograph of his oil painting of “ The Birds
at Lundy.” The scene is at the north-west end of the island ;
the small island in the picture is the “ Seals’ Rock.”

There are traditions that the White-tailed Eagle once nested on
the cliffs of Lundy, and the Osprey has had an eyrie there later
than 1835. The famous white-chested race of Lundy Peregrines
hold a precarious tenure of their ancient fastness, and have been
once or twice all but exterminated. In the month of September,
at the time of passage, numerous Quail and Land-Rails used occa-
sionally to drop on the island for a few days, affording excellent
bags. In the spring the beautiful Rose-coloured Pastor was once
a frequent visitor, and the Rev. H. G. Heaven was wont to declare
that he was almost sure to meet with it if he went out to look for
it, and at the request of his friend the late Dr. Woodforde, of

* The Kittiwakes,

d

xl LUNDY ISLAND.

Taunton, shot a pair, which are now, with the rest of that gentle-
man’s collection, in the Museum at Taunton Castle. Mr. 8S. De B.
Heaven was so fortunate as to obtain in the autumn of 1858 a
fine example of the rare Buff-breasted Sandpiper, which is still to
be seen in the same collection. Should the winter be severe, great
flights of Woodcock and Snipe were in former days attracted to
the island by its numerous open springs and sheltered coombes; but
of recent years very few have been seen, for Lundy, like many
another once favourite locality, has shared in the disasters which
modern progress has entailed upon the homes of those members of
the feathered race which only resort to wild and lonely spots. The
island, once quiet and seldom disturbed, has of late years been con-
stantly trampled over by quarrymen and others; the greater part
of it is now under cultivation; it has been discovered by the
summer tourists, who come from Bideford and I]fracombe in cheap
excursion steamers, and harry the cliff-birds and rob their nests.
There need, then, be no surprise that many birds have forsaken
their old home, the Chough among them; and that others which
were formerly wont to use it as a resting-place are now scared from
doing so.

Both Partridges and Grouse have at various times been intro-
duced on Lundy, only to be destroyed by the rats which swarm all
over the island. The Common Sparrow is only seen as an occa-
sional winter visitor; and in the list of birds which nest upon it,
all the Tits are absent. The Jackdaw is only a chance visitor, and
does not nest. It is, of course, in the summer, when thousands of
birds still resort to its cliffs to breed, that Lundy possesses the
greatest interest for the lover of birds. The swarms of Puffins,
Guillemots, Razor-bill Auks, Gannets, Kittiwakes, Herring-Gulls,
Greater and Lesser Black-backed Gulls, together with Shags and
Cormorants, then to be seen at the northern end are indeed
astounding; while concealed underground during the day are the
Manx Shearwaters and Storm-Petrels, which only issue from their
burrows at night. The variety of the Common Guillemot, known
as the Bridled Guillemot, occurs in limited numbers.

In old times the inhabitants made a trade by netting the
Puffins and Guillemots, plucking them and selling their feathers ;
and of late years the birds have been persecuted by the Channel

LUNDY ISLAND. xli

pilots and others, who have either robbed their nests or cruelly
shot them for their feathers, and the Gannets, especially, have
been driven from pillar to post and greatly reduced in numbers.

Mr. Howard Saunders, in his account of the Kittiwake (Yarrell’s
B. Birds, 4th ed. p. 653), has given a sickening history of the way
in which this beautiful Gull was quite recently massacred at Lundy
for the sake of its wings, for which there was at the time a great
demand for ladies’ hats. “ At Clovelly, opposite Lundy Island,
there was a regular staff for preparing the plumes; and fishing-
smacks, with extra boats and crews, used to commence their work
of destruction at Lundy Island by daybreak on the 1st of August
[when the close time under the Sea Birds’ Preservation Act ex-
pired], continuing this proceeding for upwards of a fortnight. In
many cases the wings were torn off the wounded birds before they
were dead, the mangled victims being tossed back into the water.’
The result of this cruelty was that he himself had seen “ hundreds
of young birds dead or dying of starvation in the nests, through
want of their parents’ care; for in the heat of the fusillade no
distinction was made between old and young. On one day 700
birds were sent back to Clovelly, on another 500, and so on; and,
allowing for the starved nestlings, it is well within the mark to
say that at least 9000 of these inoffensive birds were destroyed
during the fortnight.”

From the description sent us by the Rev. H. G. Heaven of a
little bird seen by him early in October in 1876, it is probable that
the island was visited by a species of Vireo (“‘ Greenlets ”’), a large
and widely dispersed North-American genus of small Flycatchers.
We copy the very full account given of the bird by Mr. Heaven :—
“ Size: about that of the Robin, perhaps slightly more robust in
contour, but tail shorter in proportion, Plumage: upper parts of
head, neck, back, tail, and wing-coverts uniform ashen grey with
an olive-green tint in certain lights; wings and tail umber-brown,
but with an ashen-grey tint on them, as though dusted with very
fine powder ; secondaries and tertiaries tipped with dull white, pro-
ducing bars on the wings when closed ; legs, beak, and eyes black,
or very dark brown; the eyes a very marked feature, being very
large, full, and brilliant, and set in lids fringed with an edging of
the purest white, so that the eye looked like a brilliant jet bead set

d2

xlii CHANGES IN THE COUNTY ORNIS.

in a circlet of pearls ; the whole of the underparts a pure spotless
white, with a lustre upon it very similar to that on the breast of a
Grebe, giving almost an iridescence in the sun under certain
movements of the bird. I observed it in company with some Fly-
catchers and Whitethroats, which it much resembled at a distance,
but rather exceeded in size apparently. It was very active and
lively, and not at all shy, frequently coming within a few yards of
where I and my sister were sitting. It was very busy catching
insects, sometimes on the wing, sometimes pouncing on them on
the ground, and sometimes hunting for them in the bushes, being
not unlike a Tit in its restlessness and movements.” As two
examples of Vireo olivaceus, Vieill., the Red-eyed Vireo, have been
caught near Derby (Saunders’s ‘ Manual of British Birds,’ p. 146),
there would be nothing unprecedented in another member of the
genus, perhaps the Western form of the Solitary Vireo, Vireo
solitarius, var. plumbeus, Allen, having paid a visit to Lundy,
and it would be only another instance of North-American birds
appearing in Devonshire and Cornwall.

CHANGES IN THE COUNTY ORNIS.

Tue changes which have taken place in the Avifauna of the
United Kingdom during the last century are more conspicuous
in such a county as Devonshire, perhaps, than in many others,
both because it presented greater scope for them, and also that
the causes which led to them have been more far-reaching.
The idea which the Devonshire ornithologist of the present day
forms of his county as it was a hundred years ago is that of a
Snipe-and-rabbit-frequented district, for the most part, where
buzzards and harriers were numerous, while wild-fowl and waders
abounded in the estuaries. Drainage and embankment of salt-
marshes, enclosure of commons, conversion of rushy swamps into
sound meadow-land, have all helped to restrict the happy hunting-
grounds of the Snipe, that, at the time to which our own recol-
lection reaches back, was still so plentiful that school-boys home
for the Christmas holidays were entered at it, instead of at the

CIIANGES IN THE COUNTY ORNIS. xliil

customary Turdide. Then, the old days when there were but
few sportsmen abroad with their flint-and-steel single barrels have
been replaced by a new age in which there are more breechloaders
than Snipe. The extermination of the larger birds of prey has
brought about a great increase of small birds; the Thrush family,
in particular, have benefited by the removal of their natural
enemies. The greater amenity of the county resulting from im-
proved cultivation has invited some of the summer migrants to
visit it in greater numbers; the Redstart and the Nightingale
may be mentioned among those which appear to be annually ex-
tending their range further to the west. Better farming has been
favourable to the Partridge, which, once comparatively scarce, has
now in many parts of the county become abundant. The Royston
Crow, for some reason or other, no longer visits the south-western
counties regularly in the winter as it did formerly; and the Raven
is comparatively seldom seen. The Chough and Rock-Dove are
becoming very rare along our coasts, and will, we fear, soon
altogether disappear; while the Stock-Dove is increasing in num-
bers, and has lately established itself in the north of the county,
where it had been previously unknown. The Mistle-Thrush,
Rook, Lapwing, Moor-hen, and Ring-Dove have also become more
numerous.

A noteworthy event in our Devonshire Ornis has been the
occupation of nearly the whole county by the Starling as a resident
species. In our school-days Starlings were chiefly winter visitors,
appearing in the autumn in the north of the county in large flocks ;
we have still immense arrivals of foreign birds in the autumn, but
there are now also numerous resident Starlings nesting commonly
in most districts. We have already, in our Introduction, spoken
of the prejudicial effects of railways upon a local ornis. ‘The
estuaries of both Taw and Torridge in the north of the county,
of Exe, Teign, and Dart in the south, have been ruined as bird-
haunts by the frequent trains running along their banks, frighten-
ing the birds from the sands and oozes. Added to this we must
not forget to state that for almost every bird still bold enough to
enter there is a shore-gunner on the watch. Things were indeed
becoming desperate for our wild-fowl and Limicolz, but we have
lately derived some little comfort through hearing of an improve-

xliv THE FAUNISTIC POSITION OF SPECIES.

ment in their numbers in the South Devon estuaries which is
ascribed to the Sea Birds’ Preservation Act. But, nevertheless,
the old characteristic Ornis of the county is passing away; and
the changes we have briefly pointed out must naturally follow the
causes we have assigned for them.

THE FAUNISTIC POSITION OF SPECIES.

DEVONSHIRE possesses a very extensive avifauna owing to its
unique geographical position, and probably more species of birds
have been met with within its confines than in any other county
of England, with the sole exception of Yorkshire.

We lave included 292 species in our ornis, and have excluded
29 others whose occurrence has been incorrectly recorded, or rests
upon insufficient evidence, or which were undoubtedly escapes. Six
of these, however, are not unlikely to occur in Devonshire, and may
really have done so. Probably our ornis falls little short of
300 species.

Definitions modified from ‘Handbook of Yorkshire Vertebrata.’

ResIDENTs are species which are found in some part of the county
throughout the year, and breed therein annually, though
perhaps only in small numbers. Many Residents as species
are, however, migratory, some or all of the individuals in-
habiting a district moving south in autumn, their places
being taken by other individuals from the north, or at all
events their numbers are recruited by immigration or
lessened by emigration.

Summer Micrants are species which appear annually in spring,
remain through the summer to breed, and depart in autumn,
some, however, occasionally remaining during the winter
months.

Winter Visrrors are species which appear annually, or in most
years, in the autumn, and remain in more or less numbers
throughout the winter, departing in spring for their breeding-

THE FAUNISTIC POSITION OF SPECIES. xlv

haunts; some may, however, occasionally remain during the
summer, and some may breed in isolated instances in the
county.

Passive or Transient Visitors are species having a double
migration, and which are usually observed in the county
only on their annual passage to and from their breeding-
places in spring or autumn, or both. Exceptionally some may
remain with us during the winter.

Casuat Visirors are species whose appearance in the county is
uncertain, but whose occurrence—they being resident in, or
more or less regular visitors to, other parts of the British
Islands—is not improbable, even though their visits may
be very few and far between. Some of them may have once
been Residents, and may still occasionally remain to breed.

AcciDENTAL Visitors are mere waifs and strays—species whose
geographical range or habits render their occurrence in
Britain quite exceptional, and more or less remarkable.

Intrropucep or NatuRALizep Species are semi-domesticated, but
occur in a state of nature and breed.

Following the excellent plan of the ‘ Handbook of Yorkshire
Vertebrata,’ by Messrs. W. Eagle Clarke and W. Denison Roe-
buck, in comparing the avifaunas of neighbouring counties,
we have made a careful analysis of the avifauna of the
four south-western or peninsular counties of England, and the
results are shown in the subjoined table. For Cornwall we have
taken as our text-book Rodd’s ‘ Birds of Cornwall, edited by
Mr. J. E. Harting; for Dorset, Mansel-Pleydell’s ‘ Birds of Dorset ;’
and for Somerset, Cecil Smith’s ‘ Birds of Somerset;’ adding to
them, however, such species as have been obtained in those
counties since the publication of the above-named works, amount-
ing to no less than 32 for Somerset, 7 for Cornwall, and 2 for
Dorset. As twenty-one species have occurred in Cornwall which
have not yet been recorded from Devonshire, and three in Somerset
that have not been obtained in either of those counties, the total
number of birds occurring in the South-western Peninsula will be
found to amount to 316, exclusive of doubtful species. Yorkshire
boasts of 307 species, and Norfolk 290.

xlvi THE FAUNISTIC POSITION OF SPECIES.

| Cornwall. | Devon. Dorset. Somerset.

ERORTUETAEES fai52 5.5.90 cleo eg | 74 84 75
Summer Migrants 28 30 34
Forming together a total ——————— ——_ ———_|

of Annual Breeders .. 102 114 109
Winter Visitors ...... 38 39 36
Passing Visitors ..,... 21 16 22
Casual Visitors........ | 75 68 70
Accidental Visitors ... | 51 49 15
Introduced Species ..... 4 6 4

291 299 256 |

Doubtful Species ...... 7 | 29 10

Six of the doubtful species have very probably really occurred
in the county, so that the total number of species for Devonshire
may be put down as 298.

The number of Devonshire Birds according to different Authors :—

Dr. E. Moore, 1830-37.........+ 245
J, OC, euaey, LESBO a. seesu sass 247
J, Brooking Rowe, 1862-3 ...... 268
W.8. M. D Urban, 1875: 5. i055 276
PL PeeOtes TES Piss ines 'th dees 273 (exclusive of 23 errors and doubtful
Pidsley and Macpherson, 1890.... 287 [ species.)

D’Urban and Mathew, 1891 ,... 292 (exclusive of 29 doubtful species).

The number of British Birds according to different Authors :—

TT ee ee 400
apig” Saat of 1, san cia vin ee 376 (and 76 doubtful species).
Howard Saunders .........+.+.: 368

The species which breed in Devonshire are no less than 128 in
number,
Besides our 114 Annual Breeders,
5 Winter Visitors, ) have been known to
1 Passing Visitor, fired in the county
8 Casual Visitors / in isolated instances.

128 Total number of Breeders.

In addition six Introduced Species also breed, and the following

THE FAUNISTIC POSITION OF SPECIES.

xlvil

species are reported, with some probability, to have formerly bred
in the county, viz.:—Wryneck, White-tailed Eagle, Kite, Osprey,
Little Bittern, and Golden Plover.

The Resipent Brrps are eighty-four in number :—

Mistle-Thrush.

Song-Thrush.

Blackbird.

Stonechat.

Redbreast.

Dartford Warbler (ex-
tinct ?).

Golderest.

Hedge-Sparrow.

Dipper.

British Long-tailed Tit-
mouse,

Great Titmouse.

British Coal Titmouse.

Marsh-Titmouse.

Blue Titmouse.

Nuthatch.

Wren.

Pied Wagtail.

Grey Wagtail.

Meadow-Pipit.

Rock-Pipit.

Tree-Creeper.

Goldfinch.

Greenfinch.

House-Sparrow.

Chaffinch.

Linnet.

Bullfinch.

Corn-Bunting.

Yellow Hammer.

Cirl Bunting.

Reed-Bunting.

Starline.

Chough.

Jay.

Magpie.

Jackdaw.

Carrion-Crow.

Rook.

Raven.

Sky-Lark.

Wood-Lark.

Great Spotted Wood-
pecker.

Lesser Spotted Wood-
pecker.

Green Woodpecker.

Kingfisher.

Barn-Owl.

Tawny Owl.

Buzzard.

Sparrow-Hawk.

Peregrine.

Kestrel.

Cormorant.

Shag.

Gannet.

Heron.

Common Sheldrake.

Wild Duck.

Teal.

Ring-Dove.

Stock-Dove.

Rock-Dove (?).

Partridge.

Black Grouse.

Water-Rail.

Moor-hen.

Coot.

Ringed Plover.

Lapwing.

Oyster-catcher.

Common Snipe.

‘Woodcock.

Dunlin (?).

Green Sandpiper (?).

Curlew.

Kittiwake.

Herring-Gull.

Lesser Black-backed
Gull.

Greater
Gull.

Storm-Petrel.

Manx Shearwater,

Little Grebe.

Razorbill.

Common Guillemot.

Puffin,

Black-backed

Amongst the above eighty-four Resipenr Birps the following
species may be particularly noticed :—
The Dartford Warbler is, or was, resident in Devonshire as
well as in Cornwall and Dorset, but does not appear to be found

in Somerset.

We have not heard of the occurrence of any speci-

mens since 1877, and we much fear this interesting bird has
become extinct in the county, as it is said to be in Dorset, owing

xlviil THE FAUNISTIC POSITION OF SPECIES.

to the severe cold in the winter of 1886 and 1887. The Grey
Wagtail is now well-known to be resident in Cornwall, Devon,
and Somerset, though only a winter visitor to Dorset. The Cirl
Bunting is a rather local species, whose breeding-habits, like those
of the Dartford Warbler, were first described from observations
made in this county by Col. Montagu. This Bunting was added
to the British List by that accomplished naturalist, he having
first observed it in South Devon. The Starling, formerly only a
winter visitor to the western part of the county, now breeds
throughout its limits, except upon Dartmoor, and has enormously
increased in numbers. Those that breed with us are, however, few
compared with the vast flocks that visit us in winter. The Chough,
once a common bird on the sea-cliffs, is now reduced to a few
pairs which breed in some places on the north coast. The Raven,
the Buzzard, and the Peregrine have been subjected to great per-
secution, but still contrive to keep a footing here and there in
wild and inaccessible places. The Corn-Bunting, like the Cirl
Bunting, is local, and almost confined to the sea-coast. The
Goldfinch is less plentiful than formerly, the progress of agricul-
ture depriving it of its favourite food, the seeds of thistles and
other composite plants. The Wood-Lark is rather local, but
common in some places in the breeding-season, and large numbers
are seen on the borders of Dartmoor and on the sea-coast in
autumn. The Great Spotted Woodpecker is occasionally seen in
wooded parts of the county, and the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker
is far from uncommon in many localities. The Stock-Dove, for-
merly only a winter visitor, has now established itself as a per-
manent resident, as is also the Rock-Dove, though it is not clear
whether the last species is not represented in most places by the
Domestic Blue Rock gone wild. The Common Sheldrake is con-
fined to two breeding-stations, one on the north and the other on
the south coast. The Wild Duck and Teal principally breed on
the Leys of the south-west coast. We have seen the Dunlin
solitary and in full breeding-plumage on Dartmoor in June, and
it is stated to have bred there formerly, as it has done on the
Cornish moors; but we do not know of any recent instance of
its nest being found there. The Green Sandpiper, being seen
occasionally at all times of the year, very probably breeds some-

THE FAUNISTIC POSITION OF SPECIES. xlix

where in the county. The Curlew and Snipe breed on many of
the moors, especially in the northern part of the county. The
Woodcock has frequently nested, and often occurs so early in the
season that it may be looked upon as a regular breeder; but the
great bulk of the Woodcock and Snipe are winter visitors, as is
also the case with most of the Wild Duck and Teal.

The Gannet, Oyster-catcher, Kittiwake, Lesser and Greater
Black-backed Gulls, Storm-Petrel, Manx Shearwater, Razorbill,
and Puffin are almost all confined to Lundy Island in the breeding-
season. The Shag and Cormorant breed on both the north and
the south coast and on Lundy Island. There are more than a
dozen Heronries in the county.

The Summer Micrants are thirty in number, as follows :—

Ring-Ouzel. Wood-Warbler. Sand-Martin.
Wheatear. Sedge-Warbler. Swift.

Whinchat. Grasshopper Warbler. Nightjar.

Redstart. White Wagtail. Hoopoe.
Nightingile. Yellow Wagtail. Cuckoo.
Whitethroat. Tree-Pipit. Hobby.

Blackcap. Red-backed Shrike. Turtle Dove.
Garden Warbler. Spotted Flycatcher. Quail.

Chiffchaff. Swallow. Corn-Crake.
Willow- Warbler. Martin. Common Sandpiper.

Of these the Ring-Ouzel and Common Sandpiper breed on
Dartmoor and parts of N.E. Devon bordering on the moors. The
Whinchat, Nightingale, Wood-Warbler, Grasshopper Warbler,
White Wagtail, Hobby, and Turtle Dove are local species, and
none of them are very numerous. The Nightingale finds its
western limit in this county, and has lately penetrated to the
extreme western boundary; and as it has been known to breed on
several occasions, we include it with the regular summer migrants.
The Redstart, though most numerous in the north and east of the
county, is occasionally found breeding in the extreme western
portion. The Hoopoe occurs so frequently that it has claims to
be looked upon as a regular summer migrant, though it is not
common. It is said to have bred in the county.

| THE FAUNISTIC POSITION OF SPECIES.

The Winter Visitors number thirty-nine :—

Redwing. White-fronted Goose. Smew.

Fieldfare. Brent Goose. Golden Plover (B. ?).
Black Redstart. Wigeon. Grey Plover.

Great Grey Shrike. Pintail. Jack Snipe.

Siskin. Shoveller. Purple Sandpiper.
Hawfinch (B.). Tufted Duck (B.). Sanderling.
Brambling. Scaup. Common Gull.
Lesser Redpoll (B.). Pochard. Black-headed Gull.
Snow-Bunting. Golden-eye. Great Northern Diver.
Long-eared Owl (B.). Long-tailed Duck. Red-throated Diver.
Short-eared Owl. Common Scoter. Great Crested Grebe.
Merlin (B.). Goosander. Sclavonian Grebe.
Bittern. Red-breasted Merganser. Greater Shearwater.

The Black Redstart is met with in winter all along the southern
coast of the county, but most numerously between Teignmouth and
Plymouth. It has been obtained occasionally also in North Devon.
The Great Grey Shrike has occurred often enough to be placed in
the list of winter visitors. The Siskin, Hawfinch, Brambling,
Lesser Redpoll, and Snow-Bunting are of irregular appearance,
none being seen in some winters, whilst in others they are more or
less abundant. The Hawfinch has bred near Kingsbridge, and the
Lesser Redpoll is believed to have done so in North Devon. The
Brambling has occurred in July in N. Devon, and is reported to
have bred at Topsham, but probably in captivity. The Long-
eared Owl has been known to breed, but is usually a winter visitor
to Devon. The Merlin has been seen in summer, and is said to
have bred. The Golden Plover is sometimes seen late in the
spring with black breast, and is said to have formerly bred on
Dartmoor. The Tufted Duck probably breeds occasionally on
Slapton and Torcross Leys and also near Barnstaple. The San-
derling used to appear on the Exe estuary in large flocks in winter,
but does not seem to be so plentiful elsewhere. The Bittern,
White-fronted Goose, Pintail, Shoveller, Tufted Duck, Pochard,
Golden-eye, Long-tailed Duck, Goosander, Smew, Great Crested
Grebe, and Sclavonian Grebe usually occur in small numbers only.
Some of them are, however, occasionally numerous in severe winters,
large flocks of Shovellers and of Tufted Ducks being sometimes
seen. The Scaup and Common Scoter occur in large flocks in
autumn. The Greater Shearwater comes to us from the Atlantic
Ocean, being occasionally seen in great numbers in the Channel.

THE FAUNISTIC POSITION OF SPECIES. li

The Passtne or TRANSIENT Visitors, with a double migration in
spring and autumn, are sixteen :—

Garganey. Knot. Arctic Tern.
Spotted Crake. Redshank (B, ?). Common Tern.
Turnstone. Greenshank. Black Tern.

Grey Phalarope. Bar-tailed Godwit. Pomatorhine Skua.
Little Stint. Whimbrel. Richardson’s Skua.

Curlew Sandpiper.

The Garganey is seen only in spring, and was unusually
numerous in 1870. The Spotted Crake now occurs principally in
the autumn. The Grey Phalarope is rarely seen except in autumn,
and is of irregular appearance, in some years great flights visiting
us and in others few being observed, depending on the occurrence
of southerly gales during the period of migration. The Little
Stint is usually rare on the south coast, but sometimes occurs in
considerable flocks, especially in spring. On the north coast it
used to be met with every autumn on the sands of the Taw.
The Curlew Sandpiper, Knot, and Bar-tailed Godwit sometimes
occur in breeding-plumage in spring and summer, and occasionally
remain throughout the winter on the south coast, but are mainly
autumnal visitors. The Redshank, no doubt, was formerly a
resident and may possibly still breed with us in small numbers,
being seen at all times of the year. The Greenshank and Whimbrel
are sometimes, but rarely, seen in winter. The former is never
plentiful. Vast flights of Arctic, Common, and Black Terns,
Pomatorhine and. Richardson’s Skuas sometimes visit the south
coast in autumn.

The Casva Visrrors are sixty-eight in number :—

Lesser Whitethroat (3). Mealy Redpoll (1).
Fire-crest (4 or 5). Twite.

Reed-Warbler (2 or 3). Crossbill (B.).

Bearded Titmouse (B.). tose-coloured Pastor (21),
Crested Tit (1). Hooded Crow (Bb. ?).
Blue-headed Wagtail (7). Shore-Lark (1).

Richard’s Pipit (13). Wryneck (B. ?).

Golden Oriole (B.). Marsh-Harrier (B.).
Waxwing. Hen-Harrier (B.).

Pied Flycatcher (B.). Montagu’s Harrier (B.).

Tree-Sparrow, Rough-legged Buzzard (15).

THE FAUNISTIC POSITION OF SPECIES.

White-tailed Eagle (B. ?).

Kite (6, B. ?).
Honey-Buzzard (7).
Osprey (20, B.?).
Little Bittern (11, B. ?).
Night-Heron (18, B.).
White Stork (4).
Spoonbill (10).

Grey Lag Goose (8).
Bean-Goose.

Barnacle Goose.

W hooper Swan.
Bewick’s Swan.
Gadwall (10).

Eider Duck (12).
Velvet Scoter (10).
Little Crake (7).
Crane (2).

Great Bustard (15 or 14).

Little Bustard (10).
Stone-Curlew.
Kentish Plover (2).
Dotterel.

Avocet (27).
Red-necked Phalarope (2).
Great Snipe (20).
Temminck’s Stint (3).
Ruff.
Wood-Sandpiper (7).
Spotted Redshank (13).
Black-tailed Godwit.
Little Tern.

Sandwich Tern.
Glaucous Gull,
Iceland Gull.

Little Gull.

Common Skua.
Buffon’s Skua (21).
Leach’s Petrel.

Sooty Shearwater (2).
Fulmar (6).
Black-throated Diver.
Red-necked Grebe.
Eared Grebe.

Black Guillemot (7).
Little Auk (25 or 30),

The Lesser Whitethroat is very rare, but has been reported as
breeding in both South and North Devon, most probably erro-
neously. The Reed-Warbler has been observed at Slapton Ley,
but none have been seen for the last twenty years anywhere in the
county. The Bearded Titmouse has also been seen at Slapton and
in North Devon. It formerly bred in Devon, and, according to
Mr. Howard Saunders, does so still. The Blue-headed Wagtail has
occurred about seven times in the south-western part of the county.
No Waxwings have been seen in Devon since the winter of 1849-
50. The Golden Oriole, Crossbill, Hooded Crow, Marsh-Harrier,
Hen-Harrier, and Montagu’s Harrier are all believed to have
bred within the limits of the county. All the Harriers are now
more or less scarce, though formerly numerous. Montagu’s
Harrier was once a regular summer migrant. The Osprey was
frequently met with on our estuaries, and formerly bred both
on the south coast and Lundy Island. The White-tailed Eagle
and the Kite also formerly bred. The Tree-Sparrow finds
its western, and the Twite its southern limit in this county, as they

THE FAUNISTIC POSITION OF SPECIES. li

are almost unknown in Cornwall. The first is a local resident in
Somerset and Dorset, and appears increasing as a winter visitor
to the south of Devon. The latter is known to us only in North
Devon, where it is an occasional autumnal visitor. It is rare in
Somerset and Dorset. Both the Little Bittern and Night-Heron
have very probably bred in this county. ‘The Stone-Curlew occurs
only in winter in Cornwall, Devon, and Somerset, though a
summer migrant to Dorset. It is said to have bred in the neigh-
bourhood of Dartmoor, but probably in error. The Dotterel,
Great Snipe, Ruff, Wood-Sandpiper, Spotted Redshank, and
Black-tailed Godwit are autumnal migrants, but occur so seldom
that they can only be considered casuals. The Ruff and Black-
tailed Godwit have both occurred in breeding-plumage. The
Common or Great Skua has become very rare on our coasts, A
large flight of Buffon’s Skua, which was previously extremely rare,
occurred in October 1891, and many were obtained on both our
coasts. Only two specimens of the Sooty Shearwater have been
met with, both at. Plymouth.

The Fire-crest, Crested Tit, Shore-Lark, Crane, Kentish Plover,
Red-necked Phalarope, and Temminck’s Stint have occurred but
very rarely.

The Pied Flycatcher is most numerous in North Devon, and is
believed to have bred.

The AcciprenraL Vistrors number forty-nine :—
White’s Thrush (1). Serin (1).

Asia, C. and 8. Europe and N. Africa.
Red-spotted Blue-throat (2 ?). [Parrot Crossbill (several),

Arctic Europe and Asia.
Black-headed Warbler (1).

Southern Europe.
Rufous Warbler (2).

S. Europe and N.W. Africa.
Alpine Accentor (5),

8. and EF. Europe.
Water-Pipit (2).

C, and 8. Europe and Africa.
Lesser Grey Shrike (1).

©. Europe and N. Africa,
Woodchat (3).

C. and 8. Europe and N, Africa.

N. Europe. |
White-winged Crossbill (1).

N. America,
Nutcracker (6 or 7).

N. and C, Europe and Asia.
Crested Lark (2).

Kurope and Asia.
White-bellied Swift (1).

C. and 8, Europe and Asia.
Roller (5).

Kurope.
Bee-eater (7).

5. Europe, N. Africa, W. Asia.

liv THE FAUNISTIC POSITION OF SPECIES.

Yellow-billed Cuckoo (1).
N. America.
Snowy Owl (2 or 3).
Circumpolar Regions.
Hawk-Owl (1).
Northern Regions.
Little Owl (5),
S. and C. Europe, Asia Minor.
Greenland Falcon (2 or 5).
N.E. America and Greenland.
Red-footed Falcon (2 or 3 ?).
8.E. Europe and W. Asia.
Purple Heron (6).
Temp. and Trop. parts of E. Hemi-
sphere.
Little Egret (4 or 5).
S. Europe, Asia, and Africa,
Buff-backed Heron (1 or 2 ?).
S. Europe, W. Asia, and Africa,
Squacco Heron (5).
S. Europe and Africa.
American Bittern (2).
N. America.
Black Stork (2 ?).
Palearctic Regions,
Africa.
Glossy Ibis (8 or 9 ?),
Southern Europe, &e.
Red-breasted Goose (2).
N.W. Siberia.
American Green-winged Teal (1).
N. America.
Red-crested Pochard (1).
Palearctic Regions.
White-eyed Duck (2).
S. Palearctic Region.

India and

Surf-Scoter (3).
Nearctic Region.
Pallas’s Sand-Grouse (18).
Central Asia.
Cream-coloured Courser (3).
N. Africa and W. Asia.
Black-winged Stilt (2 or 3).
S. Europe and Africa.
Pectoral Sandpiper (4).
N. America.
Bonaparte’s Sandpiper (4).
N. America.
American Stint (1).
N. America.
Buff-breasted Sandpiper (1 or 2 ?).
N. America.
Red-breasted Snipe (4).
N. America.
Caspian Tern (2 or 3).
Palearctic and Nearctic Regions.
Gull-billed Tern (1 or 2).
C. and 8. Palearctic Regions.
Whiskered Tern (1).
Southern Regions.
White-winged Black Tern (3).
S. and C. Palearctic Regions.
Ivory Gull (1).
Arctic Regions.
Great Black-headed Gull (1).
Asia.
Sabine’s Gull (7).
Arctic Regions.
Wilson’s Petrel (2).
Atlantic Ocean.

Two or three Red-spotted Blue-throats have been recorded from
Devonshire, but we consider two of these occurrences hardly satis-
factorily proved. Two out of the three Rufous Warblers which have
been obtained in England occurred inSouthDevon. A Black-headed
Warbler seen by us at Exmouth in April 1890 happened to perch
close to a male Blackcap, enabling us to compare the two species ;
and the description in Dresser’s ‘ Birds of Europe’ so exactly

THE FAUNISTIC POSITION OF SPECIES. lv

corresponds with the bird we saw that we consider ourselves
justified in admitting it into our census of species, though it has
not previously been noticed in the British Islands. The Woodchat
is reported to have occurred several times, but it is somewhat
doubtful whether the specimens obtained were really procured in the
county. It has, however, been killed in the neighbouring counties,
and there seems no reason why it should not visit Devonshire
occasionally. The Water-Pipit has several times been reported
from the county, but the specimens have always proved to be
varieties of the Rock-Pipit. However, Mr. Gatcombe and our-
selves have seen specimens that we felt sure were really Water-
Pipits. The White-winged Crossbill found dead amongst the
rocks at Exmouth in 1845 had probably had an assisted passage
from America on the rigging of some vessel passing up the
Channel, and, being exhausted by want of food, fell into the sea to
be washed up on our coast. The large-billed Scandinavian race of
the Common Crossbill, known as the Parrot Crossbill, has occurred
but once only in the county, when a large flock was observed near
Exmouth in 1888. The Yellow-billed Cuckoo is considered of
doubtful occurrence by many ornithologists in the British Islands ;
but, as many other species of North-American birds have visited
Devon and Cornwall, there seems to be no inherent improbability
in this species having been found dead as reported on Lundy Island,
and we have therefore admitted it to our census of species. All the
specimens of the Little Owl were probably only escapes, as it is so
often imported to England. Although the only specimen of the
Hawk-Owl reported from Devonshire was not killed, yet, having
been seen by a competent observer, we have admitted it into our
census, especially as other specimens have been obtained in the West
of England. According to Mr. Howard Saunders, the example of
the Little Egret in full adult plumage killed on the Exe in 1870 is
the only one about which there can be no doubt as having been
obtained in the British Islands. The Buff-backed Herons killed
in Devonshire appear to be the only specimens which have really
occurred in Britain. The Great Black-headed Gull shot at
Exmouth in 1859 is likewise the only British-killed specimen.
About 30 of the above enumerated Accidental Visitors have
been met with only once or twice. Twenty-four of the forty-
é

lvi THE FAUNISTIC POSITION OF SPECIES.

nine come from Southern Europe and North Africa, eleven from
Northern Europe and Asia, twelve from North America, and two
from the Atlantic.

Intropucep or Narurauizep Specres number six, marked with
an asterisk in the Catalogue :-—

Egyptian Goose. Summer Duck. Red-legged Partridge.

Canada Goose. [Collared Turtle. |
Mute Swan. Pheasant.

The Egyptian and Canada Geese and the Summer Duck, being
so frequently kept on ponds in a semi-domesticated state, breeding
freely and wandering at will over the country, are on the same
footing as the Mute Swan and Pheasant, which have also been
introduced and naturalized, but which would be exterminated if
not protected. The Collared Turtle has been killed in a wild
state near Plymouth, and is believed to breed in some of the woods
and plantations in that neighbourhood. The Red-legged Partridge
has been introduced in several parts of the county, but does not
appear to be established.

The following twenty-nine species have been recorded as occur-
ring in the county either altogether erroneously, or upon insuf-
ficient evidence, or were introduced and escaped; but at least six
of them are not unlikely to have occurred, and may have done so,
viz. :—the Icterine Warbler (or the allied species, Hypolais poly-
glotta), Short-toed Lark, Spotted Eagle, Baillon’s Crake, Collared
Pratincole, and Roseate Tern. We have not reckoned these
doubtful species in the census, and they are included in square
brackets in our Catalogue :—

Great Reed- Warbler. Iceland Falcon. Ptarmigan.

Icterine Warbler. Goshawk. Baillon’s Crake.
Savi’s Warbler. Great White Heron. Collared Pratincole.
Pine-Groshbeak. Pink-footed Goose. Little Ringed Plover.
Calandra Lark. Ruddy Sheldrake. Spotted Sandpiper.
Short-toed Lark. Buffel-headed Duck. Yellowshank.

Great Black Woodpecker. Harlequin Duck. Roseate Tern.

Eagle Owl. King Eider. Sooty Tern.

Golden Eagle. Hooded Merganser. Great Auk,

Spotted Eagle. Red Grouse.

COLLECTIONS OF BIRDS IN DEVONSHIRE. lvii

The Parrot Crossbill has been suppressed as a distinct species,
although recognized as such by the Committee of the British
Ornithologists’ Union.

COLLECTIONS OF BIRDS IN DEVONSHIRE.

Pusutc Institutions,

Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter.
Contains the collections formed by F. W. L. Ross, Hon.
Mark Rolle, Ralph Sanders, W. Robson Scott, W. Bower
Scott, Robert Cumming, W. Tombs, W. Brodrick, H. Michel-
more, W.S. M. D’Urban, &c. There are many local and rare
specimens in the British Collection, the most remarkable
being the Great Black-headed Gull shot at Exmouth.

Torquay Natural History Society’s Museum.
The specimens were collected principally in the neighbour-
hood of Torbay by W. Else and the late E. Burt, the Curators.
It contains the only Devonshire Ivory Gull, a nearly adult bird.

Plymouth Institution and Devon and Cornwall Natural History
Society’s Museum at the Atheneum, Plymouth.
Contains the collections formed by the Rev. R. A. Julian,
Mr. Christopher Bulteel, the Rev. Alan Furneaux, &c. The
localities are unfortunately not attached to the numerous
rare British species represented. We are indebted to Mr. H.
M. Evans, the Hon. Curator, for information respecting these
collections.

Kingsbridge Museum, Town Hall, Kingsbridge.
The birds preserved here formed part of the collection of
Mr. Charles Prideaux of Kingsbridge, but there is nothing of
local interest among them.

United Service College Museum, Westward Ho!

A collection of local birds is being made, chiefly from the
estuaries of the Taw and Torridge, which already contains
several good birds; among them is the Braunton Ruddy
Sheldrake.

e2

lviti COLLECTIONS OF BIRDS IN DEVONSHIRE.

Private CoLLeEctTIONS.

Sir Henry Peex, Bart., M.P., Rousdon, near Lyme Regis.

A splendid collection of British Birds is arranged in a series
of large wall-cases, placed around the corridor at Rousdon.
It was formed by Messrs. Swaysland, the well-known taxi-
dermists of Brighton. An elaborate catalogue of the speci-
mens has been printed, and the references are to numbers on
an outline index plate of each case. The specimens are not
local, but those species which have been observed in the
Parish of Rousdon, or at sea off that locality, are marked
with an asterisk in the list.

Marsu-Dunn, Carlton Lodge, Teignmouth.

A remarkably fine collection of British Birds, many of
them of great rarity, formed by the late Mr. Marsh-Dunn.
It contains the Red-crested Pochard shot at Braunton. The
collection formed by the late Mr. Byne of Milligan Hall, near
Taunton, was purchased by Mr. Marsh-Dunn, and was amal-
gamated with his own.

Mrs.

D

Ricsarp Anprew, of Traine, Modbury.
This gentleman possesses an interesting collection of Local
Birds, formed by himself, and he purchased that made by the
Rev. Courtenay Bulteel, of Kingston. There are specimens
of the Blue-headed Wagtail obtained by Mr. R. P. Nicholls
at Huish Ley, and of the Night-Heron shot on the Erme by
Mr. Bulteel.

Mrs. Exxiot, Tresillian, Kingsbridge.

A very fine collection, especially rich in Raptorial Birds,
was formed by the late Mr. John Elliot, and is now in
the possession of his widow. It contains some of the speci-
mens sold when the collection of the late Rev. Kerr Vaughan
was dispersed. There are many most interesting birds, prin-
cipally obtained in the Kingsbridge district.

Epmunp A.S. Exxiot, M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P., Albert Villa, Kings-
bridge. °

An extensive series of skins of British Birds, principally

from the Kingsbridge estuary and neighbourhood. It contains

specimens of the Avocet, Surf-Scoter, Buffon’s Skua, Sabine’s
Gull, &c.

COLLECTIONS OF BIRDS IN DEVONSHIRE. lix

Henry Nicuotts, Roselands, Kingsbridge.

In this collection there are many fine examples of the rarer
birds of prey obtained in the Kingsbridge district, the Ame-
rican Green-winged Teal shot on the estuary near Kingsbridge,
and other interesting specimens.

R. P. Nicuouts, Fore Street, Kingsbridge.
A very extensive collection of North-American Birds, and
some scarce British species.

Mrs. W. Bastarp, Oakhill, Slapton.
A collection formed by the late Mr. W. Bastard. It con-
tains the specimens of the Rufous Warbler shot near Slapton,
and of the Gadwall killed on Slapton Ley.

J. Brooxine Rows, F.L.S., Castle Barbican, Plympton.
Many interesting birds, including the only known Devon-
shire specimen of the Gull-billed Tern.

F. C. Hineston, 7 Lockyer Street, Plymouth.
A beautiful and well-mounted collection containing many
rare species. Contains one of the only two Kentish Plovers
killed in Devon.

Watrer V. Tort, Manor House, Strete, near Dartmouth.
A small collection—contains one of the Bean-Geese shot at
Slapton Ley.

Sir Lypston Newman, Bart., Stokenham, near Kingsbridge.
An extensive collection, including many species of aquatic
birds killed on Slapton Ley, and amongst them is a full-
plumaged Black-throated Diver.

The Rev. W. S. Hore.

This fine collection, chiefly acquired at Plymouth, was be-
queathed by Mr. Hore to Mrs. Connop of Bradfield Hall. It
contains many rare birds which were purchased from the old
bird-stuffers of Devonport, &c., and from various other col-
lections, such as that of Mr. Cornelius Tripe and the Rev. Kerr
Vaughan. Among the rarer Devon birds are the Snowy Owl,
female Purple Heron, and Buffel-headed Duck, all said to have
been procured in the immediate neighbourhood of Plymouth.

lx LINES OF MIGRATION.

Francis Persnovse, Torquay.

Mr. Pershouse’s collection contains about 900 specimens of
British Birds collected in Devon, Sussex, and the Orkney
Islands, beautifully mounted and cased by himself. There
are examples of the White-bellied Brent, Greater Shearwater,
and Black Guillemot from Torbay.

The Rt. Hon. the Eart of Mortey, Saltram, Plympton St. Mary.
A. CrayFrieLp IreLAnp, Dowrich House, Crediton.

A. F. HotpswortnH, C.C., Widdicombe, Stokenham.

Sir Jonn Rocers, Bart., Blachford, Ivybridge.

Collections containing Devonshire Birds not in the County.

Natural History Museum, South Kensington (Col. Montaevu’s
collection).

Taunton Castle Museum (Dr. Wooprorpr’s collection).
Frome Literary Institution (Mr. Horner’s collection).

Rev. Murray A. Matuew, Buckland Dinham, Frome, Somerset.

LINES OF MIGRATION.

Anyone who considers the position of Devonshire upon the
map, and its comparative remoteness from the Continent, will, if
he is acquainted with the fact that the main body of migrating
birds approaches the British Islands from the East, hardly expect
that the county would be a large sharer in this foreign contingent.
And this supposition would be only a reasonable one; however, we
shall proceed to point out that, notwithstanding the thinning-out
process westwards, numerous migrants, both in the spring and
autumn, find their way to our county by various, perhaps un-
expected, routes.

Much has been added to our knowledge of the routes selected
by various species of birds when arriving on, and departing from,
the shores of the British Islands during their autumnal and
vernal migrations, by the Reports of the Migration Committee of

LINES OF MIGRATION. Ix1

the British Association. Many points about which there was
obscurity have been cleared up, and much that was extremely
puzzling to students of Bird Migration has been explained. It is
not without considerable diffidence and hesitation that we offer to
our readers the two outline maps at the end of the book illustratmg
the Migration of Birds. We have long hoped that the Committee
of the British Association would have seen its way to the publication
of a map or maps showing the results deduced from the observations
made under its auspices at the Lighthouses on the British Coasts,
but as none have appeared we have made an attempt, imperfect in
many respects, as we are well aware, to lay down on Migration Map
No. 2 (Arrival Routes) the broader and more salient facts, as we
understand them, so as to illustrate and render visible the manner
in which so many different streams of Migration converge upon
Devonshire and render its Avifauna so extraordinarily rich. There
are, however, many facts that cannot well be shown on a single
map, and which would require several distinct maps to illustrate
properly. There is a simultaneous exodus from the Hastern shores
of England to the Continent of the identical species coming from
thence to us at the same season. Migrants from Ireland in early
autumn appear to cross from the south coast of that island to the
north coast of Devon and the shores of the Severn Sea, and
probably occasion the influx of Warblers, &c., perceived on the
south coast of Devon in August, they having crossed the county
from north to south, taking their departure from our south coast
when leaving the British Islands for the Continent.

Our object in presenting Map No. 1 is simply to give an idea of
the direction from which the principal Streams of Birds approach
usin autumn. They come to us from the South-east, East, North-
east, North, and North-west at that season, and give quite a
cosmopolitan character to our Ornis, as will be apparent to any-
one who will read the following pages of our book. We have
not attempted to deal in detail with the vast subject of Continental
Migrations. All we have considered was how our own County
was affected by the various movements of our Feathered Friends.
As we investigated the subject we could not help being much im-
pressed by the remarkable manner in which the migratory streams
cross each other, but all concentrating on the South-western
Peninsula of England. It will be obvious how it is that northern

xii LINES OF MIGRATION.

and southern races of the same species reach us. We have large

and small Wheatears, Crossbills, Ring-Plovers, Dunlins, &c., which

no doubt come to us from different countries, as it is well known
that birds of wide distribution are subject to great variation of form.

Messrs. John Cordeaux, Harvie-Brown, and W. Eagle Clarke

have done much to increase our knowledge in this field of research.
It is now plainly seen that Land-Birds avoid high lands and moun-
tainous regions when migrating, and adhere year after year to
well-defined routes, entering certain openings of the coasts, and
generally following river-valleys when passing over land, but, when
deep inlets or bays occur in their course, boldly crossing the sea
from point to point rather than following the indentations of the
coast-line.

It has also been clearly shown that the following are the main

lines of migration :—

1. A stream of birds flows from east to west across England, having
entered the estuary of “the Wash” after crossing the
German Ocean from south-east and north-east (two streams
flowing almost at right angles to each other), and following
the river-systems of the Nene and Welland into the central
plain of England continues along the line of the Avon, and
down the estuary of the Severn to the Bristol Channel.
Some birds cross the Humber and come down the valley of
the Trent through Nottinghamshire to the Welland. Avoiding
the mountainous country of Wales, this living stream skirts
the Pembroke coast, and, striking across St. George’s Channel,
reaches the Irish coast at Wexford to spread over the cen-
tral plain of Ireland.

a. A branch from this stream diverges to the 8.W. and enters
Somerset by Bridgwater Bay, crossing the Bridgwater flats,
aud, keeping between the Quantocks and Blackdown
Hills, passes down the valleys of the Culm, Exe, and Otter,
partly spreading to the south-east and partly sweeping
round the south of Dartmoor to the South Hams of Devon.
By this route we believe the bulk of the Redwings, Field-
fares, Mistle-Thrushes, Song-Thrushes, Golden-crested
Wrens, Greenfinches, Chaffinches, Linnets, Redpolls, Sis-
kins, Starlings, Sky-Larks, Long- and Short-eared Owls,
Lapwings, Water-Rails, &c. reach the south and east of

LINES OF MIGRATION. lxili

Devon in autumn and winter; and in spring the same route
is followed by the Nightingale, Common Redstart (in part),
Sedge-Warbler, Grasshopper Warbler, Garden-Warbler,
Whitethroat (in part), Spotted Flycatcher, and sometimes
the House-Martin and Cuckoo, their route being dependent
on the prevailing winds and character of the season.

4. Another branch from the main stream going down the
Bristol Channel enters Devonshire through Barnstaple Bay,
supplies the basin of North Devon, and, passing up the
valleys of the Taw and Torridge, a portion finds its way
down the valley of the Tamar to the Plymouth district,
South-western Devon, and East Cornwall. The Black
Redstart in autumn especially appears to adhere to this
route (having been observed by Mr. Gatcombe to arrive
at Plymouth with a northerly wind), and the Pied Fly-
catcher and Golden Oriole in summer: this explains, we
think, the peculiarity of their distribution in Devonshire,
and shows why they are so scarce in Hastern Devon. The
valley of the Tamar is also a route much followed by
migratory Waders in spring on their return northwards—
e. g. the Curlew Sandpiper.

ec. A third branch from the main stream coming down the
Bristol Channel strikes Lundy Island, skirts the north coast
of Cornwall, and passes on to the Scilly Islands and
southwards. The Fire-crest seems to follow this route as
well as the Wood-Warbler, Lesser Whitethroat, Pied and
Red-breasted Flycatchers, Quail, Land-Rail (in part), and
Woodcocks (in part). This accounts for the abundance
of Woodcocks on Lundy and Scilly Islands when they
first arrive, and the curious fact of their arriving on
the islands before they do on the mainland. (Chanter,
Trans. Devon. Assoc.) Reed-Warblers, although so rare
in Devon and Cornwall, occasionally strike the Lighthouses
of the south-west coast of England.

2. Great streams of autumn migrants from the north-east and
south-east are focussed together to pass through the Pentland
Firth between Scotland and the Orkneys, and joining similar
streams from the Faroe Islands, Iceland, and even Greenland,
follow the western coast of Scotland, pass down the Irish and

lxiv

LINES OF MIGRATION,

St. George’s Channels, contributing many birds to Lundy
Island, the northern part of Devon, and the Scilly Islands.
Snow-Buntings and Crossbills, the Gyr Falcon, Snowy and
Hawk Owls, and some American Birds seem to come to us
by this route. Inall probability, as suggested by Mr. Harvie-
Brown (Zool. 1880, p. 485), the last do not cross the Atlantic
but reach us vid the northern coasts of Asia and Europe. It
is remarkable how many American species have occurred in
N. Devon and the Land’s End district and the Scilly Islands ;
some few have also occurred at Plymouth and Kingsbridge,
probably reaching there by the Tamar valley. This stream
is swelled by birds which have crossed the German Ocean,
and, entering the Firth of Forth, pass over Scotland to the
Irish Channel.

3. Many aquatic birds come down the Irish Channel, but some

of those from Greenland, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands keep
along the west of Ireland, and a few, like the Glaucous and
Iceland Gulls, may round its southern shores and reach us.
The Grey Phalarope is supposed to follow this route south,
but when a southerly gale blows at migration time they are
forced back upon our shores along with some other birds
from the north and west, such as Sabine’s Gull and the Fork-
tailed Petrel.

4, Another stream comes down the English Channel, having been

focussed from northerly and easterly directions through the
Straits of Dover, and keeps along the French coast as far
as Cap de la Hague, where a part is deflected to the N.W.,
and brings some birds to our south coast. | Woodcocks
probably come to the Landslip at Dowlands by this route
(but they rarely strike the Start and Eddystone Lights), and
Ducks, Geese, and flights of Skuas and Terns in autumn.
The Terns and Skuas keep well out to sea on their migration
to the south, and ordinarily few are seen on our coast; but if
they should meet violent south-westerly gales they are driven
back upon our south coast, and some are even forced up the
Bristol and St. George’s Channels. The Ducks, Geese, and
Skuas come from the north-east down the eastern coast of
England, and continue their course westward down the
English Channel. Thus we get the North-eastern form

LINES OF MIGRATION. lxv

of Brent Goose on our south coast, the White-bellied or
Atlantic form bemg extremely rare. Some Limicole follow
all along the shores of the south-east and south coast of
England in autumn.

Many summer migrants arrive on our south coast, some ap-
parently coming directly across the Channel from Cap de la
Hague, from which the Start Point is distant about 80 miles. The
Wheatear, Whinchat, Common Redstart (in part), Willow-Warbler,
Chiftchaff, Whitethroat (in part), Blackcap, Wagtails, Pipits, Red-
backed Shrike, Swallow, House-Martin (in part), Sand-Martin,
Rose-coloured Pastor, Swift, Hoopoe, Roller, Bee-eater, Wryneck,
Turtle Dove, Stone-Curlew, Little Bustard, and Little Bittern appear
to reach us by this route, all either having been seen coming in from
the sea or having been taken on board ships in the Channel ; but as
some of them are in an exhausted condition when they first arrive
we think it most probable that they cross the Bay of Biscay.

A stream of migrants coming from Africa enters France by the
Gulf of Lions, and crossing by the valley of the Garonne to the
Bay of Biscay, and skirting the French north-west coast, reaches
our shores by this longer sea route. Some birds may even come
directly to us from North-western Africa, skirting the coasts of
Spain and Portugal, and crossing the Bay of Biscay. ‘The fact
tliat many summer birds are seen off the western coasts of Spain
in April appears to us to confirm this, and a Green-backed Por-
phyrio was brought in alive to Plymouth on board a vessel.

Limicolz coming from the south in spring seem to pass up both
the English and St. George’s Channels. The Whimbrel is an
instance of this—appearing almost simultaneously on our north
and south coasts.

Phalaropes and Skuas we think keep to the west of Ireland when
they return northwards in spring, as we see but little of them at
that season.

Some species, we believe, reach us by more than one route,
according to the character of the season and the prevailing winds.
The Cuckoo is sometimes heard to the north of Dartmoor before
it has arrived at Exmouth. The House-Martin has been seen by
Mr. Gatcombe coming in from the sea at Plymouth, and we have
observed it migrating in small parties in spring coming from the
north-east ; and vast numbers appeared at Barnstaple in May

Ixvi LINES OF MIGRATION.

1891. It does not appear at Exmouth till long after it has
arrived in Exeter. Yet House-Martins sometimes occur very
early in the extreme southern part of Devonshire.

Our migrants do not all arrive simultaneously, but in waves at
intervals extending over many weeks, sometimes coming in great
“rushes,” and they leave us in autumn in the same manner.

In 1887 it was recorded that the first Wheatears were seen at
the “ Chickens ” (Isle of Man) on February 17, and large numbers
were passing the Eddystone as late as May 30. Swallows and
Swifts were still passing the Eddystone on June 6, and many
Swifts on June 24. The autumnal departure began very early,
for Swifts and numbers of Swallows were passing to the south
on August 19 at the Eddystone, the wind being north by east.

Last year (1891) there were swarms of Whitethroats, Willow-
Warblers, and Spotted Flycatchers about us at Exmouth on the
16th and 17th August, but they all disappeared before the 20th,
on which day a heavy gale from the south, south-west, and east
reached us.

No immigration or emigration takes place in stormy (cyclonic)
weather, but birds seem to leave at the last moment just before
a gale comes on. There were great numbers of Swallows and
House-Martins congregating close to the sea-shore at Exmouth
on 10th October, 1891, and they got off during the night apparently,
as a storm began from the S.E. the following morning, and although
we continued to see both Swallows and Martins up to the first
week in November, these were not in such numbers as before the
storm.

Small birds depart from our south coast when the wind is east,
north-east, or south-east.

The southern coast of the county forms a rendezvous for many
birds before their departure for the south, and for a few days
previous to taking flight across the sea great numbers of Wag-
tails (Pied, Grey, and Yellow), Swallows, House-Martins, and
Land-Rails, and, in a lesser degree, Willow-Warblers and some
other summer birds, congregate on the south coast in the autumn.
Swifts are seen travelling steadily in a south-westerly direction
from Exmouth and other sea-coast localities.

When birds are met with far out at sea they are generally sup-
posed to have been driven out of their course by storms. We,

LINES OF MIGRATION. lxvli

however, think it is certain that many species (including Warblers
and birds with low powers of flight) do not fear to cross salt water
even for considerable distances. In some cases they are probably
induced to do so to save time and space, but we fancy the reason is
often that the temperature is higher over the ocean than over the
land at the period of the autumnal migration, and by keeping out
to sea they find a genial warmth in the air that must greatly help
them to bear up on their long journey. We have ourselves seen
Snow-Buntings in numbers steadily flying to the south-west in
October (1859) hundreds of miles from American land in the
latitude of Newfoundland, and in the same month in 1888, as
mentioned by us in the ‘ Zoologist’ for 1889 (p. 22), we saw many
American Warblers and other birds migrating at a considerable
distance (378 miles) from the coast off New York. Humming-
Birds, Warblers, and various short-winged birds are known to
visit Bermuda. We saw flocks of Sky-Larks and a Robin in the
Bay of Biscay on October 27, 1861, and a Woodcock on the next
day, scudding before a north-easterly breeze towards the S.W.,
going at a great pace, 236 miles 8.E. of the Lizard in lat. 47°5' N.,
long. 9° 14! W.* One of the most remarkable things that have
been brought to light about the migration of birds is that in
autumn Starlings and some other birds are seen still flying west-
wards from the western coasts of Ireland; and Starlings have been
taken in large numbers on board vessels hundreds of miles out in
the Atlantic, yet only one individual is known to have ever reached
Greenland. All sorts of theories have been propounded to account
for this apparently suicidal tendency. The Starling is one of the
most intelligent of birds, and its enormous increase in Devonshire
shows it is well able to take care of itself. We would suggest that
the huge migratory flocks have the instinct to make their “westing”
where the degrees of longitude are short, without going too far
northwards, and by getting a good “ offing” from the land before
keeping away to the south, they are enabled to avoid the mountain
ranges of Spain and the Peninsula, and to “ fetch” the Azores,
Madeira, and the north-west coast of Africa. The winds are

* In the ‘Field’ for January 16th, 1892, Mr. H. Bendelack Hewetson, of
II.M.S. ‘ Orient,’ states that at 10 a.m. on January 8th, while crossing the Bay of
Biscay, a Woodcock was seen flying close to the ship in lat, 46° 8' N., long.
7° 15' W., wind fresh from N.E.

Ixvill LINES OF MIGRATION.

generally north-easterly at the period of their autumnal migration,
and blow off-shore for some distance from the land, especially in
the Bay of Biscay and the chops of the Channel. By keeping out to
sea and getting beyond the influence of the off-shore winds, they
would probably meet a north-west or west breeze to help them on
their course to land again. Out at sea, too, the temperature is
higher than near the land, as is very obvious to anyone crossing
the Atlantic in winter. Warmth we consider is a great assistance
to migrating birds by keeping up their strength. So far, therefore,
from birds avoiding the sea, their main routes lie over it, as will
be seen by our Maps.

It is much more difficult to trace the return routes of the birds
that come to us in winter. Sky-Larks, which arrive in countless
thousands in some years in the autumn and winter from the east,
and keep on to the south-west if the weather is very severe, do not
return again through Devonshire in the spring, and may perhaps
find their way back across the plains of France to Holland,
Germany, Russia, and Siberia, from whence they come to us.

Every autumn some birds not found in Cornwall visit the Scilly
Islands. ‘These islands lie in the way of migrating birds coming
eastward from the Atlantic, northwards from Africa and South
Europe, westwards from the Channel Islands and France, and
southwards down the Irish and Bristol Channels. So they have a
curious jumble of Western, Southern, Eastern, Northern, and
also American forms in their avifauna in even a more marked
degree than Devonshire.

The number of Accidental Visitors which during the last two or
three decades has swollen the British List of Birds would greatly
astonish the earlier ornithologists ; but it is, we believe, in great
measure due to an agency which has been created since their day.
We attach due importance to the closer watch now kept at all
hkely places around our coasts at which strangers might be ex-
pected to appear, and to the greater number of gunners who are
prepared to receive them, and can readily allow that in old times
many a rare straggler may have come and gone unobserved ; yet
the additions we refer to are scarcely to be thus accounted for.
We think that the great fleet of rapid merchant steamers has been
largely made use of by weary birds while on their passage, and
that, settling on the rigging to rest, they have, in a short time,

WORKS, ETC., REFERRED TO. leex

been carried hundreds of miles beyond their usual latitudes until,
making the first available land, they have appeared as strangers
upon our shores, and so have been added to our Ornis. We con-
sider this “‘ Aided Migration” a factor worthy to be taken into
account in considering the present movements of birds to and
from this kingdom.

LIST OF WORKS AND MAGAZINE ARTICLES, &. ON DEVON-

I)

SHIRE ORNITHOLOGY QUOTED AND REFERRED TO IN
THIS WORK.

. The Gentleman’s Magazine. Edited by Sytrvanus Urspan. 1755-1796.

Various Notices relating to Devonshire Ornithology. “Three Days’
Excursion on Dartmoor,” by Capt. Lasxkry. Vol. Ixy. (1795), part 2,
p. 910; vol. lxvi. (1796), part 2, p. 279.

. A History of Devonshire. By the Rev. Ricnarp Potwuerz, of Pol-

whele, Cornwall. In 3 vols. Folio. Exeter and London, 1793-
1806. Land-Birds and Water-Fowl: Vol. i. chap. vi. pp. 101-111.

. Transactions of the Linnean Society. (Papers by Col. Monracv.)

Vol. vii. 1804. ‘* Observations on some species of British Quad-

_ rupeds, Birds, and Fishes,” p. 274; Nesting of the Cirl Bunting,

pp. 276-280. Vol. ix. 1808. Hen-Harrier and Ringtail, p. 182 ;
Montagu’s Harrier, p. 188; Nesting of the Dartford Warbler,
p- 191; Occurrence of Little White Heron female in Devon, October
1805, p. 197; Glossy Ibis, September 1805; and Red-breasted
Snipe [Bar-tailed Godwit], 1803, p. 198.

The Monthly Magazine, vol. xxvi. part ii. Dec. 1808, A List of the
Quadrupeds, Birds, and Fishes of Cornwall and Devon, 8vo, London,
1808. Birds, pp. 483-435, 527-529. Published anonymously, but
must have been written by Mr. Jamus, of Manaccan,

. Ornithologia Danmoniensis, a quarto work commenced in 1809 by

Dr. Anprew G, C. Tucker, of Ashburton. Two parts only were
published, containing an Introduction to the study of Ornithology,
and plates illustrating the Sparrow-Hawk, Red-backed Shrike, and
Wood-Lark, drawn by W. R. Jorpan,

lxx

6.

10.

LL

12.

13.

WORKS, ETC., REFERRED TO.

A Guide to the Scenery in the neighbourhood of Ashburton, Devon.
By the Rev. Joun Prxe Jonzs, Curate of North Bovey. Exeter, 1823.
A pamphlet containing a “ List of some rare Land-Birds which have
been discovered in the neighbourhood of Ashburton,” communicated
by Dr. Tucker. A mere list of 43 names of birds, without notes.

. Dartmoor; a descriptive Poem. By N. T. Carrineron. London,

1826. Lists of Birds and Insects supplied by Roserr and Cuartes
Tocxer, sons of Dr. Tucsrr, of Ashburton, without notes.

. Guide to the Watering Places. Part ii. The Natural History of

the District [Torquay, Dawlish, Teignmouth, and inland to Dart-
moor|. By Wuitr1am Turron, M.D., and J. F. Kryeston. Teign-
mouth, 1830.

. Transactions of the Plymouth Institution, 1530. Article ix. p. 289.

“On the Ornithology of the South of Devon.” By Epwarp Moors,
M.D., F.L.S., and Member of the Plymouth Institution, in a letter
to the President.

Magazine of Natural History. Edited by Epwarp CuarLeswortH.
New Series. Vol. i. 1837. On the Birds of Devonshire. By Dr. E.
Moore. Accipitres, p. 113; Passerine Birds, p. 176; Climbing and
Gallinaceous Birds, p. 227 ; Wading Birds, p. 319 ; Web-footed Birds,
p- 360.

Legends, Superstitions, and Sketches of Devonshire, on the borders
of the Tamar and the Tavy. By Mrs. Bray (Mrs. Srormarp). Ist
ed. 3 vols. London, 1836. 2nd ed.in 2 vols. 1879.

The Naturalist.

Messrs. Maunp and Hott resigned the editorship of this periodical,
after six numbers had appeared, in 1837. Mr. Nevitte Woop then
undertook it from 1837-39; but from 1851 to 1855 it was edited
by Brvertey R. Morris, M.D., and contained communications re-
lating to Devonshire Birds by Joun Garcomsr, J. Banxer, L. Rupp,
W. Tomss, W. F. Brrp, G. P. R. Putman, 8. Hannarorp, R. A.
Jurian, &c. From 1864-67 it was edited by C. P. Hopxrrg and
G. T. Porrirr Vol. iii. no. 48, 15th April, 1866, contains “ Addi-
tions to Rowe’s Catalogue of the Mammals, Birds, &c., of Devon,”
by G. F. Marnew.

The Natural History of South Devon. By J. C. Bettamy, Surgeon.
Plymouth and London, 1839.

14.

15.

16.

ij.

-,

19.

20.

21.

WORKS, ETC., REFERRED TO. lxxi

The Climate of the South of Devon. By Taos. Saaprer, M.D. Ist
ed. 1842; 2nd ed. 1862. Contains some notes on birds.

A Perambulation of the Antient and Royal Forest of Dartmoor, and
the Venville Precincts, or a Topographical Survey of the Antiquities
and Scenery, with notices of the Natural History, Climate, and
Agricultural capabilities, and a valuable collection of Antient Docu-
ments. By Samvet Rowr, A.M., Vicar of Crediton, Devon, and
Member of the Plymouth Institution. Ist ed. Plymouth, 1848 ;
2nd ed. London, 1856. Contains Lists of Mammals, Birds, Reptiles,
and Fishes, by Epwarp Moors, M.D., F.L.S.

The Zoologist.

First Series, 1843-65 ; Second Series, 1866-76. Edited by Epwarp
Newman. Third Series, 1877-91. Edited by J. E. Harrive, F.L.S.
Contains notices by a large number of Ornithologists on Devonshire
Birds. Mr. Garcomsr contributed a long series of ‘“ Ornithological
Notes from Devon and Cornwall,” from 1872 to 1887. We are
indebted to the present editor, Mr. J. E. Harrie, for much kindly
interest in our book.

Book of the Axe. By G. P. R. Putman. Ist ed. 1854; 2nd ed.
1875.

Contains some information respecting the birds of the district.

Annals and Magazine of Natural History, 1859.
Occurrence of Great Black-headed Gull. By F. W. L. Ross.
Occurrence of Rufous Warbler. By G. R. Gray.

The North Devon Handbook ; being a Guide to the Topography and
Archeology, and an Introduction to the Natural History of the
District. Edited by Rev. Guoren Tuawett, Curate of Ilfracombe.
Contains a List of 188 Species of Birds without remarks. No date.
(1863 ?)

Transactions of the Plymouth Institution, 1862-63. Contains a
‘Catalogue of the Mammals, Birds, Reptiles, and Amphibians idi-
genous to, or observed in, the County of Devon.’ By J. Brooxrine
Rowe, F.L.S. This was reprinted and published in pamphlet form.

Transactions of the Devonshire Association for the Advancement of
Science, Literature, and Art. 1862-1890.
Recent additions to the Fauna of Devon. By J. Brooxina Rowe.
Vol. i. part ii. 1863, p. 51.
Birds of Lundy Island. By J. R. Canter and Rev, H. G. Heaven.
Vol. iv. 1871, p. 553.
iP

Ixxii WORKS, ETC., REFERRED TO.

Transactions of the Devonshire Association &c. (continued).

oo

Birds of Teignmouth. By W. R. Hatt-Jorpan. Vol. vi. 1874,
p. 709.
Birds of Devon. By E. Parrirr. Vol. viii. 1876, p. 245.

. Besley’s Handbooks of Devonshire.

Exeter. Contains a sketch of the ‘ Natural History of the Neigh-
bourhood.’ By W.S. M. D’Ursan. Ist ed. 1863; 2nd ed. 1871.

South Devon. Contains a sketch of the Natural History. 1875,
By W.S. M. D’Urnsan.

. Kingsbridge and its Surroundings. By 8S. P. Fox. Ist ed. 1864;

2nd ed. 1874. Appendix C: List of Birds of the District, without
notes or comments. By Mr. Henry Nicnotts. Also contains a List
of Provincialisms and Devonshire names of Birds.

. Reports and Transactions of the British Association.

Bath Meeting 1864; Exeter Meeting 1869.

. Reports on the Migration of Birds in the Spring and Autumn, 1879-87.

By a Committee of the British Association. Those for the years 1886
and 1887 contain the most records from Devonshire Lighthouses.

. Chagford Parish Magazine, 1866.

Contains some allusions to Birds by the late G. W. Ormerop,
F.GS.

. Summary of Occurrences of the Grey Phalarope in Great Britain

during the autumn of 1866. By J.H.Guryry, Jun. London, 1867.

. The Birds of Devonshire. By Wir11am E. H. Prnstry. Edited, with

an Introduction and short Memoir of the late Jonw Garcomsr, by
H. A. Macrnerson, M.A., M.B.0.U. With Map and Coloured Plate.
London and Exeter, 1891.

County Aviraunas ConsuLTED.

. The Birds of Norfolk. By Henry Srevunson, F.L.S., M.B.O.U.

London and Norwich. Vol. i. 1866; vol. ii. 1870; vol. ili. con-
tinued by Tuomas Sournwett, F.Z.S., M.B.0.U. 1890.

. The Birds of Somerset. By Crcrt Smrru, M.A., M.B.0.U. London,

1869.

. The Birds of the West of Scotland. By Rosrrr Gray, M.B.O.U.,

formerly Secretary to the Natural History Society of Glasgow.
Glasgow, 1871.

WORKS, ETC., REFERRED TO. lxxili

. The Birds of Shetland, with Observations on their Habits, Migration,
and occasional appearance. By the late Henry L. Saxpy, M.D.
Edited by his brother SrrrHzn H. Saxspy, M.A. Edinburgh, 1874.

. The Birds of Cornwall anda the Scilly Islands. By Epwarp Hearty
Ropp. Edited by J. E. Harrine. 1880.

. A Handbook of the Vertebrate Fauna of Yorkshire. By Wm. Eacte
Crarke and Wm. Dentson Rorsuck. London, 1881.

. Catalogue of the Birds of Suffolk. By Cuurcuitt Basiyeton, D.D.,
V.P.RS.L., F.LS., &., Rector of Cockfield, Suffolk, London, 1884-

1886.

. The Birds of Dorset. By J. C. Manset-Pieyvett, B.A., F.L.S., F.G.S.
London, 1888.

Works on British OrnitHox~ocy CoNsuLTED.

. British Zoology. By T. Prennanr. Ist ed. Imp. folio. London,
1766; 5th ed. in 4 vols. 1812.

. General Synopsis of Birds and Supplements. By Joun Larnam.
1787-1801.

. Ornithological Dictionary ; or Alphabetical Synopsis of British Birds.
By Geo. Montacu. 2 vols. 8vo. London, 1802. Supplement,
Exeter, 1813.

A reprint from the original edition and supplement with additions
was compiled and edited by Enwarp Newman in 1866.

. A History of British Birds. By Wrtr1am Maceriivray. 5 vols.
8vo. London, 1837-1852.

. A History of British Birds. By Wrttram Yarrett, F.LS., V.P.Z.8.
Ist ed. 3 vols. 1837-1843 (1st & 2nd Supplements, 1845-56); 2nd
ed. 1845, 3 vols.; 3rd ed. 1856, 3 vols; 4th ed. 4 vols. 1872-85.
Vols. i. & ii. edited by Prof. Atrrep Newron, 1871-82, and vols. iii. &
iv. by Howarp Saunpers, 1882-85.

. A History of British Birds. By Rev. F.0. Morris. 6 vols. 1851-
55.

. The Birds of Great Britain. By Joun Gourn, F.R.S. 5 vols. Imp.
folio. 1862-1873.

. A History of British Birds, with coloured illustrations of their eggs.
By Henry Serzoum. London, 1883-1885.
f2

lxxiv AUTHORS QUOTED OR REFERRED TO.

9. ThelIbis. A Magazine of General Ornithology. London, 1859-1891.
Mr. A. G. More on the Distribution of Birds in Great Britain
during the Nesting-season, in the vol. for 1865,

Many other papers
bearing upon British Birds.

10. Catalogue of British Birds in the Collection of the British Museum.
By G. R. Gray, F.LS., F.Z.8. 1863.

11. A Handbook of British Birds. By J. E. Hanrrtne, F.LS., F.Z.S8.
London, 1872.

12. A List of British Birds. Compiled by a Committee of the British
Ornithologists’ Union. London, 1883.

13. An Illustrated Manual of British Birds.

By Howarp Savnpers,
F.L.S., F.Z.S. London, 1889.

The Birds of Europe. By H. E. Dresser, F.LS., F.Z8., &. In

8 vols. London, 1871-1881. Our obligations to this magnificent
work are very great.

The Birds of the North-west (America). By LExriorr Covers, Captain
and Assistant-Surgeon U.S. Army. Washington, 1874.

Key to North American Birds. By Exziorr Covrs, M.A., M.D., Ph.D.
London, 1884.

Gleanings of Natural History. By Grorer Epwarps, F.RS., F.S.A.,
Librarian to the Royal College of Physicians. London, 1758.

LIST OF AUTHORS QUOTED OR REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK,
WITH THE ABBREVIATIONS EMPLOYED.

In order to save space and frequent repetitions only the initials of the

following authorities are, as a rule, given, enclosed in parentheses, after
the observations quoted from them.

(B. born; D. deceased ; v. v. viva voce ; in litt. in letters.)

O. V. A.—O.tiver V. Aprin, M.B.O.U., Bloxham, Oxon.
Notes in ‘ Zoologist,’ principally on birds of North Devon.

R. B.—Dr. Rosert Barrerssy, Torquay. D.
Notes in ‘ Zoologist,’ 1847, on Black Redstart, &c.

AUTHORS QUOTED OR REFERRED TO. lxxv

J. C. B.—J. C. Burtamy, Surgeon, Plymouth. B. 1812; D. 1854.
Author of the Natural History of 8. Devon, published in 1839,
and containing a List of, and much interesting information respect-
ing, the Birds of the southern part of the county. The List of Birds ,
being compiled from Dr. Moore’s Catalogues, contains many errors.

B.—Borirno, a bird-stuffer of Plymouth. D. 1880.
He kept a list of the specimens sent to him for preservation.
This manuscript was in a very rough state, but a portion extending
over the years between 1851 and 1872 was obtained by the late Mr. J.
Gatcombe at the sale of Bolitho’s effects, and was kindly lent to
W.S. M. D’Urban for use in the work he projected.

J. B.—James Banker, a mechanic of Plymouth. D.
Notes in the ‘ Naturalist’ (1853-1855) on Plymouth Birds.

T. R. A. B—T. R. Arcuer Brices, F.L.S., Fursdon, Egg Buckiana,
D. 1891.
Notes on Ornithology in ‘ Zoologist’ and Trans. Devon. Association.
Author of a ‘Flora of Plymouth.” He made many notes on Birds,
which his brother, Lieut.-Col. Briggs, has kindly placed in our hands.

W. b.—Witt1M Bropricr, Little Hill, Chudleigh. B. 1814; D. 1838.
An excellent ornithologist and artist, marvellously skilful as a
taxidermist. Author of ‘ Falconry in the British Islands,’ 1855,
and ‘ Falconer’s Friends,’ 1865. For more than twenty years Mr.
Brodrick furnished the authors with information on Devonshire Birds,
v.v. and i litt.
Many of his beautifully mounted specimens are deposited in the
A.M. M. We have others in our collection (M. A. M.).

W. W. B.—Witt1am Wentworta Borter, of Strete Raleigh, Whimple.
D.
An enthusiastic naturalist. Communicated much interesting
information to W. 8. M. D’Urban, both v. v. and in litt., for many
years.

C.J. C. B.—Rev. C. J. Courrenay Burreer, Rector of Kingston-cum-
Holbeton. D. circu 1887.

Mr. Bulteel shot seven Night-Herons at Flete, the residence of
his brother, Mr. J. Bulteel, in May 1849, He formed an extensive
collection, which was purchased by Mr. Richard Andrew, Solicitor,
Modbury.

lxxvi AUTHORS QUOTED OR REFERRED TO.

KE. B.—Epwarp Bort, for twenty-eight years Curator of the Museum of
the Torquay Natural History Society. B. 1809; D. April 30th,
1888.

Mr. Burt contributed many notes on the birds observed by him
around Torbay to the earlier volumes of the ‘ Zoologist.’ After
having shot off one hand he mounted over three thousand specimens
of mammals and birds. He was an extremely clever stuffer, and
very neat in everything he did. We still possess many specimens of
his work (M. A. M.).

J. R. C.—J. R. Cuanzer, Fort Hill, Barnstaple.
A list of the Birds of Lundy Island is appended to his “ History of
Lundy Island,” in the Trans. Devon. Assoc. vol. iv. 1871, compiled
from information furnished by the Rev. H. G. Heaven.

G. B. C.—G. B. Corsry, Ringwood, Hants.
Notes in the ‘ Zoologist,’ 1877, on 8. Devon birds.

ii. C._—Rosert Cummine, St. David’s Hill, Exeter.

An excellent ornithologist and taxidermist, to whom W. 8S. M.
D’Urban is indebted for his kind assistance and much valuable
information on the birds of the neighbourhood of Exeter, imparted
during a long friendship of forty years. His beautiful collection of
birds mounted by himself is in the A. M. M.

W. D’'U.—Wuttm §. M. D’Ursay, F.L.S., F.E.S. (late Curator of the
Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter).
Notes on birds of Devon in ‘ Zoologist’ from 1853. Author of
lists of Birds in Besley’s Handbooks of Exeter, 8. Devon, and
N. Devon.

E. A. 8. E.—Epmvunp Arruvur Savage Exrior, M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P., Kings-
bridge.
An indefatigable collector and excellent observer of birds. Mr.
Elliot has furnished the authors with an immense amount of valuable
information concerning the birds of his rich district, and kindly placed
all his note-books in W.8. M. D’Urban’s hands for the purpose of this
work.

W. E.—Wruiu1am Etsz, Curator of the Museum of the Torquay Natural
History Society.

A good taxidermist, with considerable experience of the birds in -

the Torbay district. He has furnished some useful information.

H. A. E.—Herserr A. Evans, United Service College, Westward Ho!
Notes in ‘ Zoologist ’ and in litt.

AUTHORS QUOTED OR REFERRED TO. lxxvii

J. G.—Joun Gatcomse, of Stonehouse, Plymouth. B. 1819; D. April 28th,
1887.

The prince of modern Devonshire ornithologists.

From 1851 to 1855 he contributed notes on birds observed near
Plymouth to the ‘ Naturalist,’ and from 1855 up to his death to the
‘ Zoologist.’ He was a constant correspondent with the authors for
many years, and furnished a mass of copious notes for their in-
formation. He was not only an acute and excellent observer, but
also a capital ornithological artist. He obtained many rare birds
near Plymouth, and probably did more for the ornithology of the
county than any other observer since the time of Montagu.

J.H. G.—Joun Henry Gurney, Northrepps, Norwich. B. 1819; D. 1890.

This eminent ornithologist visited Devonshire for several seasons,

and contributed notes to the ‘ Zoologist’ for 1868, 1870, 1871, and
1872 on the birds of 8. Devon.

J.H.G., Jnr.—Joun Henry Gurney, Jnr., F.L.S., Keswick Hall, Norwich.
Notes in ‘ Zoologist ’’ and zn Mitt.

J.H.—Rev. Joun Hettins, M.A., of Exeter. B. 1829; D. May 9th, 1887.

For twenty years Chaplain of the Devon County Gaol. Principally

known for his contributions to Mr. Buckler’s work on the Larve of

British Lepidoptera, published by the Ray Society 1886-89. But he

was a good ornithologist and assisted the authors with much useful
information.

J. G. H.—Josrru G. Hamirine, The Close, Barnstaple.
Notes in the ‘ Zoologist ’ on North Devon Birds.

F. C. H.—F. C. Hreston, Lockyer Street, Plymouth.
Notes in ‘ Zoologist ’ and zn litt.

W.S. H.—Rev. Wittram Srrone Hort, M.A., F.L.S., Stoke, Devonport, and
Vicar of Shebbear, N. Devon, residing at Barnstaple of late years.
D. circa 1884.

Contributed many notices of Devonshire birds to the ‘ Zoologist’
from 1845 to 1862. Mentioned by Yarrell (B. Birds, vol. iii. p. 67, 2nd
edit.), also by Dr. E. Moore in Rowe’s ‘ Perambulation of Dartmoor.’

A. von H.—Baron A. von Htaxr, formerly of Torquay.

Contributed many notes on the birds of Torbay and its shores to the

‘ Zoologist,’ second series.

W. R. H. J.—Wrwiam R. Hatt-Jorpan, of Teignmouth, Solicitor.
An enthusiastic collector of birds, whose name appears as the first

Ixxvili AUTHORS QUOTED OR REFERRED TO.

contributor of observations on Devonshire ornithology in the first
volume of the ‘ Zoologist’ (1843, p. 39), recording the nesting of
Crossbills at Ogwell near Newton Abbot in 1839, and he contributed
a paper on the natural history of Teignmouth to the Trans. Devon.
Assoc. for 1874, vol. vi. p. 707. He is one of a family of ornitho-
logists, two of his brothers, R. C. R. Jordan and C. R. H. Jordan,
having also contributed notes to the ‘ Zoologist.’ His father was a
zealous ornithological artist, and drew the illustrations for Dr.
Tucker’s ‘ Ornithologia Danmoniensis’ in 1809, of which, however,
only two parts were published,

C. F. H.—C. F. Hivcatirr, of Worlington House, Instow, North Devon.
Notes in ‘ Zoologist,’ and a list of birds observed within seven miles
of Ilfracombe in the ‘ Field’ for 1884,

T. J— Rev. Tuos. Jounes, Rector of Bradstone. D.
Supplied information respecting mammals and birds of Dartmoor to
Mrs. Bray, who inserted his letters dated 1832 in her ‘ Borders of the
Tamar and the Tavy’ (1st ed. 1886, p. 850; 2nd ed. 1879, p. 305).

R. A. J.—Rev. R. A. Jurtay. D.

Son of Richard Julian, of Estover House, near Plymouth. Con-
tributed many interesting notes to the ‘ Naturalist,’ 1851-55.

Mr. Julian, who promised to become an excellent ornithologist,
unfortunately died early in life. Both his father and himself pos-
sessed collections of British birds, which are now in the Museum of
the Plymouth Institution.

G. M.—Col. Grorar Monraau, of Kingsbridge. B. 1751; D. 1815.

This famous naturalist, though not a native of Devon, having been
born in Wilts, is inseparably connected with the Natural History of
Devonshire, in which county he resided for many years. A notebook
in Col. Montagu’s handwriting, kindly lent to W. 8S. M. D’U. by the
late Rey. John Hellins, shows that he left Highgate on the 26th and
arrived at Teignmouth on the 29th April 1796. He again came into
Devonshire in 1798, and took up his residence at Knowle Cottage,
half a mile from Kingsbridge, where he lived for the rest of his life,
dying there on 20th June, 1815, in his 64th year. He made many
important observations whilst resident at Knowle. His ‘ Ornithological
Dictionary ’ was published in 1802, and a Supplement to it in 1813.
A copy of the supplement with annotations in Montagu’s own hand-
writing, now in the Library of the Linnean Society, which W. 8. M.
D’U. had an opportunity of inspecting when in the possession of the
late Rev. J. Hellins of Exeter (Executor of Col. Montagu’s son,

AUTHORS QUOTED OR REFERRED TO. lxxix

Henry D’Orville), has furnished some information not hitherto pub-
lished. Col. Montagu’s Collection of British birds is still preserved
in the Natural History Museum, 8S. Kensington.

G. F. M.—Gervasr F. Matuew, Fleet Paymaster, R.N., F.LS., F.Z.S.,
F.E.S., Lee House, Dovercourt, Essex.
Notes on Devonshire birds in the ‘ Naturalist,’ 1866, and in the
* Zoologist.’

H. A. M.—Rey. Huen A. Macraerson, M.A., Carlisle.
Associated with Mr. W. E. H. Pidsley in ‘ Birds of Devonshire,’
and author of numerous notes on the birds of Devonshire in the
* Zoologist.’

M. A. M.—Rev. Murray A. Marnew, M.A., F.L.S., M.B.O.U., Buckland
Dinham, Frome, Somerset ; formerly of Raleigh, Barnstaple, Devon.
Numerous notes on North Devon birds in the ‘ Zoologist’ from
1856.

E. M.—Epwarp Moorr, M.D., F.L.S., of Plymouth. D. 1858.

Author of the first systematic Catalogue of Devonshire Birds. This
paper, entitled “On the Ornithology of the South of Devon,” was
published in the ‘Transactions of the Plymouth Institution’ for
1830, and formed the foundation for the lists compiled by all
subsequent writers on Devonshire ornithology. In 1837 he pub-
lished an improved Catalogue in Loudon’s ‘ Magazine of Natural
History,’ new series, vol. i., and in 1848 a List of Dartmoor birds in
the Rey. Samuel Rowe’s ‘ Perambulation of Dartmoor.’ He possessed
a collection of birds, which was sold and dispersed at his death.

A. N.—Professor Atrrep Newron, M.A., F.R.S., F.Z.S., F.L.S., Magdalene
College, Cambridge.

This eminent ornithologist published some notes on Birds observed
around Torbay in the ‘ Zoologist’ for 1850 and 1851, and edited
Vols. i. and ii, of the 4th edition of Yarrell’s ‘ British Birds,’ in which
are many allusions to Devonshire birds,

H. N.—Henry Nicuoxrs, Roseland, Kingsbridge.
He commenced the pursuit of ornithology in 1833, and contributed
notes on the rarer birds occurring in his neighbourhood to the
‘ Zoologist’ from 1847 to 1865, and a List of the Birds to ‘ Kings-
bridge and its Surroundings,’ by Miss 8. P. Fox (1st ed. 1864; 2nd
ed. 1874, Appendix C). Mr. H. Nicholls has kindly furnished W. 8.
M. D’U. with MS. notes, which have been frequently quoted from.

lxxx AUTHORS QUOTED OR REFERRED TO.

Col. Montagu employed a person named Gibbs to stuff birds for him ;
and after him a legal gentleman named Nicholas Luscombe took up
the pursuit and stuffed some specimens for Montagu. He was
followed by his son, Nicholas Luscombe, Jnr. This last gentleman
imparted the art to Mr. H. Nicholls when he was about sixteen years
old, and he followed it as a business until 1865, when he gave it
up to his brother, Mr. R. P. Nicholls, who furnished the authors with
the above information. The father of the Messrs. Nicholls, an
excellent sportsman, died in 1876.

R. P. N.—Ruicuarp Prerrorr Nicnotts, Fore Street, Kingsbridge.

A noted bird-stuffer and an excellent ornithologist. Has been
much in America, and has a very extensive collection of North-
American birds. He succeeded his brother in business as a taxi-
dermist in 1865, and has contributed many notices of rare birds
occurring near Kingsbridge to the ‘ Zoologist’ since that date. He
furnished the authors with much valuable information both v. v. and
wm litt., and in the form of MS. notes.

E. P.—Epwarp Parrirt, Librarian, Devon and Exeter Institution, Exeter.
A very industrious naturalist, and compiler of Catalogues of
Mammals, Birds, Fishes, Invertebrate Animals, and Plants of Devon,
which he has published in the Trans. Devon. Association. His List

of the Birds is in vol. viii. of that periodical.

W. E. H. P.—W. E. H. Porvstey, of Exeter.
Author of ‘The Birds of Devonshire,’ in conjunction with the
Rev. Hugh Macpherson.

R. P.—Rev. Ricuarp Potwuets, Vicar of Manaccan, Cornwall.

A native of Cornwall; born at Truro in 1760, and died there in
1838. He was curate of Littleham-cum-Exmouth at one time, and
also of Kenton, where he resided for ten years and where he wrote
most of his ‘ History of Devonshire.’ He can hardly be considered an
ornithologist, and the chapter he devotes to Devonshire birds in his
History of the County, published in 1797 (vol. i. chap. vi. pp. 101-
111, published after the second volume), was mainly compiled from
information supplied by his friends, Mr. (afterwards Sir William)
Elford of Bickham, Mr. Perring of Rockford, and Dr. Tripe of Ash-
burton.

T. L. P.—The Hon. Tuomas L. Powys (now Lord Lilford, F.Z.8., F.LS.,
&c., and President B.O.U.).
Notes on Devonshire birds in the ‘ Zoologist’ (first series), Has
afforded much valuable information to the Rev. M. A. Mathew.

AUTHORS QUOTED OR REFERRED TO. |xxxl

C, P.—Cuartes Pripgavx, of Hatch Arundel; near Kingsbridge. D. 1869.

This gentleman was an indiscriminate collector of birds, purchasing

any that struck his fancy from dealers. Some that he considered

varieties he gave away to his friends, and some were sold, but the

greater portion of his collection was given to the town of Kingsbridge

and forms the Town Museum. He contributed a few notices of rare

birds to the first series of the ‘ Zoologist ;’ but little reliance can be

placed on his statements, as he obtained his information second-
hand.

G. P. R. P.—G. P. R. Putman.
Author of ‘ Book of the Axe’ (1st ed., 1854; 2nd ed., 1875).
This work contains some notices of birds. He also contributed notes
to the ‘ Naturalist,’ 1851-55,

J.J. R.—J. J. Reavine, M.E.S., formerly of Plymouth.
A zealous and successful collector, but principally known as an
entomologist. Some notes on Plymouth birds in the ‘ Zoologist’ for
1863 are from his pen.

M.S. C. R.—Rev. Marcus §. C. Rickarps, M.A., Twigworth Vicarage,
Gloucestershire.
A most successful collector. Contributed numerous notices of rare
North Devon birds to the ‘ Zoologist,’ and to Rey. M. A. Mathew in
litt.

KE. H. R.—Epwarp Hearze Ropp, of Penzance, Cornwall. D. 1880.
Author of ‘ Birds of Cornwall,’ edited by J. E. Harting, published
in 1880, and notes in the ‘ Zoologist,’ 1854.

H. E. R.—Herserr Everyn Rawson, The Vicarage, Bromley Common,
Kent.
Notice of Alpine Swift near Ilfracombe in ‘ Zoologist ’ for 1880.

F, W. L. R.—Franois Witx1am Locke Ross, of Broadway House, Topsham.
B. 1793; D. 1860.
A sportsman, collector of birds, and an artist. His manuscript
‘ Journals of Occurrences in Natural History,’ 1836-44, and ‘ British
Laride,’ are in the library of the A. M. M., but are not of much
scientific importance. His collection of mounted birds, principally
from the estuary of the Exe, was presented by his executors to the
Exeter Museum. Mr, Ross published a few notes in the earlier
volumes of the ‘ Zoologist,’ and recorded the occurrence of the Great
Black-headed Gull in Ann, & Mag. Nat. Hist., Dec. 1859, p. 467.

)xxxli AUTHORS QUOTED OR REFERRED TO.

J.B. R.—J. Brooxrye Rows, F.L.S., Castle Barbican, Plympton, 8. Devon.
Author of a Catalogue of the Mammals, Birds, Reptiles, and
Amphibians indigenous to, or observed in, the County of Devon, pub-
lished in Trans. Plymouth Institution, 1862-3.
A copy of this list annotated by the author was kindly placed in
the hands of the Authors by Mr. J. E. Harting. Mr. Rowe possesses
a collection of birds principally obtained in the neighbourhood of
Plymouth.

R. 8.—Ratrg Sanpers, Banker, Port View, Heavitree, Exeter. D. 1888.
This gentleman had a great taste for ornithology, and many birds
collected by him are in the A. M. M., of which Institution he was one

of the originators and Hon. Treasurer for many years.

W. B. 8.—Wut114M Bower Scorz, of Chudleigh. B. 1807; D. 1884.
By profession a Solicitor. An enthusiastic fisherman and ornitho-
logist. He possessed a collection of British Birds formed by L.
Chaffey, a gamekeeper at Doddington Hall, Kent. The greater
portion of this collection he left to the A. M. M. Mr. Scott was a
good observer of birds, and frequently furnished W. 8. M. D’U. with
information.

W. R. S8.—Witu1am Rosson Scorr, Ph.D. B. 1811; D. 1877.

Head master of the West of England Institution for the Deaf and
Dumb, Exeter, for thirty-six years (1841-77). Contributed notes
on “ Rare Birds near Exeter,” and “‘ On some of the Rarer Birds of
Devonshire,” to the ‘ Zoologist’’ for i845 and 1849, and read a paper
“On the Ring-Ouzel ” to the British Association at the Bath Meeting
in 1864, and one on a “ Hybrid variety of Perdix cinerea” at the
Exeter Meeting in 1869. Dr. Scott formed a small collection of
birds mounted by himself, which he presented to the A. M. M., of
which Institution he was one of the originators.

C. 8.—Ceci Surru, M.A., M.B.O.U., F.Z.S., of Lydeard House, Bishop’s
Lydeard, near Taunton. 3B, 1826; D. 1890.
An excellent ornithologist, and author of ‘Birds of Somerset,’
published in 1869. He also contributed many notes on birds to the
‘ Zoologist’ between 1863 and 1889, many of which relate to Devon-
shire species. Mr. Smith frequently paid visits to Exmouth for the
sake of shooting on the Exe estuary and the south coast of the
county, and assisted W. 8. M. D’Urban with numerous notes on the
birds he observed there.

= - — er

AUTHORS QUOTED OR REFERRED TO. ]xxxili

H. S8.—Henry Stevenson, F.L.S., Norwich. B. 1833; D. 1888.
Author of ‘ Birds of Norfolk.’ He visited Torquay in 1859, and
communicated notes on Devonshire birds to the ‘ Zoologist’ for
1860.

W. T.—Witt1amu Tomss, jun., Banker, formerly of Exeter.
Contributed notes on the Birds of the neighbourhood of Exeter to
the ‘ Naturalist,’ 1851-55.

W. V. T.—Watter V. Tott, of Strete, Dartmouth.
Has a collection of local birds, and has contributed numerous notes
to the ‘Field.’ His brother, Mr. H. Limbrey Toll, owns the upper
part of Slapton Ley.

T. & K.—Wit11am Turton, M.D., and J. F. Kineston. D.

Dr. Turton, the well-known author of ‘ Conchylia Insularum Bri-
tannicarum,’ published at Exeter in 1822, appears to have resided
for some years in Devonshire. In conjunction with Mr. J. F. Kings-
ton he contributed a List of Birds to a “Guide to the Watering-
Places.—Part II. The Natural History of the District ” [Torquay,
Dawlish, Teignmouth, and inland to Dartmoor], published at Teign-
mouth in 1830.

A. G. C. T.—Anvrew G. C. Tucker, LL.D., of Ashburton. D.

Author of ‘ Ornithologia Danmoniensis,’ of which one or two parts
only were published in 1809. It contains some engravings of birds
from drawings by W. R. Jordan. He contributed a ‘“ List of some
rare Land Birds which have been discovered in the neighbourhood of
Ashburton,” to J. P. Jones’s ‘ Guide to the Scenery in the Neighbour-
hood of Ashburton,’ a pamphlet published at Exeter in 1823. His
sons Robert and Charles furnished a List of Dartmoor Birds to Car-
rington’s poem ‘ Dartmoor,’ published in 1826. Dr. Tucker is fre-
quently mentioned by Col. Montagu in his Orn. Dict., and appears
to have made many important observations on Devonshire Birds.

G. T.—Rey. G. Tuewett, Rector of Bathwick, Bath.
Gives a list of 188 species of Birds without remarks in the ‘ North-
Devon Handbook,’

J.C. W.—J. C. Wircocxs, formerly of Teignmouth and Plymouth, now
of Shoreham.
Well known as an authority on sea-fishing. He communicated
much valuable information to W.8. M. D’U., in litt. and v. v., on
the Natural History of South Devon.

The letters A. M. M. stand for the Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter,

Ixxxiv PAST WORKERS IN DEVONSHIRE ORNITHOLOGY.

LIST OF PAST WORKERS IN DEVONSHIRE ORNITHOLOGY
MENTIONED IN THE WORKS OF POLWHELE, MONTAGU,
MOORE, BELLAMY, YARRELL, &c.

Arcuer, Appts, of Leigham.
Mentioned by Dr. E. Moore. He had in his possession a White-
tailed Eagle, taken alive at the Eddystone.

BastarD, Wiiir1aM, of Oakhill, Slapton.
Obtained a specimen of the Rufous Warbler, which is now in the
possession of his widow. He formed asmall collection of birds, which
contains several interesting specimens.

Bartiert, G., F.S.A. A bookseller of Plymouth.
Mentioned by Dr. E. Moore, and by Bellamy, Nat. Hist. 8. Devon,
p- 226.

Comyns, J., of Mount Pleasant, between Dawlish and Starcross.

An ornithologist frequently referred to by Montagu, Moore, and
Bellamy. He possessed an extensive collection of birds, containing
many rare species, which was dispersed between 1837 and 1848.
He observed the Bearded Tit near Topsham.

Drew, —, of H.M. Dockyard, Devonport.
Mentioned by Dr. E. Moore as a collector.

Exrorp, Sir Wirram, F.R.S., Bickham, near Plymouth. B. circa 1748;
D. November 30th, 1837.
Recorder of Plymouth, 1798-1833. M.P. for Plymouth, 1796-
1802 and 1802-6. Created a Baronet in 1800. A correspondent of
Polwhele’s.

Exuior, Jouyn, F.R.C.S. Lond. B. 1807; D. 1873.
His fine collection is mentioned at p. lviii.

Gostine, T. E., of Leigham, near Plympton.

Often mentioned by Dr. Moore and Bellamy, and contributed
drawings of several mammals to the latter’s Nat. Hist. 8. Devon.
He was Moore’s authority for the ‘“‘Golden Eagle” nesting at the
Dewerstone, and the finding a Great Auk at Lundy Island. He
appears to have been the first to observe the Black Redstart and
Blue-headed Wagtail at Plymouth. He met with the Purple and
Night Herons, and possessed a Black-winged Stilt killed at Slapton
Ley.

PAST WORKERS IN DEVONSHIRE ORNITHOLOGY. Ixxxv

Horpswortn, Rev. Roznrt H., Rector of Brixham.

An ornithologist often mentioned by Montagu. He also furnished
much valuable information, in a series of letters containing notes on
the Natural History of the Birds and Fishes of Devonshire, to Yarrell,
who frequently alludes to him in his ‘ History of British Birds.” His
great nephew, Mr. A. F. Holdsworth, J.P., C.C., of Waiddicombe
House and Torcross, possesses the family taste for ornithology and
has a collection of birds.

Ispett, Dr. Jonny, of Stonehouse.
Possessed a collection of Birds mentioned by Dr. Moore.

Jottey, —, of Plymouth.
A friend of J. Gatcombe. Possessed a collection of Birds.

Juuian, Ricuarp, of Estover, near Plymouth.
Frequently mentioned by Dr. Moore and Bellamy. His son was
a good ornithologist (see p. xxviii).
Laskey, Capt.

Contributed observations on Devonshire Birds to the ‘ Gentleman’s
Magazine’ for 1795 and 1796.

Leacu, G., of Stoke, near Plymouth. D. October 26th, 1823, aged 75.
A solicitor at Plymouth. Mentioned by Dr. Moore. He made a
collection of Dartmoor Animals, and presented it to the Devon and
Cornwall Natural History Society at Plymouth.

Leaca, Witttam Exrorp, M.D., F.R.S., F.L.S., of Spitchwick, Dartmoor.
D. August 25th, 1836, aged 46.
Son of the above G. Leach. This eminent naturalist resided for
many years on Dartmoor. He died in Italy of cholera.
Luscomper, Nicwoxas, of Kingsbridge.
This gentleman presented the specimen of the Buff-backed Heron
(Little White Heron of the Orn. Dict.), killed by Mr. F. Cornish at
Allington, to Montagu. He was by profession a lawyer, but he used
to stuff birds for Col. Montagu, and his son, also a lawyer, inherited
his father’s taste for ornithology and his skill in mounting birds

CR, P.'N.).
Macraru, Sir Grorar, M.D., of Plymouth.
Medical Superintendent of Dartmoor Prison, 1814-16. Possessed
a collection of British Birds mentioned by Dr. E. Moore.
Newron, Jonn, of Millaton, near Bridestowe.
This gentleman, who is very often mentioned by Dr. Moore in

lxxxvi PAST WORKERS IN DEVONSHIRE ORNITHOLOGY.

Rowe’s ‘ Perambulation of Dartmoor,’ is reported to have met with
many rare birds, namely :—Golden Oriole, Parrot Crossbill ?, Great
Black Woodpecker?, Ptarmigan?, Red Grouse?, Great Bustard,
Little Bustard, Little Crake, Little Egret, Little Bittern, &c. He
appears to have had an extensive collection of birds, and some of his
specimens are still in existence at Millaton.

Pripgavx, Cuartes, of Dodbrooke, Kingsbridge.
A zealous naturalist frequently mentioned by Montagu and Moore.
He was a cousin of C, Prideaux of Hatch Arundel, whose collection
is in the Town Hall at Kingsbridge.

Pripravx, Joun, of Plymouth.

PrncomsE, J., of Devonport.
A well-known bird-stuffer and dealer in rare British Birds. Often
mentioned by Moore, Bellamy, and Brooking-Rowe.

Perrine, —, of Rockford.
A correspondent of Polwhele’s.

Rupp, L. (?).

A native of the North of England. He was a great sportsman,
and used to visit Topsham in the autumn for the sake of the shooting
about forty years ago. He killed many rare birds on the Exe, which
he gave to James Truscott, a bird-stuffer in Exeter, and some found
their way into the collections of the late Messrs. Ross and Byne. He
sent a few notes to the ‘ Naturalist.’

Trip, Dr., of Ashburton.
Thus alluded to by Polwhele in his ‘ History of -Devonshire ’:—
*“ An excellent naturalist, and an excellent man! He was commu-
nicative without vanity ; generous without ostentation.”

Tripz, Cornetivs, of Devonport.
Possessed a collection of Birds. Mentioned by Dr. Moore.

Tucker, W., of Mount Pleasant between Starcross and Dawlish.
He is stated to have shot a Nutcracker at Washford Pyne Moor,
near Tiverton, in 1829.

Vavuauan, Rev. B. Kerr, Rector of Aveton Gifford.

This gentleman is frequently mentioned by Col. Montagu, to whose
notice he brought the nest of the Hen-Harrier, and thus enabled him
to prove the specific identity of the Ring-tail and Hen-Harrier in
June, 1805. He is supposed to have seen a great White Heron on
the banks of the Avon. His collection contained some good birds,

AUTHORITIES QUOTED. IXXXVli

such as the Rose-coloured Pastor, Osprey, Night-Heron, Ruff, &c.,
killed in the district. It was sold in March 1847, and many of the
specimens were purchased by the late Mr. J. Elliot of Kingsbridge
(see ante, p. lviil).

Wurertr, J., of Plymouth.
Possessed a collection of British Birds. Mentioned by Moore.

Yonez, James, M.D., of Puslinch, Newton Ferrers.
Mentioned by Polwhele.

LIST OF AUTHORITIES FOR THE PROVINCIAL NAMES OF
BIRDS USED IN DEVONSHIRE QUOTED IN THE WORK.

Potwuete. ‘ History of Devonshire.’

Montact. ‘ Ornithological Dictionary.’

Brtramy. ‘ Natural History of South Devon.’

E. Moorr, ‘Trans. Plymouth Inst.’ 1830.

F. W. L. Ross. In MS. ‘ Journals of Occurrences.’
Miss §. P. Fox. In ‘ Kingsbridge and its Surroundings.’
Rey. T. Jonnes. In Bray’s ‘ Tamar and Tavy.’

Rey. Cuarztes Swainson. In ‘ Provincial Names and Folk-Lore of British
Birds.’

‘ Zoologist,’ 1854, p. 4255, E. H. Ropp; 1859, p. 6330, M. A. Maruew :
1878, p. 222, G. C. Lirrts, p. 333, T. Cornisz.

Transactions of the Devonshire Association, vol. vi. p. 601; vu. p. 401;
viii. p. 565; xvi. p. 86. W. Prnexrtty, J. Dymonp, and Miss Fox.

Also verbal information and in Hitt. from W. Crossine, Miss Dossir,
Miss Mary Mercatr, J. Maxwett, and E. A. 8. Exxior.

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Order PASSERES.

Family TURDID.
Subfamily TURDIN 2.

THE THRUSHES.

To the Thrush family, with which we commence, because
of their high specialization, belong our well-known garden
favourites the Song-Thrush, the Blackbird, and the Mistle-
Thrush, chief leaders of the spring choir of birds. Of
these the Mistle-Thrush is the first in the year to pour
forth his welcome song, as he seems to challenge the
winter and to call loudly for the spring. The Redwings
and the Fieldfares, winter visitors from the North, only
enter our gardens in severe frost ; as long as the weather
is mild and open they are dispersed over our parks and
meadows, where they may be sometimes seen congregated
on the taller trees; they leave us before they fully open
their summer song, and contribute nothing to the bird-
music of our woodlands and shrubberies. Of the Ring-
Ouzel, a summer visitor to our moorlands, nothing is to
be said in connection with song, as it possesses only a few
B

2 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

harsh notes. All the Thrushes suffer much in hard
winters; after the memorable one of 1880 there were
districts in which no Song-Thrush was heard in the
following spring.

The British Thrushes are well represented in Devonshire.
On the edges of Dartmoor, in early autumn, six of them
may be seen in the course of a morning’s walk. ‘Thrushes,
Blackbirds, and Mistle-Thrushes will be plentiful; Field-
fares and Redwings will have just arrived, and one or two
late-staying Ring-Ouzels will be met with in the hedges,
White’s Thrush, a rare straggler from Eastern Asia, has
also occurred on the borders of the moor.

Mistle-Thrush. Twrdus viscivorus, Linn.
[Holm Screech, Home Screech, Storm-Cock: Dev.]

Xesident and common throughout the county. Breeds.

Although when Col. Mentagu wrote his ‘ Ornithological Dictionary ’ he
had to record that this bird was by no means plentiful in England, and
seemed to be less so in winter, it is now very common, and its increase
must be considered as one of the results of the extirpation of raptorial
birds, and of the greater protection afforded to wild birds in the nesting-
season. The Mistle-Thrush begins to build at the end of March in the
south of the county. The various broods flock together in July and
August, and in the latter month we have noticed the arrival of immigrants
from the north-east; but in the course of the autumn these flocks, which
are especially numerous on Dartmoor and other high moorlands, dis-
appear, evidently having left the county for the south. While they
remain they are especially partial to land that has been burnt over.

During the winter months the Mistle-Thrush is a solitary bird, taking
and keeping possession of some holly-bush, from which it drives off
every other species of bird. It is probably from this habit that it derives
its common Devonshire name of “ Holm Screech,” as the holly is locally
called ** Holm-tree,” just as its more ordinary title in the English list is
taken from the mistletoe, a plant of rare occurrence in this county.

In 1885, and for some few years previously, the Mistle-Thrush was
very scarce near Plymouth (J. G., Zool. 1885, p. 376), but it afterwards
became numerous again. As it can live on holly-berries, which seem
distasteful to other species of Thrush, and are only resorted to by them
when all else fails, it generally endures severe weather better than they
do, although in the cold spell at the end of 1890 it suffered severely and

numbers perished.

TURDID. a

White individuals have been seen (J.C. B., Nat. Hist. S. Devon, p. 302),
and a buff-coloured specimen was killed near Plymouth, October 5th, 1875
(J. G., Zool. 1875, p. 4716).

Song-Thrush. TZurdus musicus, Linn.
(Grey Drush, Grey-bird, Trossel, Throstle, Thirstle: Dev.]

Resident and generally distributed. Breeds.

It is usually common, but great numbers perish in cold and snowy
winters, such as those of LS80—-81 and 1890-91, and then for some years
it continues comparatively scarce. There is a considerable immigration
in September, when many appear near the sea-coast, and at that time
Thrushes are also plentiful in every turnip-field, where, under the shade
of the broad leaves, they have plenty of food, and are serviceable to the
farmer in clearing off insect-pests and slugs. These migratory Thrushes
have come both from the continent and from the northern parts of the
kingdom, and as they leave us are replaced by other arrivals, so that the
species continues in some abundance throughout the winter, and finding
sufficient maintenance, even in severe weather, is seldom driven to such
straits as the unfortunate Redwings and Fieldfares, whose habits are so
different.

The Song-Thrush may well be claimed as the “ Queen of Song” in the
West Country, where the capricious Nightingale is but seldom heard; and
there are many, ourselves among the number, who would be unwilling to
admit that it was in any way surpassed by the smaller minstrel. It is
also a most useful bird, doing good work in gardens in hunting out and
devouring snails, and as it does but little injury to the fruit, deserves to
be universally protected.

The late Mr. T. R. A. Briggs noticed that Thrushes (not Sparrows)
tear the flowers of the crocus in pieces in early spring and devour small
portions,

This species generally begins to build early in March; in 1878, how-
ever, nests had been commenced at the end of February near Exeter.

Mr. Robert Cumming, when walking on the downs at Babbacombe,
came across the dried-up body of a Song-Thrush having a Slow-worm,
also dead and dried-up, between its mandibles, and passing some dis-
tance downwards, as if it had been partially swallowed by the bird.
It is probable that both Thrush and Slow-worm perished in the struggle.
The specimen was presented to the A. M. M. just as it was found by
Mr. Cumming.

In building their nests birds are often not unmindful of decoration.
An instance of this was furnished by a Thrush whose nest we found in a
heap of pea-sticks in a corner of our garden, Some fresh peach-blossoms
were stuck on the outside of the nest, within which the bird was sitting
on her eggs in conscious pride,

Dr. Edward Moore mentions a white variety, and another with a white
spot occupying the back of the neck and shoulders (Trans. Plym. Inst.

B2

4 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

1830, p. 301). A cream-coloured specimen was shot near South Molton
in July or August 1883.

Redwing. Zwrdus iliacus, Linn.
[Windell, Windle, Winnel, Win’el, Windall, Winnard : Dev.]

A winter visitor, generally very abundant. A very large flight was
seen near Plymouth, November Ist, 1871 (J. G. and G. F. M., Zool. 1872,
p- 2920). The Redwing was, however, very scarce in the winter of 1879-80,
and also in that of 1882-3. In the severe weather of 1885-86 and 1890-91
it was extremely abundant in the South Hams. It arrives from the middle
of October to the beginning of November, and leaves about the middle or
end of March. On warm and sunny days during March Redwings
may be heard singing soft sweet notes from hedge-row elms. We are
told that they are only doing what bird-fanciers term “recording,” or
softly practising their full song; but what we have often heard has
amounted to more than this, and has been, we believe. the utmost effort
of the bird, concerning whose summer warblings, when heard in their
Scandinavian nesting-places, there is some difference of opinion, the bird
by some being styled the “Swedish Nightingale,” while others speak but
disparagingly of its powers of song.

A buff-coloured individual was killed near Plymouth a few days before
March 2nd, 1870, and was presented to the late Mr. Frederick Bond
(J. G., MS. Notes). A specimen entirely of a whitish colour, except the
rufous under wing-coverts and axillaries, was picked up dead near Exeter,
December 16th, 1878, and was seen by us in the flesh. It was, we
believe, in the collection of the late Mr. Marsh-Dunn, of Teignmouth,
who obtained it from the late Mr. Byne. Redwings are fond of roosting
in spruce-fir trees. When feeding on pasture-lands their protective
resemblance to dead leaves, blown about by the wind, is very remarkable.
In protracted frosts they resort to woods and coverts, and are the first
birds to perish from the cold.,

Fieldfare. Turdus pilaris, Linn.
[Blue-bird, fylvare (obs.), Vole-Viers : Dev.]

A winter visitor, arriving in October and remaining till the end of
March, and sometimes till April. Abundant in South Devon in some
years and very scarce in others. Montagu says that in the winter of
1798 prodigious flocks appeared in the West of England, but as snow soon
afterwards set in, thousands were picked up starved to death in Devon-
shire. Large flocks were seen near Plymouth on November Ist, 1871
(G. F. M., Zool. 1872, p. 2920); and Fieldfares were extremely plentiful
there from January to March 1875 (Zool. 1875, pp. 4872, 4448). Great
numbers were seen in and around Exeter at the end of December 1874,
at the beginning of January 1875, and in December 1890 and in January

TURDID.Z. a

1891. They were very scarce in the South Hams in the winter of
1879-80, and in that of 1882-83 near Exeter.

On March 5th, 1890, after two days’ hard frost, flocks of Fieldfares
appeared on the meadows near Exmouth, though none had been seen
there during the preceding winter. ‘They remained for a week and then
disappeared. On 21st December, 1890, vast numbers visited the South
of Devon, and remained about Exeter and Exmouth till February 1891.

By the end of the second week in October the first Fieldtares are to be
observed on Dartmoor, where they appear earlier than we haye ever
noticed them on the lowlands. They are then in large flocks and very
wild, flying off chattering when one is still at a considerable distance from
them. These birds have a strong game-scent ; the setters would always
begin feathering when they came across ground where Ficldfares had been
recently feeding, and if the birds were still before them would come to a
steady point. ‘They remain on the moors until driven off by severe
weather, when they visit the lowlands, and in deep snow swarm about
town gardens in the south of the county.

In North Devon Fieldfares are always scarce, and some winters
pass without one being seen. It is only in very severe weather that
any are noticed. In the long and bitter winter of 1860-61 vast
numbers of Fieldfares resorted to Lundy Island, where their starved and
frozen bodies were lying on the ground in all directions. The rats, which
infest the island in myriads, had a good time of it in picking the birds
clean. We have often, in severe frosts, brought both Fieldfares and
Redwings into the house, and putting them in a warm room and trying
them with various kinds of food have done our best to restore them, but
have never succeeded in keeping them alive for more than a few days.
They never recover from the cruel frost-grip. In mid-April, before their
departure for the north, Fieldfares assemble in flocks on the tops of tall
trees and keep up a continuous twittering which may be heard at some
distance. On January 25th, 1846, one was heard and seen singing at
Honiton (E. Murch, Zool. 1846, p. 1297). We once saw Fieldfares in
this country as late as the first weck in May, and this, curiously enough,
was in a London square,

A specimen with the plumage much mottled with white is in the
A. M. M., probably shot near Topsham.

We once noticed a Fieldfare as early as September 4th, and are inclined
to believe that it was a bird which had been slightly wounded, and so
prevented from going north the previous spring. Mr. R. M. J. Teil
mentions in the ‘ Field’ tor September 19th, 1591, having seen some at
Newton Abbot on 17th of that month.

White's Thrush. Zwrdus varius, Pall.

An accidental visitor of extremely rare occurrence. An example was
shot by Mr. E. Studdy in Dene Wood on the edge of Dartmoor, near
Ashburton, January 11th, 1881. It was in company with three or four
other birds, apparently of the same species, and, as in other instances of

ee lt

6 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

the occurrence of this Thrush in England, was taken for a Woodcock
when flushed (E. W. H. Holdsworth, Zool. 1881, p. 108).

This fine Thrush has occurred twice in Somersetshire, and once in
Cornwall.

Blackbird. Turdus merula, Linn.
{Black Drush, Colly: Dev.]

Resident, generally distributed, and abundant. Breeds.

The disastrous increase, from a gardener’s point of view, of the fruit-
stealing Blackbird is due to the destruction by gamekeepers of his natural
enemy the Sparrow-Hawk.

From his rich mellow flute-like notes we are disposed to rank the
Blackbird as deservedly second to the Song-Thrush in his capacities for
melody. We love to hear his music, which may be readily distinguished
in the spring choir of birds, and, indeed, all his notes, so eloquent of the
country, are dear to us. We are equally fond of his shrill twitter of
elarm when he is suddenly surprised, and of the loud ‘“ chink, chink ”
with which he is wont to settle himself on his perch at dusk. This last
cry is only the prelude to sleep, and is not the clamour of angry suspicion,
although it sometimes may be this when some prowling cat is approaching
his roost. The song of the Blackbird may be heard very early on a
spring morning, as early as half-past two or three. This early morning
song is the bird’s best performance of the day. From the time when this
watchful bird is eyeing the first tint of red spreading itself over the
swelling strawberries at the end of May, until the mid-September sun is
ripening the late peach or the tomato against the garden wall, nothing
which calls itself fruit is safe from his attentions. We have watched
him fluttering against the ripe plums and peaches on the trained trees
against a warm south wall until he has dislodged one of the fruit, when
he will either alight upon it to quaff its pleasant juices, or will fly off
with it to some deep cover in the carrot-bed to eat it in concealment and
at leisure. When the last plum or peach has been gathered in the garden
the orchard will next attract him, and here he will be found in constant
attendance as long as an apple remains on the trees, or there are any
fallers littering the ground. The character of the Blackbird is well revealed
to any one watching the various Thrushes feeding on the berries of a
hawthorn bush in the autumn. While the Song-Thrush flies unsuspici-
ously direct to the tree, and begins to pluck the berries nearest at hand,
and the Mistle-Thrush comes with a bold rush as if he were “‘ monarch of all
he surveyed,” the Blackbird steals in from the side of the bush furthest
from the spectator, and does not consider himself safe until he has plunged
into the thickest part of it, where he hastily seizes a bunch and flies off
hurriedly, and as secretly as he can, to some safe retreat to swallow his
spoils unobserved. Nor will a Blackbird be often noticed feeding on the
ground many feet away from the shelter of a hedge, whereas the Song-
and Mistle-Thrushes come boldly out into the middle of the field.

TURDIDA. 7

During the winters of 1879-80 and 1880-81 many pied specimens
were killed near Exeter. In some the heads were entirely white. Two
pied specimens were shot at Plymouth in November 1881 (J. G., Zool.
1882, p. 66). We saw several living specimens with white heads in the
grounds of St. Leonard’s Rectory, Exeter, in August 1584, and some
similar birds were killed at Exmouth in the winter of 1890-91. Dr.
Edward Moore mentions two cream-coloured Blackbirds, one of which was
shot at Warleigh (Trans. Plym. Inst. 1830, p. 300); and one was ob-
tained at Plymouth on February 17th, 1870 (J. G., MS. Notes). Bellamy
mentions that white specimens have occurred (N. Hist. 8. D. p. 202).
Mr. R. P. Nicholls received a very young albino specimen from Frogmore
near Kingsbridge.

blackbirds begin to build usually early in March, but some nested in
1878 at the end of February, near Exeter.

Ring-Ouzel. Zurdus torquatus, Linn.
[Rock-Ouzel, Tor-Ouzel, Moor-Blackbird: Dev.]

A summer migrant, frequenting many of the rocky Tors of Dartmoor,
e.g. Yes Tor, Vixen Tor, Greater and Lesser Lynx Tor, especially when
the whortle-berries are ripe in July and August. Also Trowlesworthy
Rabbit Warren, Shaughmoor, and Pyles on Harford Moor (R. A. J.,
‘ Naturalist,’ 1851, p. 86). It is, however, found on every portion of the
moor, and is almost the only denizen of its dismal central swamps. It is
very sensitive to cold winds, and is always found on the lee-side of a Tor.
It arrives in South Devon at the end of March or the beginning of April.
Towards the end of September the various broods on Dartmoor collect
into little parties, and remain for a few days on its verges to feed on the
hawthorn and other berries before taking their departure. Flocks appear
in October for about a fortnight near Berry Head, the Bolt Headland,
and the Start Point, and are seen no more that year (Rev. Robert Holds-
worth, Yarrell’s B. Birds, 2nd ed. p. 222). The Ring-Ouzel has been seen
in the winter months on the South Coast (Zool. 1872, p.2921, 1883, p. 296).
According to the late Dr. W. R. Scott (Trans. Brit. Assoc. 1864) it breeds
in June and July, but Mr. J. Gatecombe found two nests in Tavy Cleave,
Dartmoor, on May 16th, 1868, with four eggs each, one set containing
fully-formed young birds, and a nest on Dartmoor with three eggs on
April 24th, 1871; and one with four eggs May 6th, 1872, in a tuft of
heath near the side of the Avon (Zool. 1871, p. 2639, 1872, p. 3099),
A nest and four eggs from Middle Common, West Anstey, near Dul-
verton, taken in May 1869, is in the A. M. M. On Dartmoor “ the nest
is frequently found in the side of a turf-tye, that is, a pit from which
they dig turf for fuel” (T. J. Bray’s ‘Tamar and Tavy,’ Ist ed. i. p. 348).

In North Devon the Ring-Ouzel arrives from the south at the beginning
of April, and may then be met with in woods and coppices on its way to its
moorland home. When it reaches its summer-quarters it selects the deep,
heather-clad *‘ cleaves” about the moors, and each of these will be found

8 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

occupied by a pair of these lively birds, which become clamorous on the
appearance of a stranger, and will chatter at him, from a safe distance,
their angry complaint. In the furze or heather on the side of these
“cleaves” the nest is placed; often near to the tiny stream running
down the bottom and never very far from the ground, The birds will
frequently display their suspicion by accompanying the invader of their
solitude some little distance, flying on in front of him, and settling for an
instant on some stone or heather tump, from which they will scold at
him, and then flit on to another station. We have seen Ring-Ouzels in
the summer-time venturing as low down as the gardens in Lynmouth.
A few pairs frequent the Valley of Rocks, near Lynton. Ring-Ouzels
are pretty numerous in the rocky ravines of Exmoor, and in the wild
country near Dulverton, and also visit Lundy Island.

During the seasons of migration stragglers are occasionally seen in cultivated and
wooded districts. The Ring-Ouzel frequently occurs at Plymouth in April and
October (B., MS. Notes), and has also been observed at Kingsbridge (R. P. N.),
Morchard Bishop (C. Ham), Silverton, Alphington near Exeter, Exmouth (0. §.,
Zool. 1874, p. 3831), and at Rousdon, near Axmouth.

A beautiful albino specimen was shot by Mr. F. R. Wolfe at Leighon Tor, in the
parish of Manaton, October 9th, 1890, and is now in the Torquay Museum (W. E.,
and Geo. A. Musgrave, Zool. 1891, p. 116).

The ancient family of Oxenham, residing near South Tawton, on the
northern borders of the forest, used always, so runs tradition, to be
visited by a fatal bird ‘¢ with a white crest,” which, seen by one of its
members, foretold his speedy death. It is said that a marble monumental
stone, existing in 1632, had the following inscription :—‘“ Here lies John
Oxenham, a goodly young man, in whose chamber, as he was struggling
with the pangs of death, a bird with a white crest was seen fluttering
about his bed, and so vanished.” Several others of the family are cur-
rently reported to have been visited when dying by a similar apparition.
In the first chapter of ‘ Westward Ho!’ we are told how Mr. Oxenham
saw the white bird. Now it is not unlikely that one day a Ring-Ouzel
flew into a sick chamber in the house, which was close to the moor; its
white “crest” was a confused recollection of its white collar, and the
superstition of those who saw it at a time of sickness regarded it as a
tod-végel, or harbinger of death.

THE CHATS.

The Wheatear, with the Chats, the Redstarts, the
familiar Redbreast, and the tuneful Nightingale, most of
them well-known birds, are all included with the Thrushes
in the Subfamily Turdinz, because, like them, their young
have spotted plumage, and are unlike their parents. It
is curious that of our two Redstarts one should be a

TURDIDZ. 9

summer and the other a winter visitor. Some conti-
nental species, which as yet are unknown to the West
Country, such as the Desert Wheatear, the Black-throated
Wheatear, and the Isabelline Wheatear, having once or
twice occurred in other parts of the kingdom, are now
added to the British List.

Wheatear. Saaicola enanthe, Linn.
[Chickell: Dev.] 7

A summer migrant. Breeds.

Common on some parts of the sea-coasts, as at Plymouth, near Kings-
bridge, Exmouth, and near Axmouth in South Devon, and Morte Point in
North Devon; on Dartmoor, and the other uncultivated parts of the
county; and on fallow lands during the spring and autumn migrations ;
but it is less numerous during the breeding-season. Arrives at Plymouth
about the middle of March, and leaves about the third week in October
(J. G., Zool. 1877, p. 44). One was seen on Trowlesworthy Warren on
February 19th, 1868, and one on Dartmoor on March 6th, 1872, by Mr.
Gatcombe. At Exmouth and Dawlish Warren it is usually seen about
April lst. We have only once observed it as early as March 23rd. The
males arrive first, and precede the females by a fortnight or three weeks.

* On the 24th March, 1804, a vast number of these birds, all males,
made their first appearance on the south coast of Devon, near Kings-
bridge” (Montagu, Orn. Dict., Suppl.). “ Wheatears breed in greater
abundance on Dartmoor than in any part of the West of England. They
lose their breeding-plumage after July ”’ (id. MS. Notes). Many breed
in cavities of the rocks about Plymouth Sound (E. M., Mag. Nat. Hist.
1837, p. 176). A few pairs breed about the Bolt Head, and also at
Thurlestone. In September 1877 Wheatears were unusually plentiful
near the latter place (R. P. N. and E. A. 8. K.). Numbers appeared on
the coast at Plymouth on September 24th, 1883, after a strong gale from
the north-east (J. G., Zool. 1884, p. 53). Wheatears were more plentiful
in September 1874 than in the spring at Instow, N. Devon (G. F. M.,
Zool. 1874, p. 4252).

Examples of the larger race of Wheatear have been obtained at
Exmouth, and in various other places in the county. The very smallest
Wheatear we ever saw is an adult male in our possession which was sent
us by Mr. E. Burt of Torquay. ‘The large Wheatears are said to arrive
some time later in the spring, quite a month after the smaller birds, and
to perch on trees, in this differing from the ordinary race, which only
alights on walls or mounds. Professor Newton informed us that the
further north one goes the larger appear to be the Wheatears, the finest

— =— —-_ eee eee eee eel tt Me — i" Se = ha = —_

10 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

he saw being those he observed in Greenland. We first made the
acquaintance of the large Wheatears at Brighton, where the distinctions
between them and the smaller race are well known to the local bird-
catchers. All the Wheatears nesting along the North Devon and North
Cornwall coasts are, as we have taken pains to observe, birds of the
smaller race. From information supplied to us by Messrs. Pratt and Son,
the well-known bird-stuffers of North Town Quadrant, Brighton, it would
appear that the small Wheatears are not found in that neighbourhood
during the summer, while the larger ones, which arrive in April and
May, are often detected nesting close to the town. This seems opposed
to the supposition that the large race belong to a northern form.

Our friend the late Mr. John Gatcombe wrote to inform us that a very
pretty variety of this bird had been killed at Plymouth, of which he had
made a drawing. It had a patch of pure white on the nape of the neck
as large as that on the rump.

Whinchat. 9 Pratincola rubetra (Linn.).
[ Furze-Chat. |

A summer migrant, arriving about the middle or end of April and
departing in October. Breeds.

It frequents pastures, heaths, and furze-brakes. Though not a
numerous species in South Devon, it 1s met with on the borders of
Dartmoor and near Plymouth (J. G., Zool. 1874, p. 4253); about the
various Leys in the Kingsbridge district, and between Thurlestone Rock
and Bantham, in which neighbourhood it was extraordinarily numerous
on April 24th, 1891 (R. P. N. and E. A. §. E.); near Totnes (J. H. G.,
Zool. 1871, p. 2679); Teignmouth and Ashburton (T. and K.); Torquay ;
Woodbury Common and Exmouth; and at Axmouth, where Mr. Henry
Swaysland, Jun., obtained examples on 24th April, 1883, just arrived.
Bellamy says that Whinchats undoubtedly stay with us during the winter
in rare cases (N. Hist. 8. Devon, p. 225). One or two pairs annually
breed near Cadworthy Bridge, or Shaughmoor, and on Harford Moor
(R. A. J., ‘ Naturalist,’ 1851, p. 87).

In North Devon the Whinchat is a rare bird, and, like several others of
the Warblers, appears to be somewhat shy of the West Country. In the
lists given of Lundy Island birds this species and the Stonechat have been
probably confounded.

In a drive across North Somerset from east to west one day towards
the end of April we were on the look-out for the Whinchat and other
summer migrants, but in a distance of more than tbirty miles we only
detected three male Whinchats, although the country we passed through
was very well adapted to the bird.

The Whinchat is rare and local in Cornwall, but is more plentiful in
Dorset.

TURDID.Z. 11

Stonechat. Pratincola rubicola (Linn.).
[ Furze-Chat. |

Resident, common in some places. Breeds.

Frequents moors, heaths, and marsh-lands, and the cliffs of the sea-
coasts. Often seen on the Haldons, on the borders of Dartmoor, and
on other elevated tracts. Also at Plymouth, Kingsbridge, Teignmouth,
Topsham, Exmouth, and Axmouth.

In North Devon we meet with this pretty little species almost every-
where, but it is nowhere plentiful, it being a very rare thing to see more
than one pair in the same immediate neighbourhood. Year after year
these little birds are faithful to the same station, and the nest is each
season placed at no great distance from the site it occupied the summer
before. In very severe weather in the winter the Stonechats disappear
for a time, either migrating further south, or seeking more sheltered
places in the vicinity of their usual resorts; but should it be an open
season they do not wander yery far from the localities in which they have
passed the summer. We quite agree with Macgillivray in his remarks
respecting the inappropriate English name borne by this bird, which is
essentially a bush bird, and not, as its name might imply, confined to
rocks and rocky places, so that the name he proposed for it—‘ Black-
headed Bush-Chat”—-seems to us more preferable. ‘ Bramble-Chat”
would perhaps be better than either.

Mr. Henry Nicholls has a fawn-coloured specimen in his fine collection
shot near Kingsbridge in April 1863.

Redstart. Ruticilia phenicurus (Linn.).
[ Fire-tail : Dev. ]

A summer migrant, arriving from the 13th to 24th April, and departing
at the end of September. Breeds.

Common in Northern and Eastern Devon, but scarce in the western
and southern parts of the county.

Recent observers have reported the Redstart as “common” in North
Deyon, but in our time it was far from being so, and we only knew of
one or two pairs in the district around Barnstaple with which we were
acquainted. Young Redstarts, which very much resemble young Robins,
are wont to seek their insect food in strange places. The interiors of
cucumber and melon-frames are often visited by them when the lights
are raised to admit air, and they are frequent visitors to greenhouses and
conservatories, where they do good service by destroying insects.

The Redstart is an uncommon species in the neighbourhood of Plymouth
(J. G., Zool. 1873, p. 3632; and KR. A. J., Naturalist, 1851, p. 44). One
or two pairs bred annually at Mount Edgceumbe, and young were seen
there until 20th September in 1849 (R. A. J., op. cit. p. 86). The late
Mr. T. R. A. Briggs records seeing one on April 9th, 1887, at Fursdon,

12 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

near Egg Buckland. A Robin was fighting withit. Bolitho, the bird-stuffer
at Plymouth, had only two specimens sent to him for preservation in the
twenty years between 1853 and 1872. Col. Montagu, in the Supplement
to his ‘ Ornithological Dictionary,’ published in 1814, observes: ‘* We
have long noticed it as far west as nearly the whole extent of Devon-
shire in the low and sheltered situations between Exeter and Plymouth ;
but in the southern hundreds of the county, which extend into a sort
of promontory to the British Channel, it is of rare occurrence, the nature
of the country not being congenial to its habits.” It is still of rather
uncommon occurrence in the South Hams. One was shot, and others
seen, in the parish of Thurlestone on April 24th, 1888, one or two were
seen in April 1590, five at Bantham April 24th, 1891, and two near
the top of Bolt Head September 11th, 1891 (E. A. 8S. E.). It has been
known to breed in gardens in Kingsbridge (R. P. N.). We saw one at
South Brent in September 1889. Observed April 17th, 1351, at Totnes
(S. Hannaford, Jun.,‘ Naturalist,’ 1851, p. 92). One seen 24th April,
1871, at Marldon, near Totnes (J. H.G., Zool. 1871, p. 2679). This
is one of those species which are supposed to be extending their range
westward. The Redstart has bred in the eastern part of Cornwall, but
is as yet little known in that county.

Mr. C. Ham, of Exeter, informed us of a remarkable circumstance
connected with this bird. About the 10th February, 1877, a thatcher
named Bradford, engaged in removing the thatch from an old barn at
Upton Pyne, near Exeter, found a nest and six eggs of a pale blue colour.
A gamekeeper in the employ of the late Lord Iddesleigh happened to be
present, and saw the nest and one of the old birds, which he recognized
as a Redstart. He broke one of the eggs, and from the forward appear-
ance of the young chick he considered it would have been hatched in a
few days. The nest was placed on a winnowing machine, and was un-
fortunately accidentally destroyed. The cock bird was afterwards shot,
but was lost in a hedge. We communicated these facts to Mr. Robert
Cumming, of Exeter, an excellent ornithologist, who soon afterwards
visited the spot and made enquiries, with the result that he had no doubt
of the correctness of the foregoing account. (For a similar instance of
winter nesting of the Redstart near Scarborough in December 1888, see
Zool. 1889, p. 106.)

Black Redstart. Ruticilla titys (Scop.).

A winter visitor, arriving sometimes as early as the end of September
and beginning of October, but generally about the first week of November,
and remaining until the end of March and beginning of April. A male
was killed at Plympton in July 1865 (J. B. R., MS. Notes). Frequently
observed on the south-west coast of the county, especially near Plymouth,
at Thurlestone, around Torbay, and at Teignmouth. Last of the Exe it
is much more rarely seen.

It is our opinion that the Black Redstart may be observed almost
anywhere on our south-western coast in the winter months by those who

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$

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J.GKeulemans del.et lith Mintern Bros

BLACK REDSTART.
Ruticilla titys/Scop)
Adult Male and Mate im od ear. (R.couri, so called).

Published by R.H.Forter.

Lae

Chromo lth

TURDID.Z. 1B

will take the trouble to search for it in suitable localities. It would
appear to be more plentiful in the immediate neighbourhood of Plymouth
than elsewhere, but this may be chiefly due to the fact that so.good an
observer was established there on the look out for it. It has occurred at
many places on the southern shores of the Bristol Channel, where there
have been ornithologists to recognize it, at Instow on the N. Devon coast,
Ilfracombe, Minehead, and Weston-super-Mare. It does not confine
itself to the neighbourhood of the coast, as it has been observed often
inland, at Barnstaple, and many specimens have been obtained round
Taunton. One frequented our house in Barnstaple one winter, and used
to flutter before the windows, tapping the glass with its beak while
catching small flies and midges, as the Common and Grey Wagtails will
often do. When perched on the top of the house, or on some neighbour-
ing wall, it had much the appearance of a Robin.

Among the numerous examples of the Black Redstart obtained by
Mr. J. Gatcombe at Plymouth was one with its tail cut short and a piece
of red worsted tied round its leg.

The habits of the Black Redstart have been well described by the Rev.
W.S. Hore and Mr. J. Gatcombe, as studied by them in the vicinity of
Plymouth. They are not easily procured, as they will creep into some
hole or crevice in the rocks and remain concealed for a long time. On
sunny days they may be observed busily engaged in the pursuit of small
insects. Mr. Gatcombe says that they closely resemble the Wheatear in
their actions, and seldom perch on a bush. A favourite haunt is not long
without its Black Redstart, and should one be killed another soon takes
its place. Old males are scarce and are very shy; but cold weather
makes them very tame, and they may then be seen puffed out and
hopping on the grass above the cliffs instead of on the rocks below.

The first specimen recorded from Devonshire, being the fifth British-killed example,
was shot in January 1833 at Teignmouth (Yarrell’s B. Birds, 2nd ed. i. p. 264).
During the first week of November 18453 twenty were killed near Plymouth, on their
arrival in small flocks, by various persons (W. 8. H., Zool. p. 495). More than
twenty were killed there in 1850, sixteen by one person (R., A. J., in ‘ Naturalist,’
1851, p. 44). Mr. J. Gateombe killed thirteen there in November 1852, and he met
with it every year for twenty years, except in 1880. Old males were scarce (Zool.
1881, p. 52, and zm /i/t.). He states that it is most numerous at Plymouth in March,
just before leaving for the summer. Very interesting notes on this species by that
adniirable and lamented ornithologist will be found in the ‘ Naturalist’ (1851, p. 227),
in the ‘ Zoologist’ (1870, pp. 2026, 2139; 1878, pp. 3051, 3443; 1574, pp. 5827,
8909 ; 1876, p. 4784; 1877, p. 45; 1881, p. 52; 1883, p. 165; 1884, p. 55; 1885,
p. 21; 1887, p. 878), and in Yarrell’s ‘ British Birds’ (4th ed. i. p. 836). Bellamy
mentions this bird twice as “ Sy/via erithacus, L., Red-tailed Warbler,” and as ‘Sylvia
tithys, Black Redstart.” He states, on the authority of Mr. 'L. . Gosling, that six
“ Red-tailed Warblers” were shot in the lines at Devonport at one time (Nat, Hist.
8. Devon, 1839, p. 205).

In the Kingsbridge district Mr. R. P. Nicholls has met with this species, more par-
ticularly between Bantham and Thurlestone (especially in the winter of 1884), but he
has also seen individuals on the house-tops and in the streets at Kingsbridge catching
flies (MS. Notes). Oneshot at Fallapit on October 24th, 1887, and two seen at Thurle-
stone on November 7th, 1889 (Ii. A. 8. 12., MS. Notes).

Mr. ¥. Burt, formerly Curator of the Torquay Museum, says he had two or three
specimens brought to him in most seasons (September to February) from Berry Head,

14 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

Goodrington Sands, Babbacombe, Watcombe, and Teignmouth (Zool. 1851, p. 3234) ;
and had five which were shot in the winter of 1852-53 near Torquay (op, cit. p. 3807).
Dr. Robert Battersby noticed three pairs in the winter of 1846-47 near there (op. cit.
p- 1697). One occurred at Paignton in February 1870, and two adult males at
Torquay in 1873 (op. cit. 1870, p. 2098, and 1874, p. 3907).

Messrs. R. and C. Jordan shot specimens at Teignmouth in January 1844, January
1850, January and February 1851, and January 1852 (Zool. 1844, p. 494; 1851,
». 8112; and Trans. Devon. Assoc, vi. p. 710). One occurred at Dawlish in 1867
(Zool. 1867, p. 703).

One was shot at Exmouth in December 1882 (‘Field’ for December 16th, 1882),
and another in December 1889. We saw a young male there November 2nd, 1890.
An adult male was obtained at Seaton on March Ist, 1883. It oceurs occasionally
near Iixeter, where individuals were seen in 1874-75-76; and Bellamy states that it
had been known to breed there (Nat. Hist. 8. Devon, p. 206). One which we saw was
taken alive, on a limed twig. by a bird-catcher, October 7th, 1882. This species has
been seen at, Barnstaple and Instow, but appears to be rare in North Devon (W. 8. H.,
in ‘ Naturalist,’ 1866, p. 858; M. A. M., Zool. 1867, p. 1017; and G. F. M., Zool.
18735, p. 2917).

Red-spotted Blue-throat. Cyanecula suecica (Linn.).

An accidental visitor of very rare occurrence. A Blue-throat was shot
in a furze-brake, near Whimple, about eight miles from Exeter, about
September 15th, 1852, by the late Mr. Wentworth W. Buller (T. L. P.,
Zool. 1852, p.3709). One was seen by a lady ina garden on the Topsham
Road near Exeter about 1869. The blue on the throat was distinctly
noticed, and the bird identified at the time, by means of Gould’s ‘ Birds of
Great Britain,’ as a Cyanecula. A doubtful occurrence is recorded from
Devon by M. C. Cooke (‘ Naturalist,’ vol. iii. 1853, p. 203). It is supposed
to have occurred in the neighbouring counties ef Cornwall, Dorset, and
Somerset, but there is more or less doubt regarding nearly all of the
reputed occurrences in the south-western counties.

Mr. Cecil Smith mentions a young bird of the year, now in the A. M. M.,
said to have been shot in Somerset in 1856 (‘ B. of Somerset,’ p. 84). It
was formerly in the collection of Mr. Ross, of Topsham.

Note.—During the month of July 1877 our vicarage garden at, Bishop’s Lydeard,
near Taunton, was tenanted by a Blue-throat. Our attention was first directed to it
by the pugnacity displayed towards it by the Redstarts frequenting our grounds.
One afternoon getting a close view of the stranger when it was perched on the roof of
the conservatory we distinetly recognized its blue throat with a patch of white in the
centre, proving it to be an example of C. lewcocyana, the southern form of this warbler.
We only saw this interesting little visitor on one subsequent occasion, and suppose it
to have been either driven away by the jealous Redstarts, or to have fallen a victim to
our garden cat. (M. A. M.)

Redbreast. Lrithacus rubecula (Linn.).
(Robin, Redocke, Ruddock: Dev. }

Resident, generally distributed and abundant. Breeds.
Mr, Gatcombe noticed that Robins are very numerous on wild rocky
parts of the sea-coast near Plymouth during the winter months (Zool.

TURDIDA. 15

1870, p. 2026). They sometimes nest very early in the year. A nest was
found at Torquay, January 7th, 1869 (Zool. 1869, p. 1720). Several nests
were seen near Exeter on February 15th, 1882. Albinos occur occa-
sionally; one killed at Dunchideock, near Exeter, is in the A. M. M,
A pure white nestling occurred at Plymouth in May 1883 (J. G., Zool.
18835, p. 420). In January 1866 a Robin with white wing-feathers was
seen near Topsham. A buff-coloured specimen with the usual red breast
was shot at Kingsbridge on December 3rd,1886. (H. A.S. E.)

These pugnacious little birds will fight for some favourite position in
the shrubbery, and the champion will drive away all intruders. Should
any accident befall him, the place is occupied at once by another Robin,
who, in his turn, holds it against all comers. In the hard winter of
1880-81, five Robins came into our house, self-invited guests, and con-
tinued with us for more than a fortnight, hopping about the dining-room
floor at meal time and picking up crumbs. Several Blue Tits and Wrens
found refuge in the passages, and a small flock of Chaffinches, Hedge-
Sparrows, and Bullfinches were entertained in the kitchen until the thaw
came. The household cat was, of course, suppressed for the occasion,
(M. A. M.)

The late Mrs. Mitchell, of Newport House, Topsham, tamed a brood of
Robins by feeding them in the nest, which was in a hedge near a garden
path. They became so familiar that they would fly out of the hedge, as
she walked up and down the path, and alight on her hand to feed on the
finely chopped meat she daily carried out for them, and even take food
from between her lips. Sometimes two or three at a time would perch
on her hand, They would sometimes take food from other female mem-
bers of the family. Some of this brood survived for a year or two, their
number diminishing one by one, much to the regret of their old friend.

The heads of Robins are sometimes quite denuded of feathers, and
remain so for several months, the birds in the meantime presenting a
very amusing appearance.

Nightingale, Daulias luscinia (Linn.).

A summer migrant of occasional occurrence in the southern part of the
county. Breeds occasionally,

Scarcely a season passes without one or more Nightingales being heard
near Exeter in April, May, and June, and several have been trapped and
shot in that neighbourhood from time to time. One specimen in the
A. M. M., from the collection of the late Mr. F. W. L. Ross, of Topsham,
was killed at Stokewood, near Exeter, in 1844. Mr. Ross mentions in
his MS. ‘Journal of Occurrences in Natural History’ for 1844, p. 51,
that Nightingales had been heard at Topsham, and both heard and seen at
Stokewood, for twenty-seven years by one person. Mr. W. F. W. Bird
states that Mr. Ross had said that he heard Nightingales repeatedly
every year, and that he himself both heard and saw one singing in a tall
elm on Northernhay, Exeter, April 16th, 1846 (‘ Naturalist,’ 1851, p. 177).

16 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

Several were heard at Topsham in 1845 (Zool. p. 1191); one was shot at Tallaton,
near Honiton, 1846 (Ed. Murch, Zool. 1846, p. 1393); one was trapped near Countess
Weir about 1854; heard near Exeter and Topshain, April 28th and May 27th, 1864,
and May 7th, 1865. Heard at Stokewood May 11th and June Ist, 1879 (R. C.), at
Rewe, near Exeter, April 29th, 1881; at Stokewood June Sth, 1881, May 14th and
21st, 1883, May 13th, 1884, May 24th, 1886 (R.C.). At the end of April and in
May 1582 Nightingales were heard singing at Torquay (‘ Field,’ April 29th, 1882) ;
at Kenton; two at once at Stokewood, May 27th and 28th (R. C.); at Chudleigh
(W. B.); near Horrabridge and at Torcross (E. A. 8. E.). Two were shot at Thurle-
stone April 24th, 1888 (R. P. N.). One is said to have been heard at Fenny Bridges,
near Ottery St. Mary, in May 1890 (‘ Exeter Gazette’ for May 23rd,1890). In South
Devon, besides the above localities, it is said to have been heard at Beer, Seaton,
Exmouth, Powderham, Dawlish, Teignmouth, Lindridge, Ringmore, South Bovey,
Brixham, and Kingsbridge (Polwhele, Hist. of Devon; Montagu, Orn. Dict., Suppl.;
Bellamy, Nat. Hist. 8. Devon; Turton and Kingston; and Yarrell’s British Birds,
2nd ed. i. p. 803), to which may be added Ashburton, Shute Woods, and Giitisham
(Pidsley’s ‘B. of Devonshire,’ p. 15). At Kingsbridge it is so rare that Mr. R. P.
Nicholls, of that town, and his brother had but one specimen brought to them for
preservation in fifty years (EH. A. 8. E. in ‘ Exeter Gazette’ for June 13th, 1883). It
is also rare in the extreme south-eastern corner of Devon.

In North Devon it is said to have been heard at Barnstaple (‘ Naturalist,’ 18066,
p- 358); and many years ago a Mr. Torr had a stuffed Nightingale which was caught
near Barnstaple. Polwhele also says it has been heard in that part of the county
(Hist. of Devon).

Mr. J. 1. Underhill informed us that a pair were breeding on the Honiton Road
just beyond the Exeter and Exmouth railway arch, near Exeter, June 6th, 1872; and
Mr. H. E. Rawson found several pairs breeding in a coppice near Ashburton in 1888
and 1889 (Pidsley’s ‘ Birds of Devonshire,’ p. 15).

Though the range of this species seems extending westward, it has not yet been re-
corded from any place west of the Tamar. Mr. Rodd says it is unknown in Cornwall
(‘ Birds of Cornwall,’ p. 39). It is common on the eastern side of Dorset, but rarer on
the western (Mansel-Pleydell, ‘ Birds of Dorset,’ p. 23). It is tolerably numerous near
Taunton, in Somersetshire (C. 8., ‘ Birds of Somerset,’ p. 102).

We have never heard a Nightingale singing at large in N. Devon. Birds
brought from other parts of the kingdom and turned down at Barnstaple
did not remain in the district, and were never heard to sing. We our-
selves once took a number of Nightingales from Surrey into Devon. We
carried them down by the night mail in the guard’s van, and in their
cages the birds sang throughout the journey. Several of them lived for
three years at Barnstaple, and treated us to rich concerts. They would
begin to sing just at the early dawn of a summer’s morning ; first one
would warble a few notes, and the others, in emulation, would tune up
as well, until we had the full choir. During the middle of the day they
were generally mute, nor did they sing much of evenings, with the ex-
ception of the winter time. They were then brought into the dining-
room for the sake of the warmth of the fire, and when the lamps were
lighted they often commenced to sing, and would provide us with a concert
during dinner. Their favourite bonne bouche was a fat cockroach, and
great was the excitement in all the cages of a morning when a pie-dish
full of writhing monsters from the kitchen regions was brought into the
room, and the birds were fed in turn by means of a quill-pen, with which
the loathsome orthoptera were prodded and handed over to them, all
uttering the “ tack, tack,” with which they express pleasure. (M.A. M.)

TURDIDA. 17

Subfamily SYLVIIN A.

THE WARBLERS.

The Warblers are a numerous family, and include a
large proportion of our smaller summer migrants. Many
of them, although common, are not often seen, on account
of their habit of plunging into the thickest part of a hedge,
or among the dense herbage fringing streams and ponds,
when they are approached ; but any one who wishes to
see them has only to stand quiet and watch, and presently
the restless little birds will creep up again into view.
Some of them, like the Blackcap, the Garden-Warbler,
and the Reed-Warbler, are delightful songsters. The
curious Grasshopper-Warbler is quite a ventriloquist:
without changing its position it pours forth its strange
song, now sounding close at hand, now seeming to come
from adistance. ‘The tiny Gold-crest confines itself almost
exclusively to the fir, its favourite tree. The Willow-
Warblers are ever on the move, searching the leaves for
minute insects and insects’ eggs. The aquatic Warblers
seldom seem to sleep, singing sometimes all through the
summer’s night.

Whitethroat. Sylvia cinerea (Linn.).
[ Whittybeard, White Drot, Nettle-creeper, Hay-sucker, Bee-bird: Dev. |

A summer migrant, common throughout the county in suitable localities,
though Montagu seems to have found it rare in Devonshire. Breeds freely,
often in gardens, which it much frequents.

The Whitethroat is one of the few Warblers which is commonly dispersed
in the summer in the extreme west of England, and is numerous through-
out both South and North Devon. Arriving with the rush of our small
summer visitors about the middle of April, this lively and amusing Warbler
is generally common, and must be well-known to everybody, as there is
not a garden or hedgerow which is not enlivened by its presence. Now
it may be seen balancing itself on the pea-sticks, when, with its crest
erected, it will hurry through its few notes, and then restlessly pry about

C

18 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

for small insects, which it loves, and gardeners will say that it is not
altogether innocent in the matter of helping the Sparrows in their attacks
upon the peas, nor does it keep itself clear of the small fruit. Birds’-
nesting boys know it as one of “the thin builders,” from its loosely con-
structed nest, which, being often placed among nettles, gives the bird one
of its provincial names, ‘‘ the Nettle-creeper.”

Near Exmouth numbers of Whitethroats are seen for a few days in
August and then disappear.

Lesser Whitethroat, Sylvia curruca (Linn.).

A casual visitor of very rare occurrence.

Montagu says it had never been noticed in Devonshire when he wrote
(Orn. Dict., Suppl.1813). Dr. E. Moore says, * Rare, I have one specimen”
(Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837). The Rey. R. A. Julian also observes that it is
very rare, and that one that had been shot at Mutley was the only one he
could discover as having been ever obtained near Plymouth (‘ Naturalist,’
1851, p. 87). Aspecimen killed in Devonshire was in the collection of the
late Major Godfrey, of Exeter, which is now in the Bath Museum. (R. C.)

The record of its occurrence and breeding in North Devon in the
‘ Naturalist’ for 1866, p. 358, is erroneous (M. A. M., Zool. 1891, p. 273).
It is stated to have bred near Dawlish and Tiverton (Zool. 1891, p. 309),
but we think in error.

We have never seen the Lesser Whitethroat in North Deyon, nor,
indeed, in any part of the county. Mr. J. Gatcombe wrote that he had
never satisfied himself that he had ever seen it in South Devon. It is
very rare throughout Somersetshire until one arrives at the eastern parts of
the county bordering on Wilts, and even then it is very far from being
numerous. We never met with it in the neighbourhood of Weston-super-
Mare. In some MS. notes of a driving-tour made by Col. Montagu in
our possession, there is the account of his seeing a single specimen of this
little Warbler on the beach at Minehead, and he expresses his pleasure at
meeting it for the first time so far to the west. (M. A. M.)

It is unknown in Cornwall, though it is occasionally obtained on the
Scilly Islands during the autumn migration, It has bred in Dorset, but
is rare in the western part of that county.

Black-headed Warbler. Sylvia melanocephala(Gm.).

It appears not improbable that one or more species of Black-headed
Warbler occasionally visit England beside the Orphean Warbler, as when
seen they would most likely be passed over as Blackcaps.

On the 16th April, 1890, whilst watching a male Blackcap which had
just arrived, and was feeding on ivy-berries in our garden at Exmouth,
another bird with a jet-black head, but pure white throat and underparts,
and with a slender beak, longer and larger in proportion than in the
Blackcap, settled on a twig quite close to it, and we were able to compare

TURDIDA, 19

the two birds. The stranger was certainly smaller than the Blackcap,
instead of being larger, as the Orphean Warbler is said to be, and which
we supposed it to be, as no other Black-headed Warbler was known to
visit England besides those two species (W. D’U., Zool. 1890, p. 467). Mr.
Howard Saunders, however, considers it was a Black-headed Warbler
(Sylvia melanocephala), a common species in the south of France and the
Peninsula, as well as other parts of the South of Kurope, and which he
thinks might be easily swept up with the tide of migration during a gale
to our western shores (Zool. 1891, p. 272).

Blackcap. Sylvia atricapilia (Linn.).

A summer migrant, generally distributed and common. Breeds.

From our own obseryations it arrives from 16th to 24th April near
Exmouth and Exeter, and feeds on the ripe berries of the ivy at that time.
It not unfrequently remains throughout the winter. One was heard sing-
ing near Topsham on Jan. 20th, 1856, and one was seen near Exeter on
Feb. 11th, 1869 (E. P., Trans. Devon. Assoc. vol. vili. p. 246). The late
Mr. W. Brodrick heard it in March 1882 at Chudleigh, and Mr. Parfitt
says he saw one annually at Exeter from 23rd to 30th March for many
years (op. cit. p. 265). The late Mr. G. Treffry informed us that for
several years he observed that the males appeared on 18th April in his
garden at St. David’s Hill, Exeter. The females were always eight or
ten days later. In his MS. ‘ Occurrences in Nat. Hist.’ (vol. ii. p. 7), the
late Mr. Ross remarks having seen a@ pair on April 10th, 1839, and that
several had been seen for the first time in his neighbourhood in that year.
He observes it was very destructive to small fruits, such as green currants,
gooseberries, cherries, and in fact everything. It is sometimes seen in the
first week in April at Plymouth and Torquay (‘ Naturalist,’ 1851, pp. 86,
204, and Zool. 1872, p. 279). Dr. E. Moore says, ‘* Arrives in April and
departs in September ; is not uncommon ; frequents woods and gardens ”
(Trans. Plymouth Inst. 1630, p. 303). Bellamy observes that “the
Blackcap arrives here [ Plymouth] with tolerable regularity about the last
week in April, and often earlier” ( Nat. Hist. 8. Devon, p. 401). Mr. Henry
Nicholls writes, ‘I caught a female specimen of this species in the green-
house at Roseland, Kingsbridge, on the 12th Nov., 1886. After exam-
ining it I gave it liberty, and, to my surprise, on the following day I found
it there again, attracted, no doubt, by some grapes which were hanging
on the vine, as I found many of the berries perforated. It continued to
roost there till December 10th, when on that day it flew away during a
heavy fall of snow and hail, and did not return” (MS. Notes), A male
Blackecap was shot on Dec. 12th, 1890, while feeding on some honeysuckle
berries in a garden at Barnstaple (Zool. 1891, p. 62). Mr. . A. 8. Elliot,
of Kingsbridge, says: ** On April 26th, 1881, I found a Blackeap’s nest
with three eggs in our garden, which I took; on the 28th they began
building another nest in some ivy close by, which was finished and lined
by the 2nd May ; the following day it contained one egg, and one was laid

C2

20 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

daily till 6th May. This nest I again took. On the 27th May, in a
privet-bush close to the original spot, I found a nest containing three
young ready to fly ” (MS. Notes).

The Blackeap is generally common in North Devon. This favourite of
the garden and the grove, the least shy of all the Warblers visiting us
in summer, first makes its appearance early in April, and, as if to make
up for the slight put upon the West Country by several of the summer
songsters, is occasionally to be found passing the winter in the south of
Devon and in the south-west corner of Cornwall. It is possible to have a
very near enjoyment of the delicious trills of this charming minstrel, for
we have only to approach quietly the bush from whence it is warbling,
either in the shrubbery or some woodland lane, and the little black-capped
bird will take no notice, and often have we stood a few inches beneath his
bough watching his throat quiver and swell as he ponred forth his liquid
notes in his full delight in life and “the incense-gathering spring.” He
is very fond of ripe green figs, and stealing quietly towards an old tree
which used to grow against our stable-wall in North Devon, we have
caught a couple of mice and a cock Blackcap in close company regaling
themselves upon this delicious fruit.

The Blackeap, the Garden Warbler, and the Greater Whitethroat are
all fruit-eaters, bringing their young broods into our gardens as soon as
they can fly to take their share in the luscious food,

Garden Warbler, Sylvia hortensis, Bechst.

A summer migrant, numerous in some localities. The nest is frequently
found near Exeter in May. Arrives in April, and sometimes remains
with us up to October. We saw one at Exmouth, October 10th, 1890.
oy; DU.)

It is common in the valley of the Plym, being very plentiful in Bickleigh
Vale on June 18th, 1875 (EK. M., Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837, p. 176; R. A. J.,
‘Naturalist,’ 1851, p. 68; J. G., * Zoologist,’ 1875, p. 4636). We met
with it on Brent Hill in September 1889. “Till recently we had not
traced this species so far west as Devonshire; but in 1806 we heard several
in the month of June in the thickets that border the river Avon, within
a few miles of its junction with the sea, singing most charmingly ” (Mon-
tagu, Orn. Dict.). Strange to say, Mr. R. P. Nicholls has never met with
it at Kingsbridge. It is enumerated by the Rey. G. Tugwell in his list of
North Devon birds, but although we have for many years closely looked
for this Warbler, we have but very rarely seen it in the northern part of
the county or succeeded in identifying its song.

Dartford Warbler. Melizophilus undatus (Boda.).

Formerly resident in the south-eastern, southern, and south-western
“ ’ 9

parts of the county. There have been no recorded occurrences since
1877, and we fear it must be extinct in Devonshire.

TURDID. eM

The breeding-habits of this species were first observed by Col. Montagu
in this county. He first met with it in the southern parts of Devon on
September 8th, 1802, when several were seen. He found nests, eggs,
and young on a large furze common near Kingsbridge, July 16, 1806 (of.
Trans. Linn. Soc. vii. pp. 260, 274, and ix. p.191). Neither Mr. EK. A.5.
Elliot nor Mr, R. P. Nicholls has been able to find it in that neighbour-
hood (MS. Notes). In the autumn of 1809 several were noticed by
Mr. Comyns at least fifteen miles north of Exeter, amongst furze, one of
which was shot and sent to Col. Montagu for examination (Orn. Dict.,
Suppl.). Turton and Kingston (1830) state that it was frequent on the
borders of Haldon, and had also been noticed near Dawlish. Specimens
used to be found in the furze-bushes of Mount Batten almost every year
(J. G., Zool. 1878, p. 54).

It has been observed on Bovey Heathfield (W. B.); near Ashburton (A. G. C. T.);
near ChudJeigh (W. B. Scott); on Dartmoor (J. B. R.); frequently at and near
Plymouth (EH. M., R. A. J., and J. G.); Budleigh-Salterton, June 10th, 1871 (H. 8.
Percival, fide E. P.) ; Branscombe (J. G.); Lyme Regis (J. G., J. H. G., Jnr., Zool.
1869, p. 1599; and Capt. Marder, v. v.). Two specimens were brought to us in the
flesh which had been shot near Lympstone, January 14th, 1874. One was taken by a
limed twig at Bovisand on November 7th, 1874 (Zool. 1875, p. 4370). Two were seen
on Mount Batten, Plymouth, November Ist, 1877 (Zool. 1878, p. 54).

In Pidsley’s ‘ Birds of Devon’ it is stated that “ Mr. Mitchell reports he has met
with the species in the north of the county” (p. 17).

This is another species which has spread to the extreme south-west,
and although formerly a rare bird in Cornwall, it had become not un-
common in the Land’s-End district by 1869. (Rodd, ‘ Birds of Cornwall.’)

It is likely that a great number of these little birds perished in the
severe snow-storms of the memorable winter of 1880-81. Although we
were continually looking after the Dartford Warblers in the furze-brakes
of North Devon, we were never successful in meeting with any. In its
actions and appearance not a little resembling the Long-tailed Titmouse,
which it does not very greatly exceed in size, this tiny frequenter of the
furze used to be local, but by no means scarce, in many places on the south
coast of Devonshire and Cornwall, and in the latter county Mr. E. H. Rodd
informed us (in 1877) that it was yearly becoming more numerous. The
first place where Colonel Montagu observed the Dartford Warbler was in
the neighbourhood of Falmouth, where, in September 176, he states tat
he found many on some furzy hills, and noticed them on the same spot
until 24th December, when, some heavy snow falling, they disappeared
and were never seen again. ‘The Dartford Warbler has been sometimes
met with in turnip-fields. It is a feeble flier, and can be easily run down
and caught,

Goldcrest, ftegulus cristatus (Linn.).
(Tidley Goldfinch, Dev. |
tesident, generally distributed and common, especially in winter, when

its numbers are recruited by immigration, commencing in October. Breeds,
usually attaching its nest to a fir-branch.

ee

29, THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

This, the tiniest of our English birds, chiefly affects plantations of ever-
greens, especially firs and larches, among the foliage of which are to be
found the minute insects that form its food. It is wonderful what
myriads of small beetles and spiders and larve of lepidopterous insects
harbour in fir-woods, as any one can prove who will simply open an
umbrella, and inverting it, shake or beat one of the lowest branches over
it, and will then note the minute creatures that will be seen swarming in
the receptacle thus prepared for them. The Goldcrest is also often seen
in orchards and gardens, where it searches the shrubberies like the Willow-
Wren and Chiffchaff, carefully examining each leaf and twig, and will be
then seen in company with Tree-creepers, Long-tailed Tits, and other
members of the Titmouse family. A nest in our garden, which was
placed in a spruce-fir adjoining a hollow sycamore, tenanted by a pair of
Green Woodpeckers, was entirely lined, and partly constructed, of the
small green feathers of these birds.

A pair of Goldcrests, of a cream-colour with the usual yellow crown,
was in the collection of Mr. Luscombe, of Kingsbridge. A white speci-
men has been shot in Devon (J.C. B., N. Hist. 8. D. p. 206).

Fire-crest. Regulus ignicapillus (Temm._).

A casual visitor of very rare occurrence.

One example is recorded as having been taken in Devonshire (A. N.,
‘ Yarrell’s B. Birds,’ 4th ed. i. p. 457). This is probably the specimen
mentioned by Dr. E. Moore as “at Pincombe’s” (Rowe’s Peramb. Dart-
moor, p. 253). Twospecimens of this bird are in the collection of Mr. Pin-
combe, said to have been obtained in a garden at Devonport (J. B. R.,
Trans. Plym. Inst. 1862-63). ‘ A pair in my late father’s collection shot
near Plymouth. Mr. H. Nicholls has a pair obtained at the same time
from Pincombe, of Plymouth” (E. A. 8. E., MS. Notes). None of these
occurrences are satisfactorily authenticated. All the specimens seem to
have come from a well-known dealer in rare birds. A female occurred at
Torquay March 6th, 1873 (J. H.G., Jnr., Zool. 1873, p. 3490; A. von H.,
Zool. 1874, p. 3907). According to Mr. F. Pershouse, Jnr., two specimens
have been obtained at Torquay. One was picked up dead at Torre in 1874
(E. P., Trans. Devon. Assoc. viii. p. 266). A specimen in the collection
of the late Mr. Cecil Smith is said to have been obtained at Torquay.

It is said to have occurred on Lundy Island (J. R. C., Trans. Devon.
Assoc. iy. p. 605).

We were informed by the late Mr. Vingoe, of Penzance, that anyone
searching for the Fire-crest in that neighbourhood is almost sure to meet
with it throughout the late winter months in places where ivy abounds, in
the shelter of which it will be seen hunting for its insect food. We never
detected the Fire-crest in North Devon. Our friend Mr. J. Gatcombe
looked upon several of the reported occurrences in South Devon as very
doubtful, but there can be no question as to the genuineness of the ex-
ample seen by Mr. J. H. Gurney in Mr. Shopland’s possession at Torquay,

TURDID.A. 23

which was stated to be the only specimen Mr. Shopland had received
during his long experience as a bird-stuffer in that town.

The Fire-crest occurs not unfrequently in Cornwall, especially in the
Land’s-End district, Lariggan Valley being a favourite locality, and in the
Scilly Islands; also in Dorset.

Chiffchaff. Phylloscopus rufus (Bechst.).
[‘‘ Lesser Pettychaps” of Montagu; ‘* Choice and Cheap” about Totnes. |

A summer migrant, generally distributed, and sometimes very numerous.
Breeds.

Usually arrives about March 26th, departing in October; some, however,
occasionally remain all through the winter. Col. Montagu saw a Chiffchaff
several times in the winters of 1806-7 and 1808-9 in Devonshire (Orn.
Dict., Suppl.). One was shot on January 20th, 1851, at Torquay (Zool.
1851, pp. 3033, 3034). Three were shot near Modbury about the end of
December 1866 (R.P.N.). Mr. J. H. Gurney heard this bird at Torquay
on February 14th, and again on March 10th, 1872. In that year we
heard it at Chagford on March 9th (M.A. M., Zool. 1872, p. 3063), and
Mr. Gatcombe noticed it at Plymouth on March 16th. It is very common
at Plymouth, and Mr. T. R. Archer Briggs saw and heard one there on
February 16th, 1575 (Zool. 1875, p. 4381). One was seen at Axminster
on February 22nd, 1882 (‘ Field’ for March 4th, 1882). We observed
great numbers in a marsh near Topsham, March 21st, 1855, and March 18th,
1856, when snow was falling (Zool. 1856, p. 5093). In some years,
however, as in 1883, it is scarce (W. D’U.).

The Chiffchaff is quite as common in North Devon as in the south of the
county.

Willow-Warbler. Piylloscopus trochilus (Linn.).
[Yellow Wren ” of Montagu; Hay-bird, Ground Isaac,Ox-eye: NV. D.|

A summer migrant, common and generally distributed. Breeds.

Arrives sometimes as early as the end of March or beginning of April,
but more usually about the middle of the latter month, when the great
rush takes place across the Channel. ‘‘ Never saw anything like the
numbers of Willow-Wrens seen during the week of 12th to 18th April,
1890” (EK, A. 8. E., MS. Notes). It sometimes remains until October on
the south coast, but. we think many leave before the end of August. ‘There
is a great influx of birds of the year to the neighbourhood of Exeter and
Exmouth at the end of July and early in August. In August 1883 many
entered the windows of houses in Exeter, and were brought to us for
identitivation,
_ Lo be seen very early in the spring, when the sallows are first budding
into leaf by the side of every brook, this tiny bird is associated in the mind

24 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

of the angler with the first days of the fly-fishing season, when the trout
in our west-country streams rise keenly to the “ blue upright,” and have
not been rendered hard to please by the abundant supply of insect food
which will make them fat and lazy and disposed to be critical by the
time the meadows are ready for the mower’s scythe in the merrie month
of June. On many a breezy day towards the end of March have we
welcomed the Willow-Warbler as we have noted it for the first time for
the season flitting with restless haste from twig to twig, scrutinizing each
unfolding leaflet, and every now and then flying up a few inches into the
air to capture some passing insect. Ever and again it will warble its
simple song, not to be compared in its melody with that of the Blackcap,
perhaps, but cheerful and sprightly, and dear to those who hear it as
among the first strains which usher the glad spring. It is often seen in
gardens, where it is a bold and fearless little bird, somewhat disposed to
play the tyrant among the other small frequenters of the shrubberies.

Wood-Warbler, Phylloscopus sibilatrix (Bechst.).

A summer migrant. Local, but common where it occurs. Breeds.

The Wood-Wren times its arrival in England so as to find the oaks and
elms already coming into leaf, and is not to be expected before the end of
April or beginning of May, when it may be noticed in places far from the
woods which are its summer abode. We have seen it on the level near
Weston-super-Mare in Somerset. In North Devon it is not rare in large
woods where there are tall oak and beech trees.

At Plymouth it arrives in April and departs in October. It is common in Bick-
leigh Vale and in all large woods with tall trees, but is very rarely seen in brush-wood
(E. M., Trans. Plym. Inst. 1830, p. 305; J.C. B., Nat. Hist. 8. Devon, p. 207;
R. A. J., ‘Naturalist,’ i. p. 87; and J.G., v.v.). ? Ivybridge, Rev. G. C. Green ;
Tavistock, A. Mitchell (Pidsley’s ‘ Birds of Devonshire’). It has not been met with
near Kingsbridge (R. P. N.).

There is a specimen in the Museum of the Torquay Natural History Society ob-
tained in the neighbourhood, and Turton and Kingston include it in their list of the
birds of the district.

It is very scarce near Topsham, but one was shot there in July 1844 (F. W. L. R.,
MS. vol. iv. p. 119).

In North Devon it is common in oak-woods near Clovelly (O. V. A., Zool. 1887,
p. 71). Apparently numerous near Dulverton, in Somerset, close to the north-eastern
border of Devon (C.8., Zool. 1878, p. 339).

Col. Montagu saw and heard this species in several of the western counties, and
obtained specimens, nests, and eggs (Trans. Linn. Soe. vol. iv. p. 35).

[Icterine Warbler, Hypolais icterina (Vieillot).

In Bellamy’s ‘ Natural History of South Devon’ there is a description
given of a Warbler which was unknown to him, but which we have little
doubt was a specimen of the Icterine Warbler, the bird which for some
time had a place in the Jritish list under the name of the Melodious
Willow-Warbler. However, this appellation was misleading, because the

We Aare
jug Tene

e Hatin hae

‘LNIOd LUVIS

TURDIDA. ei)

Icterine Warbler does not in its nesting-habits or song agree with the
group of Willow-Warblers (Phylloscopi), which all build dome-shaped
nests in banks or upon the ground, whereas the Icterine Warbler places a
loosely constructed open nest upon the forked bough of a tree, and in its
other habits comes nearer to the Sedge-Warblers. We quote Bellamy’s
account of the South-Devon specimen :—‘“‘ Recently a bird has been shot
by Pincombe, taxidermist of Devonport, at Whiteford, in the neighbour-
hood of Plymouth, which bears a great resemblance to the Chiffchaff in
colour, and is but a trifle longer; the differences worthy of note being
first and principally a greater width of the base of the upper mandible
fone of the characteristics of C. L. Brehm’s genus Hypolais|; secondly,
a went of correspondence between certain quill-feathers, the second and
seventh being the same length in the Chiffchaff, the second and sixth in the
Yellow Wren (Phylloscopus trochilus, Linn.), while in this new species each
feather differs in length trom the rest; thirdly, that the alula spuria is of
a brighter yellow, and somewhat larger. The note is unknown to the
person who procured it.” (N. H. 8. Devon, p. 207.)

The song of the lcterine Warbler is remarkably fine. We often stood
beneath one which spent a summer with us at Stone Hall, in Pembroke-
shire, which we should never have distinguished from a somewhat large
Chiffchaff had it not been for its delightful melody. The little songster
danced up and down upon the branch, opening and closing its wings in its
joy asit poured forth its notes, as we have also seen the Wood-Wren
doing while singing in May in an oak. (M.A. M.)|

Rufous Warbler, Aédon galactodes (Temm.).

An accidental visitor from Southern Europe of very rare occurrence.

The same district of South Devon has attorded two instances of this
Warbler. ‘The first was shot near the Start by Mr. W. Dillwyn Llewellyn,
of Penllegare, in September 1859, after a strong wind had been blowing
for some time, and was so much injured that it could not be mounted. It
had lost its tail and was very thin, and was presented to the British
Museum, and is now scarcely to be recognized as a Rufous Warbler. The
capture of this example was recorded by Mr. G. R. Gray in the ‘ Annals
and Magazine of Natural History,’ 3rd ser. iv. p. 399, and in ‘The Ibis’
for 186U, p. 103. The second instance occurred near Kingsbridge on the
12th of October, 1876. The bird was first noticed in a turnip-field by a
gentleman out shooting (Mr. W. Bastard, of Slapton), who was attracted
to it both by its colour and its strange antics. When flushed from the
turnips it flew to a hedge, from which it made short flights into the air,
descending each time with its tail expanded. We had the pleasure of
examining this example shortly afterwards at Mr. Nicholls’s house in
Kingsbridge. It was in very good condition, and was evidently, from the
crescentic markings upon the plumage, a young bird of the year. It is
still in the possession of Mrs. Bastard (H. N., MS. Notes; R. P. N., in
‘Field’ for October 1876; and Zool. 1376, p. 5179). Only one other

26 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

example of the Rufous Warbler had previously occurred in this country,
and this was in the neighbourhood of Brighton in September 1854. It
must be a strange accident that brings a bird which is only a summer
visitant to the south of Europe so far to the north as to be found on our
coast in the autumn. Most probably these stragglers had become mixed
up with some other party of birds, or else had been carried far out of their
course by an adverse wind. It is stated that a strong south wind had
been blowing for some time previous to the occurrence of the first Devon-
shire specimen of this Warbler.

THE AQUATIC WARBLERS.

We have now arrived at the Aquatic Warblers, a numer-
ous family, of which there are but three species, all summer
visitants, at all plentifully distributed in this country, and
of these but one, the Sedge-Warbler, can be said to be
common in Devonshire, or, indeed, in the S.W. counties.
‘These Warblers are to be known by their short, rounded
wings, their long and wedge-shaped tails, and by their
strong legs and long prehensile toes and claws, adapted to
their taking a firm hold of the reeds about which they
climb most of the day in search of small insects. They
all have a habit of singing by night, and their song con-
sists of a quick hurried babbling, which seems to arise on
all sides of one when near their favourite haunts of a
summer evening. ‘The West Couniry, with its rapid trout-
streams flowing through moorlands, woods, and meadows,
rarely fringed anywhere on their banks with the dense
tangle of herbage these Warblers love to frequent, does
not seem suited to their presence, and it is for this reason,
with the one exception mentioned above, they are only
rare stragglers within its confines. Slapton Ley, in South
Devon, might seem a suitable locality for the Reed-Wren,
and here it was, without doubt, detected one summer by
Mr. J. H. Gurney, Sen., but its appearance was only acci-
dental, and we cannot find that it has been observed there

TURDIDA. 27

since. Wenever detected it or its nest in North Devon. We
think it quite probable that both Dr. Moore and Bellamy
were mistaken in their identification of the bird, which we
do not believe to occur in Devonshire, save only as an
accidental strageler.

[As the Marsh-Warbler, Acrocephalus palustris, has
been observed for many years in succession nesting around
Taunton, and is, moreover, a species which does not require
high reeds and sedge, it very probably visits Devonshire,
although it has hitherto escaped detection. |

Reed-Warbler. Acrocephalus streperus (Vieill.).

A casual yisitor in summer of rare occurrence.

Dr. Edward Moore mentions this species, in his “ List of Devonshire
Birds” (Trans. Plym. Inst. 1830, p. 303), as “very rare; seldom seen
further west than Somersetshire ; but is marked a Devon bird in Car-
rington’s ‘ Dartmoor’.” In his ‘“ List of Passerine Birds of Devonshire ”
(Mag. Nat. Hist. n.s. i. p. 176, 1837) he says, ‘“‘ Rare, I possess one
specimen.” If Turton and Kingston are to be trusted, it was found in
the meadows near Newton and Ashburton. The late Mr. J. H. Gurney,
under the heading ‘* Ornithological Notes from South Devon,’ in the
‘ Zoologist ’ for 1871, p. 2679, says, “I saw this day (6th May) several
Reed-Warblers at Slapton Ley, where I heard them frequently throughout
the remainder of the month.”

It is a rare and local species in Cornwall (Rodd); only known from
the neighbourhood of Bridgwater and Bath in Somerset (C.8.); and a
summer migrant to Dorset (Mansel-Pleydell).

{Under the name Sylvia turdoides, Meyer (Thrush Nightingale), Rev.
F.Q. Morris, in his ‘ British Birds’ (vol. 111. p. 207), says: “ N. Rowe, Esq.,
of Worcester College, Oxford, has informed me that two eggs of this rare
sritish bird were taken at Staddiscombe, near Plymouth, in Devonshire,
in 1850.” The species intended was probably Acrocephalus turdoides,
Meyer (Great Reed-Warbler), and not Philomela turdoides, Blyth (Thrush
Nightingale), a species which has not occurred in England (vide Newton,
‘ Yarrell’s B. Birds,’ i. p. 320, note). The Great Reed-Warbler is, however,
not known to have occurred in the West of England. Its eggs are so
characteristic that there ought to be no mistake in their identification. |

Sedge-Warbler, Acrocephalus phragmitis (Bechst.).

A summer migrant, generally distributed in suitable localities, such as
river-banks, marshes, and ponds, It is plentiful and breeds.

28 THE BIRDS OF DEVON,

Arriving about the middle of April, and departing again at Michaelmas,
this vivacious and noisy little bird betakes itself to sedgy and swampy
ground, to the banks of streams and rivers, and to damp hedge-rows and
withy beds, where it plunges deep into the cover of the aquatic plants
and bushes, and all through the day and night pours forth an incessant
babbling—at one moment mimicking the notes of some other bird; at
another scolding to itself with a deep ‘churr”; restless and never
still, seldom coming forth into view, and nesting upon the ground or
in some low bush: its eggs partake the same variable character as its
song.

Mr. Gatcombe saw some at Plymouth on October Ist, 1875 (Zool. 1875, p. 4716).

The Sedge-Warbler is common in the South Hams. Often flushed in turnips in
September (EH. A. 8. E.). Efford Marsh, Buckland meadows, and the banks of the
Erme below Ermington (R. A. J., ‘ Naturalist,’ i. p. 87); Kingsbridge (R. P. N.);
and Slapton Ley (J. C. B., Nat. Hist. S. Devon).

Abundant in the Topsham marshes, on the banks of the Exe, and in the Clyst
valley.

Occurs commonly in North Devon, bat is not mentioned as being found on Lundy
Island.

Grasshopper Warbler. Locustelia newvia (Bodd.).

A summer migrant of very local distribution. Breeds.

It is rare in the Plymouth district, only a few specimens having been
obtained there (E. M., Mag. Nat. Hist. n.s. i. p. 176, 1837; W.H. Row,
Zool. 1845, p. 1190). Four specimens have been obtained in the months of
April and May near Stoke (Plymouth). One heard and seen in Fancy
Wood, April 19th, 1849 (R. A. J., ‘ Naturalist,’ 1851, p. 87).

Montagu observed several about Kingsbridge, where it is still often seen
and heard late in the summer evenings every year, and where it breeds
(R. P.N.). A favourite locality for them is close to Kellaton, near the
Start Point (E.A.8.E.). Seen occasionally near Ashburton (‘T. & K.).
Lord Lilford has informed us that he once found six nests of this bird in
a small patch of ground on the northern slopes of Dartmoor.

It is often heard at Stoke Wood, near Exeter, where it is quite common
in some years, and it is said to breed there. There are specimens in the
A. M. M. from this locality, one of which was killed on April 26th, 1849
(R. C.). Heard near Exmouth, April 21st, 1869 (J. G., MS. Notes).

We were never able to detect the note of the Grasshopper- Warbler
around Barnstaple ; but it occurs in North Devon, as Mr. H. A. Evans, of
the United Services College, Westward Ho, has informed us that it is met
with in the furze hills close to the College every spring. From our expe-
rience of it in other parts of England, we have observed that it is very
faithful to the same locality, the birds continuing year after year to nest
in the same corner of a field. Nowhere have we found this Warbler so
abundant as it is in the neighbourhood of Fairford, in Gloucestershire,
where, when fishing on the Coln, we have sometimes been quite startled
by its curious song, sounding like machinery running down, close at our

TURDIDA. 29

elbow in the long herbage, and have marvelled that it could have been
produced by so small a bird. (M. A. M.)

[Savi’s Warbler. Locustella luscinioides (Savi).

“Mr. More (Ibis, 1865, p. 33) was informed by Rev. H. Roundell
that he had obtained eggs near Kingsbridge, in Devonshire” (Newton,
‘ Yarrell’s B. Birds,’ 4th ed. i. p. 393, note). Prof. Newton suspects an
error in this statement. There is no record of the occurrence of this
Warbler in the West of England, and its eggs are not sufficiently charac-
teristic to prevent the possibility of mistake. ]

Subfamily ACCENTORINA.

Hedge-Sparrow. Accentor modularis (Linn.).
[Dinnick, Segge: Dev.]

Resident and abundant throughout the county, except the centre
of Dartmoor. Breeds.

This homely-looking little favourite of our gardens and hedges is
generally distributed and common throughout the West Country. We
must also add that some are found with us throughout the year; but,
bearing in mind that on the continent this species is migratory, going to
the far north in the spring and returning again south in the autumn, we
must express our suspicion that in all probability many of the Hedge-
Sparrows which pass the summer with us leave us for the winter, and are
replaced by others which reach this country from Northern Europe. One
severe winter, when we were daily feeding a number of small birds in
front of our dining-room window, we recollect that a single Hedge-Sparrow
asserted itself as king of the company, and held its own against the miscel-
laneous gathering of Chaffinches, Robins, House-Sparrows, &c.

An albino nestling, killed by a cat at Alphington, near Exeter, is in the
A.M. M. Another pure white nestling, also killed by a cat near Exeter,
was brought to us June 26th, 1881.

Alpine Accentor. Accentor collaris (Scop.).

An accidental winter visitor of rare occurrence.

A specimen was killed on the cliffs near Teignmouth by Mr. Charles
J. KR. Jordan, January 9th, 1844, and is now in the possession of Mr. W.
Kt. Hall-Jordan of that town, who has kindly allowed us to inspect it on
several occasions. This bird was recorded by Rev. W. 8. Hore (Zool.
1844, 566), but previously it had been erroneously described as a Richard’s
Pipit (Zool. p. 494). (See W. R. H.J., in Trans. Devon. Assoc. vi. p. 709.)
Another Alpine Accentor occurred in the same year at Berry Head (W.%.

9

30 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

H., Zool. p. 879); it is now in the Torquay Museum. Two were killed
by Mr. J. Gatcombe near Plymouth on January 10th, 1859 (Zool. 1859,
p. 6377). A fifth specimen has also occurred near Plymouth.

Mr. J. Gatcombe, who was our constant correspondent, kindly placed
his MS. notes in our hands, from which we extract a characteristic account
of his capture of the two Alpine Accentors mentioned above :—

«“ December 20,1858. Saw a pair of Alpine Accentors near the citadel,

but unfortunately had no gun.

“ January 8,1859. Saw the Accentors again, but did not get a shot at

them,

“January 10, 1859. Shot the Accentors. Hurrah!”

To judge from a live Accentor which we kept for a little time, until it
managed one day to fly out of a window and escape, we should say that at a
short distance it would be difficult to distinguish an Alpine Accentor from
a young Starling in its first plumage. (M. A. M.)

Family CINCLIDA.
Dipper. Cinclus aquaticus, Bechst.

Resident. Breeds. Much reduced in numbers, but some still frequent
rapid rocky streams throughout the county, especially those on and in the
neighbourhood of the moors.

Was frequently seen on the higher branches of the Plym about Bick-
leigh Vale (EK. M.). Several, old and young, seen at Brent, fourteen miles
from Plymouth, on the Avon, August 29th, 1883 (J. G., Zool. 1883,
p. 422). We saw but one in that locality in August 1889. Mr. E. A.S.
Elliot writes that it is “fairly numerous on the Avon. I have found nests
under many of the bridges, also in a bank, built amongst the roots of a
tree ; within a few yards was a Kingfisher’s nest, and the public highway
ran along the bank at this spot, yet the nests were never discovered, or,
at any rate, robbed. On May 4th, 1881, I found a Dipper’s nest at Hatch-
bridge ; on the 12th took it, with three eggs; on the 21st a new nest was
built two feet above the old site” (MS. Notes). Two pairs nested yearly
at Yealmpton (J. C. B., Nat. Hist. 8. Devon, p. 203). A few used to be
found on the Dart (T. & K.).

It has sometimes been seen amongst the rocks on the sea-shore at
Torquay (H. 8., Zool. 1860, p. 6797). It was formerly numerous on the
Teign, especially at Dunsford Bridge. A pair used to breed at Exwick
Weir, near Exeter. A nest and five eggs from thence, taken on March
24th, 1871, are in the A. M. M. One was shot near Topsham in 1839
(F. W. L. R., MS. vol. ii. p. 17). There were two in a bird-stuffer’s shop
at Exmouth in December 1888 which, we believe, came from the Otter, on
which river Mr. Ross says it was formerly numerous. Major Cary
Barnard observed one near Branscombe some years ago. One was scen
near Uplyme in August 1877 (Mansel-Pleydell, B. of Dorset, p. 19).

CINCLID.&. ar

A few frequent the Taw. Two were seen in August 1886 on the East
Lynn (0. V. A., Zool. 1887, p. 71).

It is only known on the western side of Dorsetshire, and is scarce in
Western Cornwall.

The Dipper is a common bird by the side of all the small streams in
North Devon, and seems to prefer the smaller waters to the large rivers,
as we have observed in an extended experience as fly-fishers. We have
heard the Dipper singing in mid-winter when there has been several
degrees of frost. One bitter day, when we were on the watch for wild
duck, a large block of ice came floating down the stream, on which sat a
Dipper singing as if he was in full enjoyment of the weather. Speaking
of the song of this bird, Mr. Polwhele says, with much truth, “Its song
has a great resemblance to the sound of water gurgling among pebbles,” a
description which is thus utilized by Carrington, the Dartmoor poet :—

“With louder rush,
And deeper melody, a torrent flows
Full in the midst, meandering, as if loth
To quit the dale’s dear bosom. On his marge
I mark the cheerful bird that loves the streain
And the stream’s voice, and answers in like strains,
Murmuring deliciously.”

We have scen the Dipper a thousand times, either on a stone in mid-
stream, where he will be perched jerking his tail, and from whence we
have often watched him walk deliberately into the water, beneath which
he has two methods of progression, either by grasping the stones at the
bottom with his feet, or by flying along beneath the surface in much the
same manner as the Common Waterhen. We have also seen him when
floating down a stream make a sudden dive and disappear, or flying over
the water alight on its surface and plunge at once out of sight. The
Dipper has been looked upon with suspicion by anglers, and has been
accused by some of eating the precious ova of trout and salmon, and even
to this day a price is put upon his head on some of the northern streams ;
but this charge may be considered as “‘ not proven:” his ordinary diet
is certainly only the larvae of various Phryganeid and Dytiscide, and he
is thus rather the angler’s friend by destroying insects which in their
larval state are highly carnivorous and prey upon the ova of fish.

When the Dipper is on wing he fcllows every winding of the stream,
very rarely making a straight flight by cutting off corners. He is an
early bird to nest, and as he sometimes builds in a stump projecting over
the stream, his nest, as we have frequently seen, is apt to be swept away
by a flood after a heavy fall of rain. The young Dippers are pretty little
speckled creatures, and are not easily caught, as they scuttle off into the
water and disappear on the appearance of danger. Our kind old friend,
the late Mr. F. Bond, requiring some, we had one day to do a good deal
of wading in the stream before we were able to secure the nestlings in a
landing-net, (M. A. M.)

eh)
Lo

THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

Family PANURID.

Bearded Titmouse, Fanurus biarmicus (Linn.).

A casual visitor of very rare occurrence at the present day, but appears
to have been a resident about fifty or sixty years ago. Breeds ?

We have only once had the pleasure of seeing the Bearded Tit in North
Devon, and this was one autumn day when we were stalking Duck in a
marsh near Barnstaple, and being overtaken by a storm of sleet, were
sheltering behind a tall sedgy hedge, when, hearing a gentle twitter
which was new to us close behind our head, we turned round and saw a
small company of these Jittle birds within a few inches climbing up the
stalks of the sedges in the centre of the hedge. Having only large duck-
shot with us, we did not attempt to secure a specimen. (M. A. M.)

The late Mr. Bower Scott, of Chudleigh, informed us, in 1882, that
about ten years previously he had seen a specimen of this species at
Slapton Ley. Mr. Howard Saunders, in his ‘ Manual of British Birds,’
p- 91, says, “it breeds in one locality, which need not be revealed to the
exterminator, in Devonshire.”

Each year, with the advance of drainage, and the consequent curtail-
ment of swamps and reedy ground, the resorts of the Bearded Tit become
fewer, and many localities where it used to be not uncommon now know it
nomore. To this cause for its disappearance we regret to add another—the
insensate greed of collectors for “ British” specimens of this pretty little
bird and its eggs.

In many of its habits, in the form of its nest, and in the colour of its
eggs, which are minutely streaked with dark reddish brown on a white
ground, the Bearded Tit would seem to come much nearer the Buntings
than the true Tits, and ‘ Bearded Reedling” would seem the better name
for it. On the Norfolk Broads, apparently its last stronghold in England,
it is well known by the name of ‘‘ Reed-Pheasant.”

Dr. Edward Moore observes that it is “rare; I am informed by Mr. Comyns that
the Bearded Titmouse is to be found in the willow-beds opposite Topsham, on the
Exe river,—a specimen in the collection of C. Tripe, Esq., of Devonport” (Trans. Plym.
Inst. 1830, p. 810). Again, in his paper “On the Passerine Birds of Devonshire ”
(Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837, p. 176), he says, “rare; found on the Exe near Thoryerton ;
and also near Topsham, as I am informed by Mr. Comyns, of Mt. Pleasant, near
Dawlish, who has specimens;” and in Rowe’s‘ Perambulation of Dartmoor,’ p. 233,
he writes, ‘specimens at Mr. Tripe’s, Mr. Comyns’s, and four at Rev. Kerr Vaughan’s,”’
According to Bellamy it was “found only in one or two spots near Exeter,” and it had
been noticed only near Thorverton and Dawlish (Nat. Hist. 8S. Devon, 1839, pp. 208,307).
It is certainly no longer found near Topsham. It was occasionally met with in the
neighbourhood of Bovey Heathfield (‘I. & K., 1830). There were two specimens in the
collection of the late Mr. Cecil Smith stated to have come from ‘ Devonshire.”

This bird has occurred as a rare straggler in Cornwall and Dorset, but
seems unknown in Somersetshire.

[Ss]
(SX)

PARIDA.

Family PARIDZ.

THE TITS.

We have now reached a very interesting group of birds,
small in size, but some of them of very handsome plumage,
of which there are several species common and generally
distributed about our gardens, plantations, and woods.
They may be observed examining the stems and branches
of trees for minute insects and their eggs and larve, in all
sorts of positions, head downwards as often as not, or
creeping along the lower sides of boughs back towards the
ground. They have no song which is worthy of the name,
although some of them, the Great Tit in particular, are
great mimics of other birds and have a great variety of
strident call-notes, which are often dissonant enough when
suddenly obtruded among the pleasing strains of the
Warblers of the copse. They are also carnivorous to some
extent. Having for many winters in succession been in
the habit of suspending pieces of suet in front of our
dining-room window for the benefit of the Tits, we found
that the Great Tit, the Blue Tit, and the Coal Tit were
constant visitors, whereas we never once detected the Marsh-
Tit, of which there were generally numbers about our
grounds, coming to share in cur hospitality. ‘The amusing
gestures of the Tits while climbing up the string or cling-
ing to the pieces of fat will well repay any one who wishes
to help them through the cold weather. ‘The Great Tit
is not altogether free from the imputation of occasionally
killing and eating birds of its own size, the brains of the
Victims being regarded as the favourite morsels. Both
the Great ‘Tit and the Blue Tit are very destructive to
the rows of peas in the kitchen garden, the Blue ‘lit in
particular being very expert and quick in opening and
rifling the pods.

D

34 THE BIRDS OF DEVON,

British Long-tailed Titmouse, <Acredula rosea
(Blyth).

[ Bottle-Tit, Long-tailed Pie, Long-tailed Cap’n: Dev. |

Resident, generally distributed and abundant. Breeds. The “ Long-
tailed Pie” and its beautiful nest are known to every birds’-nesting boy
in Devonshire.

This species and the Gold-crest are the smallest of our native British
birds. It is generally to be seen travelling about in little companies of a
dozen or more, consisting of the old birds and the brood of the previous
year, and where one goes the others follow, like a game of “ follow-my-
leader,” the one in front often calling to the next in order with a shrill
scolding twitter. Except just at the pairing-time, it is rare to find only
two of these little Tits together. The old birds and young roost together
at night, clinging to each other like a swarm of bees, as we have witnessed
at Gidleigh. (M. A. M.)

The beautiful bottle-shaped nests of these little birds vary very greatly
in the materials of which they are constructed. -Two we met with in a
pheasant-cover, at no great distance apart, were built, the one almost
entirely of withered oak-leaves and lichens, the other of moss and Pheasant-
feathers, some of the short bright neck-feathers of the cock Pheasant being
stuck, evidently for the purpose of adornment, around the tiny entrance-
hole. The Long-tailed Tit probably occasionally rears a second brood, as
we once had a nest sent to us which was cut out of a damson-tree, the
little branches to which it was suspended being covered with ripe fruit.
(M. A. M.)

In the winter-time Long-tailed Tits frequent alder-beds in company
with Lesser Redpolls and Siskins, and in early spring are sometimes seen
mingled with Willow-Wrens and other small birds. They sometimes
unite in large flocks with other species of Titmouse.

Their numbers are probably recruited by immigration in winter, as small
flocks are sometimes observed on the coast at that season (J. G., Zool.
1874, p. 3910); and, perhaps, the White-headed continental form of the
species may reach our county in the autumn with other migratory birds.
We have ourselves received a specimen shot near Cambridge, and Mr. J.
Gatcombe obtained one from the neighbourhood of Bridgwater, in October

1871, and considered that it might be more common in England than
is generally supposed.

Great Titmouse. Parus major, Linn.

[Ackmeel, Ackmal, Ackmall, Ackmaul, Hackmall, Heckmal, Hickmall,
Hickemal, Hickymal, ‘Heckymal, Hackey maul, Hagmall, Big
Hickmull, Eckmall, Uckmal; Ox-eye, Black-headed Bob : Dev. }

Resident, generally distributed in wooded districts, and common.
Breeds. This species is remarkably powerful for its size, and will strike

PARID&. 59

down and kill small birds, as we have witnessed. (W. D'U.) The
numerous forms of the provincial name “ Hackmall” for it are derived
from the strong blows or pecks it deals with its bill.

British Coal Titmouse. Parus britannicus, Sharpe
and Dresser.

Resident, tolerably common in the south of the county, and is often
seen in suburban gardens around Exeter and Exmouth in winter.
breeds.

With regard to the distribution of this species, we have noted that it
is most plentiful where the Marsh-Tit is the reverse, and that where the
Marsh-Tit is numerous but few Coal Tits are seen. In North Devon this
species is but seldom met with, even in large fir-plantations, which are its
fayourite haunts, whereas the Marsh-Tit is plentiful and is to be seen
everywhere. Precisely the opposite may be stated of North Somerset,
where the Coal Tit is more abundant than any other species of Tit, and the
Marsh-Tit is seldom seen.

All the nests of the Coal Tit we have taken were lined with a thick
welt of rabbits’ fur.

Marsh-Titmouse. Parus palustris, Linn.
[ Black-headed Tit. ]

Resident, common in some places. Breeds.

** Marsh-Tit ” is rather an ill-bestowed name for this species, as it is
by no means confined to marshes, and, indeed, is to be found, and nests
commonly, in gardens and orchards in the driest situations. Holes in old
oak trees are favourite places for it to breed in.

A very large flock, consisting of Marsh, Coal, and Long-tailed Tits, was
seen flitting about some alder-trees by the side of the River Plym, August
31st, 1872 (J. G., 1872, p. 3260).

Mr. Leonhard Stejneger (in Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. vol. ix. p. 201) dis-
tinguishes the British form of the Marsh Titmouse as a sub-species under
the name of Parus palustris dresseri (vide Zool. 1887, p. 379).

Blue Titmouse. Parus ceruleus, Linn.

| Billy-biter, Bliithpecker, and Bluespick (NV. D.), Blue-cap, Titmal,
Ackmal: Dev. |

Resident, generally distributed and abundant. Breeds.
On May 15th, 1870, a boy found the dried-up body of a Redwing lying
on its back in the cavity of an apple-tree in an orchard at Exwick, near
Exeter, and on the breast and between the partially expanded wings,
' forming a cup-like hollow, a Blue Titmouse had deposited some moss,
feathers, &c., to form a nest, and had laid nine eggs, on which she was
D2

36 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

sitting. The Redwing must have taken refuge in the hollow of the tree
and perished during the severe weather of the preceding winter. ‘The
lining of moss &c. was unfortunately removed by the finder before bringing
this singular nest to Mr. Robert Cumming, by whom it was presented to
the A. M. M.

The Blue Tit would seem to be the most carnivorous of the whole
family, and was observed by Montagu to be a constant attendant in yards
where horse-flesh was kept for hounds. The hen Blue Tit is a courageous
defender of her nest, making a hissing noise and pecking at the hand of a
would-be robber, thus gaining the soubriquet of “ Billy Biter” from
birds’-nesting urchins.

Mr. Gatcombe met with a large flight of this species, February 27th,
1872 (Zool. 1872, p. 3014).

Crested Titmouse. Parus cristatus, Linn.

A casual visitor of extremely rare occurrence. Its natural habitat is in
the pine-forests of Scotland. It is also abundant in France and Spain,
from whence it might wander to this county. The only recorded instance,
however, in which it has been observed in Devon is that mentioned by
Baron A. von Hiigel, near Torquay, March 26th, 1874. The bird seen
was so tame that he almost touched it with his walking-stick (Zool. 1874,
p. 4065). It has never occurred in Cornwall, Dorset, nor Somerset, but
has been met with, equally as far south as Torquay, in the Isle of Wight.

Family SITTIDA.
Nuthatch. Sitta cwsia, Wolf.

Resident in wooded localities throughout the county. Breeds.

Though nowhere numerous, the Nuthatch is sufficiently distributed in
those portions of Devon suitable to its habits to be among our best-known
and most familiar birds. In North Devon we have had numerous oppor-
tunities of observing it. Its peculiar movements upon a tree, where it is
as often seen descending the trunk head downwards as progressing up-
wards or along a bough, its jerking and dipping flight, its strange whistle
in the spring, and the sound of its hammering at a nut which it has placed
in some chink in the bark of a tree for the convenience of being cracked
are all part and parcel of country life in our woodland districts; and the
bird is sufficiently conspicuous with its blue-grey back and russet under-
parts to attract attention so as to be generally known.

The Nuthatch breeds near Exeter, but it is not common near Kings-
bridge, where Mr. R. P. Nicholls only occasionally receives a specimen,
generally from the neighbourhood of East Allington.

A melanic variety, having the lower parts dark lJead-colour and the
rufous patch on the thigh larger than usual, was shot in Mount Radford,

TROGLODYTID&.—MOTACILLID.E. 37

Exeter, by Mr. Alfred Radford (W. D’U., Zool. 1883, p. 221). This spe-
cimen is now inthe A.M. M. Mr. J. H. Gurney, Jnr., kindly informed
us that he saw a specimen in the Museum at Carlsruhe in which the
throat and crown of the head were pure black.

Family TROGLODYTIDA.
Wren. Troglodytes parvulus, Koch.

[Jinty, Cutty, Cuddy Vran (West D.), Kitty Tope, Tidley Tope, Titty
Todger, Cracky or Crackil (NY. D.).]

Resident, generally distributed and common. Breeds.

It commences building its nest very early in the year. On February
15th, 1856, we saw one carrying materials into a hole in a thatch roof
near Topsham. We once found a Wren’s nest which was almost entirely
lined with the small feathers from a Sparrow-Hawk’s breast. The
Wren is one of the commonest visitants of greenhouses and conservatories,
where its presence is highly beneficial and to be encouraged, as it busies
itself in the capture of aphides and other small pests of plant-life. In
cold rough weather a pair of Wrens have sometimes remained for days in
our conservatory, never once, as far as we could tell, venturing outside its
welcome shelter.

Many roost at night during the winter months in holes in the sides of
hay-ricks, and we have frequently caught them in such places. There is
a considerable immigration commencing in October near Exmouth, and
Wrens are most numerous during that month and throughout the winter.
A white variety was in the possession of Mr. J. Comyns (H. M., Trans.
Plym. Inst. 1830).

Family MOTACILLID/A.

THE WAGTAILS.

The Wagtails are a very elegant family of birds, of
almost completely terrestrial habits, catching their insect
prey by chasing it with rapid steps upon the turf, or else
by the side of drains and streams, or even upon the aquatic
herbage whose growth in summer covers quiet pools, where
the broad leaves of the water-lily will not yield to their
dainty tread. ‘Their long and graceful tails bow with
every motion; they are never still; and for the most part
are bright in their plumage, with gaily contrasted colours.
They are all migratory, some of the species only visiting

8 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

Sh)

us in the summer; while those which are found in this
country throughout the year change their quarters within
its limits, some of them, doubtless, leaving us altogether
for more southern latitudes.

In their full adult dress the various species are to be
easily distinguished, but the young are very puzzling from
their close resemblance to one another, a remark which
applies especially to the various closely allied forms of
Yellow Wagtail. We confess to have found great diffi-
culty in discriminating between several Yellow Wagtails
obtained in this country which we have handled, and
believe that it is quite impossible to assign the immature
birds with any certainty to their respective species. And
this difficulty is one which meets us not only in the Wag-
tails, but also in other summer migrants, from the fact
that they arrive in all stages of plumage. Some of them,
after leaving us in the autumn, directly they reach their
warm winter-quarters in the North-African oases, may,
perhaps, proceed to undertake again the cares of a family,
and those birds which come to us in the following spring
still in immature dress may be either the young birds
which have there been produced, or else birds of the
previous year, not yet arrived at their full plumage. The
immense numbers of Wagtails congregating in autumn on
our south coast is one of the most striking features of
Devonshire ornithology.

White Wagtail. Wotacilla alba, Linn.

A summer migrant. Arrives early in March and remains until Sep-
tember. It is not numerous, and appears to be rather local. Breeds?

The late Rev. R. A. Julian observed one in the Laira Marshes, near
Plymouth, on April 24th, 1851, and the late Mr. J. Gatecombe obtained
several specimens and saw many others there April 26th, 1853, April 24th,
1871, March 3rd, 1872, and September Ist, 1882 (‘ Naturalist,’ 1851,
p- 161, 1853, p. 228; ‘ Zoologist,’ 1872, p. 3049, 1882, p. 459).

The White Wagtail has not been met with, as yet, within the Kingsbridge
district (R. P. N.).

MOTACILLIDA. 39

We have ourselves observed the White Wagtail several times near
Exeter, and early in March near Exmouth. There is reason to believe a
pair bred annually for many years in a pigeon-hole in the wall of a stable
near Topsham (W. D’U.).

This, the true continental Pied Wagtail, is only a summer visitant to
this country, and never strays very far from the part of the coast on
which it has first landed. We have frequently seen it in North Devon in
the spring and summer. Our friend the late Mr. W. Brodrick, during the
time he resided at Ilfracombe, was one day attracted by a flock of pied
Wagtails on the beach at Wildersmouth, whose tired gestures evidently
announced that they had just arrived from a journey. ‘This was at the
beginning of May, and Mr. Brodrick had no doubt about their all being
the continental Motacilla alba. Later on in the same summer (1860, we
think) the same gentleman observed a pair of these birds frequenting a
wall near Morte, in which he was pretty certain they had their nest.
(M. A. M.)

Six males were seen on Northam Burrows in April 1871 (M.S. C. R.,
Zool. 1871, p. 2608).

Pied Wagtail. Motacilla lugubris, Temm.

[Dish-washer, Ditch-washer, Ditch-watcher, Dish-wash, Lady White
Dishes: Dev. ‘“ Dish-washer” is probably a contraction of
Ditch-watcher. ]

Resident, generally distributed and abundant. Breeds.

The Pied Wagtail is seen throughout the year, but is especially nume-
rous in spring and autumn, when there is a great immigration, and large
flocks are observed at the latter season arriving on the north coast
(H. A. E., Zool. 1883, p. 469), and congregating near the south coast,
Immense numbers roost amongst the “spires” or reeds on the “ lick-
beds,” or mud-banks, above Topsham, on the Exe, in August and September.
Large flocks assemble near Plymouth in August (E. M., Mag. Nat. Hist.
1837, p. 176). Mr. H. Stevenson observed a large arrival of these birds
on March 20th, 1859, on the south coast (Zool. 1860, p. 6797), and
we noticed a flock near Exmouth on March 4th, 1890.

The Pied Wagtail is the English form of the preceding species, with
which it is said to have interbred in this country. In September we have
watched little flocks of this species at Ilfracombe passing along the coast
one after the other on their migration, and keeping just at the edge of the
cliffs. We have an adult from Torquay in spring plumage which has the
white of the forehead deeply tinged with carmine. Other small land-
birds which we have received from this part of the county had also
occasionally a pinkish tinge on their plumage, possibly due to dusting
themselves in the fine red soil which comes from tbe disintegrated red
sandstones. (M. A. M.)

Mr. Henry Nicholls, of Kingsbridge, possesses a nearly pure white
specimen,

40 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

Grey Wagtail. Wotacilla melanope, Pall.

Resident and common. Breeds.

Remaining with us all the year, and nesting commonly in all parts of
the south-western district, though certainly most numerous on the low
lands during the winter months, when it appears by every pond, ditch,
and stream, this very graceful species may be considered one of our cha-
racteristic West-Country birds. It is particularly numerous on moor-
land-streams, like the Exe and Barle, and by the side of the countless
rills which merge from Dartmoor into the beautiful rivers watering the
north and south of the county. It thus prefers the same country as the
Water-Ouzel, aud where that bird is resident and common there also the
Grey Wagtail makes its summer home. In North Devon we have found it
remaining throughout the year in the valleys, and not leaving them fur
higher grounds in the spring. On the picturesque Barle above Dulverton
it is so abundant that the angler will observe it on almost every rock in
the stream, and its lively and elegant motions as it flits lightly before him
from stone to stone give an additional animation to the scene. We have
plied our trout-rod by almost every one of the Devonshire streams, and
have always been glad to welcome this beautiful Wagtail, which may well
be a favourite with the angler, asits presence lends an extra charm to his
pursuit. In its habits the Grey Wagtail is the most aquatic of the Wag-
tails, keeping close to running streams, from which it seldom strays;
feeding upon minute water-insects, sometimes chasing the ephemeridz on
wing, sometimes to be seen running over the broad leaves of half-submerged
water-plants in search of small mollusks and beetles. We have found the
edge of some tiny waterfall to be a very favourite situation for its nest.
Mr. J. Gatcombe often found it placed under the arch of a bridge.

There is a considerable immigration in August and September, when it is sometimes
very numerous at Exmouth and all along the south coast-for some weeks. It is remark-
able that Montagu never met with this species in summer, but Dr. Tucker found it
breeding upon the borders of Dartmoor, not far from Ashburton, in the summer of 1808
(Orn. Dict., Suppl.). Mr. Gosling, of Leigham, informed Dr. E. Moore that he had
sometimes found the nest. Bellamy thought it rarely remained to breed, considering
it merely a winter visitor, arriving in September and remaining until the end of March
or the first week in April, frequenting river-banks, spring-heads, and the sea-coast
(Nat. Hist. 8. Devon, pp. 205, 573). A female was caught by a boy on her nest con-
taining five eggs, April 25th, 1871, near Totnes (J. H. G., Zool. 1871, p. 2679). Young
birds were seen flying about on the Dartmoor trout-streams and feeding like the old
ones, May 22nd, 1873 (J. G., in litt.). In 1884 a pair reared two broods, building their
nest in a niche in the wall of the town reservoir at Kingsbridge. ‘They have bred
there regularly each year since then up to 1890, when they were ousted by a pair of
Pied Wagtails. In the summer of 1865 a pair bred at Shindle Mills, in a small hole
in the wall of the mill, inside the overshot wheel, so that the birds bad to pass in and
out through the revolving wheel (KE. A. 8. E. and R. P. N., MS. Notes). Mr. Gatcombe
saw some building by the side of the river Lydd, near Lifton Down (Zool. 1874,
p- 4226). Mr. Cecil Smith has noticed breeding birds about tle Waters-meet Valley,
on the East Lynn (Zool. 1885, p. 4). The nest is frequently found near Exeter,
Honiton, Barnstaple, &e. The black throat is assumed in February, and is retained
until late in September.

MOTACILLID.E. 4]

Blue-headed Yellow Wagtail. Wotacilia flava,

Linn.

A casual visitor of rare occurrence.

This, the common Yellow Wagtail of Central Europe, is an occasional
summer visitant in small numbers to this country, and has often occurred
in the south-western district, more numerously in the Land’s End portion
of Cornwall, perhaps, than elsewhere. A few have been obtained in
South-western Devon, none, as far as we know, in North or East Devon,
while others have occurred at Taunton and at various other places in
Somerset. This species is readily distinguished in the summer from the
beautiful Yellow Wagtail sometimes seen on our pastures by its blue cap,
white chin, and the white line running over the eyes. Mr. J. Gatcombe
found that the white on the throat of this species varied considerably in
extent in the various examples of it which came into his hands, some
having only a small spot on the chin, with all below of a brilliant yellow,
whilst in others the white extended as far as the breast. ‘One of the
males which I killed is the finest I ever saw” (J. G., in litt.). It has
been usually obtained in England in the months of April, May, and June,
more rarely in the autumn, and sometimes in pairs.

According to Bellamy, Mr. Gosling saw a bird of this species (““Motacilla neglecta”)
accompanying a small flock of Pied Wagtails between Plymouth and Stoke about 1859
(Nat. Hist. 8. Devon, p. 305, note). A pair was shot by Mr. J. Gatcombe in a marsh
at Laira, near Plymouth, on May Ist, 1850 (Morris, B. Birds, ii. p. 143). He also
killed a male on May 19th, 1851 (R. A. J., ‘ Naturalist,’ 1851, p. 87); and saw a pair
close to Plymouth in August 1874 (Zool. 1874, p. 4229). A male and female were
shot by Mr. R. P. Nicholls, May 17th, 1880, at Huish Ley, near Kingsbridge; they
had evidently just arrived, as they appeared very tired and quiet. They are now in
the collection of Mr. Richard Andrew, Traine House, Modbury (H. N., Zool. 1880,
p. 487; R. P. N., MS. Notes).

Yellow Wagtail. IJotacilla raii, Bonap.

A summer migrant. Breeds rarely. Generally seen singly or in small
flocks in April and early in May, and not then plentifully, but in autumn
it congregates in great numbers on the sea-coast of the south-west part of
the county. A few pairs remain during the summer to breed. <A pair
breeding at Torpoint, June 4th, 1860(T. R. A. B.). A pair was found breed-
ing at Plymouth in 1872 (J.G., Zool. 1872, p. 3166). Mr. I. W. L. Ross
mentions a specimen seen in the Clyst Marshes, June 3rd, 1841, and we
have seen it near Topsham in July. It departs in October.

Montagu never saw one in the breeding-season in Devonshire.
According to him large flocks collect on the Start and other southern
promontories of Devonshire about September, and Dr. Tucker constantly
observed large flocks about Ashburton at the same season (Orn. Dict.,
Suppl.). Dr. Edward Moore mentions that immense flocks appeared
along the south coast on August 15th, 1828, and remained about a fortnight
feeding on the sea-shore (Trans. Plym. Inst. 1830, p. 305), Bellamy

42 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

states that it congregates in August and September on sheltered beaches
(Nat. Hist. S. Devon, p. 377); and Mr. Gatcombe says that flocks of old
and young are seen on the coast in August (Zool. 1874, p. 4229). The
Rev. R. A. Julian says this species is common and much frequents the lines
at Devonport and the marshes at Laira.

It occurs every spring on Huish Ley, or marshes, in greater or less
numbers about the beginning of April, and in the fall there are large
numbers spread over the whole district around Kingsbridge (R. P. N. and
FE. A.S. E., MS. Notes). It is occasionally seen in spring and autumn on
the muddy shores of the estuary of the Exe, and in the marshes near
Topsham, where we have obtained it in full breeding-plumage. ‘The
earliest arrival we have noted was on April 13th, 1853 (W. D’U.).

It is said to be an occasional breeder on Lundy Island (Trans. Devon.
Assoc. viii. p. 307). It is only a passing visitor in spring and autumn in
Cornwall.

The pleasant, musical call-note of the Yellow Wagtail is one of those
voices of the spring which all rejoice to hear, and it is more particularly
to be enjoyed by those living in the eastern and central parts of the
kingdom, for, beyond showing itself for a day or two in the early spring
and again in the autumn on those parts of our coast which form con-
venient rallying-points for its passage across the Channel, this bird very
rarely stays long with us in the far West. We could never detect it
nesting in North Devon, where it is a rare bird, and there are not many
instances of its having nested in the south of the county. In the neigh-
bourhood of Taunton we have remarked a few in the beanfields throughout
thesummer, When the meadows in the Midland Counties are purple with
the nodding snake-heads (Fritillaria), and the Cuckoo’s note is sounding
all through the day, the Yellow Wagtail may be observed in some numbers
in most of the large pastures, cornfields, or beanfields. Anyone who
wishes to study this graceful and beautiful little bird will have to look for
it in these its favourite haunts, for, unlike the common Pied Wagtail, it
rarely approaches our dwellings andlawns. Many of these Wagtails arrive
in this country in the spring in immature plumage, as we have shot them
then with the black semicircle on the throat which is characteristic, more
or less, of the young of every species of Wagtail. We have considered
that these may possibly have been birds which had been reared during
the sojourn of the adult birds in their winter-quarters, and which had not
had time to arrive at their mature plumage before migrating north.

THE PIPITS.

The Pipits are a confessedly difficult group to study.
Some of the species very closely resemble each other, and
this is especially the case in the immature plumage. We

MOTACILLID.Z. AG

have only two species which are resident throughout the
year, the Meadow-Pipit and the Rock-Pipit, the latter, as its
name implies, to be chiefly met with on the coast-rocks. In
the spring we are visited by a northern race of the Rock-
Pipit, a bird which has been a source of much confusion,
and by the Tree-Pipit, which is generally distributed and
common. ‘The Water-Pipit, a very common continental
species, 1s a rare summer visitant, while the fine eastern
Pipit, known as Richard’s Pipit, has been obtained many
times in our county during the winter months. Two other
species of Pipit, the Red-throated Pipit and the Tawny Pipit,
which have occurred elsewhere in England, have not yet
been detected in this county; the latter has occurred once
on the Scilly Islands. Like the Wagtails, the Pipits run
rapidly on the ground, and are almost entirely terrestrial
in their habits.

Meadow-Pipit, Anthus pratensis, Linn.
{Mountain-Lark, Tit-Lark, Titty Lark: Dev. ]

Resident, generally distributed and abundant, especially on heaths and
marshes. Breeds.

No one can walk across any common, moor, or down bordering the
coast without encountering the tiny Titlark and observing its lively
gestures. In the spring it may be seen rising off the ground, and,
mounting a short distance into the air, it will pour forth its little twitter
of a song, singing as it descends again with expanded wings and tail.
In the winter the Titlark may be found in most water-meadows in the
valleys, to which it then retires from the bleak moorlands. Its nest is
very much affected by the Cuckoo, and, indeed, offers an easily found
home for its unwelcome egg, as the Titlark builds upon the ground,
often under some overhanging spray of whin, sometimes beneath the
shelter of a tussock, but always in such a spot that the Cuckoo has no
difficulty in depositing its egg. It is amusing to watch the anger and
excitement of the pair of Pipits when the Cuckoo has discovered the site
of the nest. They fly restlessly to and fro, attempting to drive off the
enemy, and will pursue it to a distance. This is a very characteristic
spring scene of bird-life in all moorland districts.

Large flocks of Pipits congregate in the neighbourhood of Plymouth
about the beginning of September, and remain a few days (E. M., Mag.

44 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

Nat. Hist. 1837, p. 176; J. G., Zool. 1880, p. 47). On September 13th,
1883, quite a flight of Titlarks seem to have arrived on the south coast,
all in very bright and newly-moulted plumage (J. G., Zool. 1884, p. 53).

Tree-Pipit. Anthus trivialis, Linn.

A summer migrant, common throughout the county. Breeds.

The Tree-Pipit arrives about the middle of April, and remains up to the
end of September and even far into October. It is easily to be recognized
from its habit of repeatedly flying up a short distance into the air
from the topmost twig of some hedge-row elm, and after a short circling
flight alighting again with quivering wings, as it pours forth its simple
and not unpleasing song. We have often taken its nest in North Devon ;
its eggs, which vary greatly, are when fresh among the most beautiful of
all produced by our smaller Euglish birds. Both the Tree-Pipit and the
Meadow-Pipit are more handsome after their autumn moult, when their
plumage assumes a golden tinge.

This species is common at Plymouth (R. A. J., ‘ Naturalist,’ 1851,
p- 37). One was seen there as early as April 10th, 1877 (J. G., Zool. 1877,
p.- 279). The late Mr. T, R. A. Briggs has several times heard it at
Egg Buckland on the 10th, 12th, 13th, and 14th of April. We observed
many in fine plumage in wooded hedges on Brent Hill, September 15th,
1889. Mr. Cecil Smith saw a flock of about twenty near Exmouth on
October 26th, 1878 (Zool. 1874, p. 2832). Nests are frequently found
near Topsham; on the slopes of the Haldons; about Kingsbridge, and
elsewhere. Mr. J. H. Gurney observed the Tree-Pipit at Marldon, near
Totnes, April 23rd, 1871 (Zool. 1871, p: 2679). - Turton and Kingston
frequently observed it in Rora and Penn Woods, near Lsington.

As might be expected from the absence of trees on Lundy Island this
bird has not been observed there, although it is common in North Devon.

Richard’s Pipit. Anthus richardi, Vieill.

A casual visitor of occasional cccurrence, generally during the winter
months.

As no fewer than twenty examples of this fine Pipit have in twenty-
seven years (1842-1869) been secured in Devon, Cornwall, and the
Scilly Islands, it cannot be said to be a very rare visitant to the West of
England, especially when we recollect that in all probability ten times as
many may have come and gone without recognition, and so have escaped
slaughter. The 19th September, 1868, when three were shot at Trescoc,
Scilly, is the earliest, while one recorded from Brighton on 25th April,
185, is the latest, appearance in the year of this straggler from Asia that
we know of in England, the greater number having been obtained in the
months of December and January.

Its large size, its undulating flight, and its strange cry seem to have

MOTACILLID.E. 45

drawn attention to it on each occasion when examples were obtaind
by Mr. J. Gatcombe in the south, and by Mr. G. F. Mathew in the
north of the county; and the particulars furnished us by both those
gentlemen of the gestures, note, and flight, as observed by them, agree in
all their details. Nine examples in all came under Mr. Gatcombe’s notice,
and he has recorded the partiality of the bird for fields in which cows
were feeding. Mr. Gatcombe was the first naturalist who detected the
bird in Devonshire. The fact that no more specimens have been obtained
in our county during the last twenty years, and only one seen, is pro-
bably due to the want of observers who are familiar with the bird, as
many doubtless have visited us during that long interval.

Four specimens were obtained at Stoke, near Devonport, in December 1841 by Mr.
J.Gatcombe, and another in November 1844 (W.S. H., Zool. 1844, pp. 496, 879). One
was shot on the Laira Marshes near Plymouth on January 28th, 1853, being the seventh
obtained within eight years (R. A. J., ‘ Naturalist,’ 1853, p. 158). Mr. Gatcombe saw
one March 14th, 1878, near Plymouth. He altogether met with seven examples in that
neighbourhood himself, besides two others that were brought to the bird-stuffers in the
flesh (Zool. 1878, p. 249).

One was killed at Braunton Burrows, December 50th, 1864; another January 4th,
1869; and a third December 8th, 1869, (G. F. M., Zool. 1865, p. 9457 ; 1869, p. 1561 ;
1872, p. 2919; and ‘ Naturalist,’ 1866, p. 358).

Water-Pipit. Anthus spipoletta, Linn.

A casual visitor in early spring, of very rare occurrence.

On the 18th March, 1883, when returning from a long country walk,
as we passed the Custom House on Exeter Quay, a bird suddenly ap-
peared before us which we at once perceived was something new to us.
It was rather tame, but restless, and evidently a stranger, creeping along
at the base of the walls of the goods’ sheds, where it attracted the attention
of some Sparrows who mobbed it. Observing it at the distance of a few
yards we saw it was a Pipit having a grey head and back, white throat,
breast, and belly, slightly tinged with buff on the sides of the neck, and the
outer tail-feathers, which it displayed when opening and shutting its tail,
were pure white. South-easterly winds had been prevalent for a fort-
night previously. We think there can be little doubt but that it was a
Water-Pipit in breeding-plumage, and having lately inspected specimens
collected by Lord Lilford in the South of Europe we are confirmed in this
opinion (W. D’U., Zool. 1883, p. 221). Mr. Gatcombe saw one on
March 8th, 1873, near Plymouth (Zool. 1873, p. 3562),

The specimens reported from Torquay and from Plymouth in March
1868 appear to have belonged to the variety rupestris, Nilsson, of the
next species (Zool, 1868, p. 1254; and J. G. in litt.). The Water-Pipit
has not been recorded as occurring in either Cornwall, Dorset, or
Somerset.

46 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

Rock-Pipit. Anthus obscurus, Lath.
[Rock-Lark, Sand-Lark: Dev.]

Resident, common all along the coast, especially in the autumn, when
large flocks arrive. Breeds.

Never to be met far off from the sea-shore, where its monotonous call-
note is associated with the sounds only there to be heard, this species is
resident with us all the year, and may be seen passing with a jerky flight
from one rock to another, never very long resting in one place, and con-
tinually uttering its “ chink, chink” of a cry. The nest, placed in some
cranny in the cliff, is difficult to find: one we had in our possession we have
always regarded as a wonderful specimen of patience and industry on the
part of the tiny architects ; it was taken on a small rocky island three
miles from land, and was thickly lined with horse-hairs. How many
times the Pipits must have flown backwards and forwards over these three
miles of water in procuring the materials for the nest !

A large Pipit much greyer in colour than the ordinary Rock-Pipit, with
hardly any vinous colour on the breast, is seen in pairs in spring on the
south coast. A number of specimens of this variety were obtained at
Beer in Febuary 1883, by Mr. Henry Swaysland, Jnr., and some were
sent to us under the impression that they were Water-Pipits (W. D’U.,
Zool. 1883, p. 221). We saw a pair on the cliffs at Exmouth just
arrived, April 24th, 1891.

A specimen obtained at Torquay, and sent to us by Mr. E. Burt, was so
very red that Mr. Gould, to whom we forwarded it, considered it had been
dusting itself in the red soil, but this was not the case. This bird is
recorded by him in his beautiful work on British Birds. Together with
other vinous-tinted Pipits obtained at Torquay, it probably belonged to
the variety rupestris, Nilsson.

Large flocks have been observed on the coasts in autumn (G. F. M.,
Zool. 1874, p. 4252; J. G., Zool. 1880, p. 47).

Family ORIOLIDZ.
Golden Oriole. Oviolws galbula, Linn.

A casual visitor in spring and summer of not very unfrequent occurrence,
especially in the South Hams. It is known to have bred in North Devon.

Only one species of the handsome family of the Orioles is found in
this country, where its beauty has proved to it a fatal gift. There is no
doubt that if it could escape persecution the Golden Oriole would be a
regular summer migrant, nesting in limited numbers in our shrubberies ;
but its brilliant plumage at once leads the person who has detected it to
rush off for a gun, and then we read in some local newspaper the notice ot
a rare bird having been obtained. Professor Newton says :—‘“ If undis-
turbed, they would breed as freely in our woods and orchards as they do

7

ORIOLID®.—LANIID.&, 47

on the Continent.” It appears regularly each year in the Land’s-End
district of Cornwall about April 20th, where as many as forty have been
seen in a flock.

Mr. J. R. Griffiths (late of Pilton Abbey, near Barnstaple), who was
well acquainted with this bird, having often seen it on the Continent,
informed us that a pair of Orioles frequented his grounds and nested in
the shrubbery (More, in ‘ Ibis,’ 1865, p. 20; G. F. M., ‘ Naturalist,’ 1866,
p- 358).

The singular nest of the Golden Oriole, which is suspended between
two forking boughs, to which it is woven, would seem to show a connection
between the Orioles and the Weaver-Birds.

Specimens were obtained at Okehampton Park by Mr. Newton, also by Mr. R. Julian
at Estover, near Plymouth, and at Mount Edgcumbe (E. M., Rowe’s Peramb. Dart-
moor, p. 233; Mag. Nat. Hist. n.s. i. p. 17; Trans. Plym. Inst. 1830, p. 302). A
female was shot in the neighbourhood of Mount Edgceumbe April 29th, 1853 (J. G.,
‘ Naturalist,’ 1853, p. 228). One wasseen at Leigham in 1856 or *57, and a female was
obtained at Millbrooke (J. B. R., Trans. Plym. Inst. 1862-3, p. 65). Mr. Jolley saw
a male in fine plumage in April 1866, near King’s Tamerton, and a male occurred at
Saltram in that year (J. G. and J. B. R., MS. Notes). Mr. Henry Nicholls saw a
male in the marsh near the salmon-weir on the Avon, near Kingsbridge. One was
seen in July 1887 in an orchard at Stokenham (Pidsley, B. of Devon, p. 33).

In the Museum of the College at Westward Ho! is a young male which was shot at
Atherington. The Golden Oriole has been frequently observed near Barnstaple, and

it has visited Lundy island, but the Rey. H. G. Heaven tells us that it has not been
seen there of late years.

This beautiful bird is of almost regular occurrence in Cornwall, and
occasionally visits Dorset and Somerset.

Family LANIIDA.

THE SHRIKES.

Of the very large family of the Shrikes we have only one
which is at all common in this country, and this is the
Red-backed Shrike, a well-known summer migrant. ‘Two
other rare summer visitors, the Woodchat and the Lesser
Grey Shrike, have only once or twice occurred in Devon-
shire ; while the very conspicuous Great Grey Shrike, not
an infrequent visitor in winter to the eastern parts of the
kingdom, must be considered as rare in our county, and
in the West of England generally. ‘Their habits make
the Shrikes easily recognized, as they perch on some
exposed twig, dead tree, or telegraph-wire, whence they

48 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

continually sally forth on some passing insect, or make
their pounce on a mouse or small bird seen below. ‘They
are very tame, permitting a very close approach; and are
all handsome, conspicuous birds, lively and restless, con-
tinually flirting their long tails from side to side.

Great Grey Shrike. Lanius excubitor, Linn.

A winter visitor of occasional occurrence ; specimens are also recorded
as having been obtained in spring, summer, and autumn. We have only
known seven occurrences of the Great Grey Shrike in North Devon, two
of which occurred to ourselves. One day when out shooting in the
neighbourhood of Barnstaple we came upon a Great Grey Shrike being
mobbed by a lot of Finches, one of which he had been devouring. As the
bird flew off we noticed its undulating flight. Another was seen by Mr.
Murray W. Mathew in the early spring, in a lane just outside his house
in Barnstaple. Perched upon a small ash tree in the hedge it permitted
him to walk immediately beneath.

One shot at Leigham 1815, one seen at Ham, near Plymouth, 1830, one shot on
Haldon by Mr. Tucker, of Mount Pleasant, near Dawlish, in June 1829, and one shot
near Millaton (E. M., Trans. Plym. Inst. 1830, p. 299; Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837, p. 176;
Rowe’s Peramb. Dartmoor, p. 233). One shot in November 1849 at Roborough (RK. A. J.,
‘ Naturalist,’ 1851, p. 58). A male killed near Plymouth, January 9th, 1854 (J. G.,
‘ Naturalist,’ 1854, p. 66). One obtained by Dr. Tripe near Plymouth (J. B. R., MS.
Notes). Ashburton (A. G. C. T., ‘Guide to the Scenery’). One seen near Topsham in
April 1839 (F. W. L. R., MS. ii. p. 66). One near Exeter early in 1845 (W. RB. S.,
Zool. p. 983). One killed in Tawton Marshes, above Barnstaple, in October 1855,
another near Barnstaple, January 1858 ; four seen there December 7th, 1869; and one
March 1870 (M. A. M., Zool. pp. 5345, 6015; 1870, p. 2144; G. F. M., Zool. 1872,
p- 2918). One shot at Torquay in July 1865 (R. C.), and one seen October 14th,
1869 (A. yon H., Zool. 1870, p. 1983). One seen between Lydford and Bridestowe,
November 15th, 1876 (J. G.), One near Honitcn winter of 1870-1 (‘ Exeter Gazette’
for January 15th, 1871). One at Watcombe beginning of April 1877 (G. R. Corbin,
Zool. 1877, p. 444). A young femaleshot March 1st, 1882,at Morchard Bishop was
seen by us in the flesh (Zool. 1882, p. 148). A young male was shot on the banks of the
Kingsbridge Estuary, November 19th, 1885, by W. C. Mackie (E. A. S. E., Zool. 1884,
p- 147): this specimen is in the collection of Mr. Henry Nicholls, Kingsbridge,
where we saw it in September 1890. One at Broad Clyst,near Exeter (W. E. H.
Pidsley, in ‘ Notes and Gleanings,’ i. p. 46).

Some of the above occurrences may possibly have been examples of
Pallas’s Great Grey Shrike (Lanius major, Pallas), which has been met
with on several occasions in the British Islands; it has only one white
bar on the wings, whilst in the typical L. eacubitor there are two, 7. e. one
_on the bases of the secondaries and one on the primaries. ‘These two
races are, however, known to interbreed. The summer instances may
perhaps relate to the next species.

LANIID. 49

Lesser Grey Shrike. Lanius minor, Gmel.

An accidental visitor of extremely rare occurrence. An immature bird
was obtained near Plymouth, September 23rd, 1876. It was taken alive
by a bird-catcher (J. G., Zool. 1876, p. 5178).

We think it likely that the Lesser Grey Shrike has been sometimes con-
founded with the preceding and larger species, and examples may have
been obtained without being recognized or recorded. A very fine adult
male was forwarded to us from Great Yarmouth in 1870 as a Great Grey
Shrike, and is still, we believe, the only British representative of this
species in perfect adult plumage. The young bird captured in September
1876, above mentioned, was actually looked upon by the bird-stuffer into
whose hands it passed as only a young Great Grey Shrike, and was treated
so carelessly that it narrowly escaped being lost or destroyed when it was
luckily seen by Mr. J. Gatcombe, and recognized as a rarity.

The Lesser Grey Shrike has occurred on the Scilly Isles ; a female was
recorded by Mr. Rodd as having been shot there in November 1851.

Red-backed Shrike. Lanius collurio, Linn.
[Butcher-Bird: Dev.]

A summer migrant, not very common, but frequently met with in the
neighbourhood of the sea-coast both in the north and south of the county.
Breeds.

Nowhere a numerous species, yet sufficiently dispersed over the south-
western district of England to be a well-known and familiar bird, the
Red-backed Shrike is one of the latest to arrive among our summer
migrants, and among the first to depart. The 2nd May is an average date
for its first appearance, and by the end of the first week in September,
and often earlier, it has left us again for the south. Sand-hills on the
coast, especially those which have a tangled growth of wild rose, black-
thorn, and other shrubs, are a very favourite haunt for this bird, as they
afford an abundant supply of moths, beetles, and other insect food. Thick
hedge-rows, commons, and furzy hill-sides, as well as gardens and lawns
not far from the sea, are much frequented, and in a summer day’s drive it
may often be seen seated on the telegraph-wires, from which commanding
perch it frequently descends on a passing insect. We have had good
opportunities of studying the habits of this handsome and interesting bird,
as there was each year a nest on our lawn in North Devon, and we have
been similarly favoured in other parts of the West of England where we
have resided. We have kept the young birds in a cage, where they have
soon become tame and impudent. We did not attempt to keep them
through the winter, but set them free at the end of August. Like rap-
torial and many insectivorous birds, Shrikes void the indigestible portions
of their food in the form of small pellets, This they do even in captivity,
as our tame birds, fed upon a mixed diet of raw meat, hard-boiled eggs,

E

50 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

and barley meal chopped up together, used to eject the siliceous particles
of the barley meal &c. in this manner. At a meeting of the Exeter
Naturalists’ Club held at Pynes, September 25th, 1863, Mr. R. Cumming
stated that, as an experiment, he had put a thorn bush into a cage in
which he was rearing a brood of Red-backed Shrikes. He next gave the
young birds a live mouse, which they instantly seized, and impaled alive
on the thorn bush, thus proving that this curious practice of the Shrikes
is an inherited instinct, and not acquired by the birds’ only copying what
their parents do. The sun shining on the snowy breast of the male Red-
backed Shrike, as he was sitting on some favourite perch, has often enabled
us to detect him at a considerable distance, and we have noticed that
these birds have their favourite stations to which they return year after
year. It has been stated that the female bird, dull of plumage in com-
parison with her mate, has sometimes, like an old hen pheasant, been
known to assume the bright dress of the male.

The Red-backed Shrike is, perhaps, not quite so numerous in South
Devon as in the northern part of the county, but the nest is frequently
found around Topsham, Exmouth, Honiton, and Kingsbridge (E. A.S. E.
and R. P. N.), and we have watched a brood during the past summer
(1891) that was hatched out from a nest in an elm tree growing in a
hedge in our own grounds at Exmouth. The habits of the old birds are
very similar to these of the Spotted Flycatcher, perching on the tops of
posts and rails, and pouncing every now and then on a large moth, such
as a Large Yellow Underwing, in the long grass of a hayfield. The young
were fully fledged in July, and the parents were most assiduous in feeding
them long after they could fly. As they were not molested, this brood
frequented the same spot day after day for some weeks, disappearing about
August 15th.

Woodchat. Lanius pomeranus, Sparrman.

An accidental visitor of very rare occurrence. The evidence relating
to the recorded instances in Devonshire is not satisfactory, and it has
only been said to have been obtained in the south-western part of the
county. One, however, a male in full adult plumage, was seen at Lyme-
Regis, on the eastern border of Devon, June 22nd, 1876 (‘ Field, July
8th, 1876).

“Shot at Mutley by Pincombe of Devonport” (J.C. B., Nat. Hist. 8.
Devon, p. 200). A young bird is said to have been killed at Kingsbridge
about the year 1852 (Zool. 1852, p. 3474). This is reported by Mr. Charles
Prideaux, who states that he had in his possession an adult of this species
of Shrike, “ killed in Somersetshire,” and a young one obtained at Kings-
bridge. Mr. Prideaux has been dead for many years, and a part of his
collection is deposited inthe Town Hall at Kingsbridge. A small Shrike,
from which the feathers have been quite denuded by moths, may represent
one of the above-mentioned specimens. However, Mr. Henry Nicholls
does not remember the occurrence of a Woodchat in his neighbourhood.

AMPELID.E. Bik

A female Woodchat was captured by means of bird-lime at Plymouth
in the autumn of 1866.

This specimen Mr. Gatcombe stated to be the only one he ever saw that
had been killed in Devonshire. He detected it at a birdstuffer’s, named
Rogers, at Plymouth, and it was said to have been taken by a bird-catcher
(J. G. im litt. and Zool. 1866, p. 577, and 1873, p. 3717). This bird is
now in the collection of Mr. J. H. Gurney. A specimen in Mr. Byne’s
collection had the reputation of having been obtained in Devon, but
possibly belonged to the same category as other rare birds in that
collection.

An adult specimen in Mr. E. H. Rodd’s collection was caught in a boat
off Scilly, in September 1840, and during the autumn of 1849 several
birds of the year were captured on the Scilly Islands. The Woodchat has
been killed at Bloxworth in Dorset, and has nested twice in the Isle of
Wight.

Family AMPELID.

Waxwing. Ampelis garrulus, Linn.

A casual visitor, appearing at long intervals of time during the winter
months. None seem to haye occurred in Devonshire since the winter of
1849-50, when there was a great visitation of this bird to the whole of
England.

lf an illustration were needed of the increased knowledge possessed by
modern ornithologists of the habits of many birds which were almost
unknown at the beginning of the present century, no better one could be
furnished than by contrasting the exhaustive history given by Professor
Newton of the Waxwing (Yarrell’s ‘ British Birds,’ 4th ed. vol. i. p. 523)
with the meagre details which were in the possession of Col. Montagu
and the naturalists of his day. No bird was surrounded with more
mystery to the past generation of ornithologists than this very beautiful
species, which appears in this country from the north at most irregular
intervals in the winter months, in some years being seen in flocks on our
eastern coasts, and then, perhaps, several years will pass without a single
example being noticed. Waxwings are very seldom seen in the Western
Counties, but when a great Waxwing year comes round, like 1850 for
instance, a few filter through and reach as far to the west as Devonshire.
While we resided at Bishop’s Lydeard in W. Somerset, we knew of two
instances of the occurrence of the bird in that village, both in the
month of February.

Polwhele (1797) mentions a specimen killed in an orchard at Ashburton; and one
in 1790 at Totnes, two others being also killed in Devonshire in that year. Col.
Montagu says that this species had occurred as far west as Devonshire, one having
been shot in the park of Lord Boringdon at Saltram (Orn. Dict., Suppl.). Dr. 2.
Moore also states that several had been shot in the neighbourhood of Plymouth, and
especially in the plantations of Mount Edgcumbe and Saltram. Specimens were

BZ

ae, THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

preserved in Messrs. Rowe's, Bolitho’s, and Drew’s collections (Mag. Nat. Hist. n. s. i.
p. 176, 1857). Dr. Tucker gives the Waxwing a place in his list of rare land-birds
which had been discovered near Ashburton (Jones’s ‘ Guide,’ 1823, p. 55). A female
was shot at Stony Coombe, near Kingkerswell, on January 20th, 1829, and shortly
afterwards a male at Ashburton (T. and K. 1830; W. R. H. J., Zool. 1843, p. 188).
A male was obtained in the parish of Blackawton, near Dartmouth, in January 1850
(H. N., Zool. p. 2767). This specimen passed into the collection of the late Mr. C.
Prideaux. Two specimens were shot near Exeter in January 1850 (R. C.). A fine
male, said to have been shot at Crediton in that winter, isin the A.M. M. The late
Capt. Tomline, of Rumwell House, near Taunton, possessed a Waxwing which had
been shot close to Exeter.

Mr. E. Parfitt says :—‘ The last I saw were killed by Mr. Harte at Alphington, near
Exeter, about ten years ago” (Trans. Devon. Assoc. 1876, p. 270). Mrs. Hart, how-
ever, informed us that she knew of no Waxwings having been shot by her son, but
some Crossbills were killed by him, near her house, about 1867, which she still has in
her possession, with many other rare birds he collected. Possibly Mr. Parfitt’s note
got misplaced in copying, and should have been applied to the Crossbill, and not to
the Waxwing, no specimen of which, as far as we are aware, is recorded from Devon
for 1866-67, though it occurred plentifully in the East of England in that winter.

Family MUSCICAPIDA.
THE FLYCATCHERS.

The Flycatchers have very much the gestures of the
Shrikes and, like them, have their watching-stations,
generally some favourite bough, or upper rail of a gate,
or post, from which they pounce upon any passing insect,
returning with their captured prey to the perch they had
started from. When the game of croquet was introduced,
the iron hoops, when left in the ground, were at once
adopted as convenient posts of observation by the Spotted
Flycatcher, the only one of the family which is common
and generally distributed.

Spotted Flycatcher. Muscicapa grisola, Linn.

[Wall-plat: Dev. ‘ Plat,” a flat beam lying on the top of a wall, a
usual site for the nest. |

A summer migrant, generally distributed and common. Breeds.

No one can have failed to notice the little dusky-grey bird, with its
spotted breast, which invariably appears on their lawns, and about their
houses and outbuildings, about the middle of May, when the loitering
summer has at length made up its mind to smile upon the land, and when

MUSCICAPID.E. 53

the oak, the laggard among the trees, is putting forth its leaves. The
Spotted Flycatcher prefers the near neighbourhood of man, and does good
service in assisting the Swallow and other insectivorous birds in thinning
the air of those tiny insect swarms which might become an annoyance.
It departs in August and September. A greyish-buff variety was seen by
Mr. Gatcombe at Plymouth, August 5th, 1884; it showed no trace of
the usual dark markings on the head and breast (Zool. 1885, p. 23). In
the A. M. M. there is a nest of this bird constructed in the dried skin of
a hedge-hog.

Pied Flycatcher. MJuscicapa atricapilla, Linn.

A casual summer visitor, more frequently met with in North Devon
than in the southern part of the county, where it is rarely seen. It is
believed to have bred in North Devon.

With the strong contrast presented between the glossy black back and
the white throat and underparts, and with the white forehead patch and
white bar upon the wings, this Flycatcher, in the plumage of the adult
male, is so conspicuous that there is little chance of its being overlooked.
We have often searched for it on Dartmoor, and also on high moorlands
in North Cornwall, without seeing it, and consider its occurrence anywhere
in the South-western Counties as only accidental. Col. Montagu never
met with this little bird in South Devon, and says:—‘“ It is one of the
very few amongst the smaller tribe of birds whose nest we have not taken
with our own hands ” (Orn. Dict., Suppl.). The Pied Flycatcher is equally
rare in Somerset ; besides one killed near Taunton by Mr.C. Haddon, we only
know of one other, which occurred in the neighbourhood of Wells in the
spring of 1870 (F. D. Power, Zool. 1871, p. 2439). About half a dozen
specimens have been obtained in Dorset, and we have seen two specimens
in the Truro Museum from Looe in Cornwall. It has once occurred near
Penzance, and is a rare autumn straggler to the Scilly Islands.

Dr. E. Moore mentions that a specimen was seen near Barnstaple in June by Major
Harding of Il{racombe (Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837, p. 176). He also states, on the authority
of the late Rey. W.S. Hore, that there was a specimen in Drew’s Collection at Plymouth.
A male bird was shot by Mr. Samuel Tucker at Mount Edgceumbe several years before
1851, at the end of April, and was preserved in Mr. Bolitho’s Collection (R. A. J.,
‘Naturalist,’ 1851, p. 88; and B., Ms. Notes). One was killed by Mr. James Dodd in
his garden at Eldad, Plymouth, Aug. 23rd, 1853 (J. G., ‘ Naturalist,’ 1854, p. 18). In
August 1859 two old birds and four young ones frequented Pottington Marsh, a large
rushy meadow close to Barnstaple, and two of them were shot which proved to be birds
of the year. Old birds were observed by us haunting some low bushes in the vicinity
of a boggy part of Huish Down, near Combmartin, at the beginning of July 1858, and
they probably bred there. A pair were shot on Lundy Island in May 1861, and passed
into the collection of the late Dr. Woodforde of Taunton, and are now at Taunton
Castle Museum. ‘The late Mr. J. C. Hele, of the Knowle, Newton Abbot, informed
us that he had a male Pied Flycatcher shot at Ilsham orchard, near ‘lorquay, April
25rd, 1866. Part of an adult male was picked up near Kixford: it had probably been
killed by a Hawk. Another, an adult male, was seen by us one day in May when
fishing the upper waters of the Barle. The Pied Flycatcher has been seen twice near
Tavistock (A. Mitchell, Pidsley’s B. of Devonshire, p. 37).

54 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

[ Observation.—A continental Pied Flycatcher, Muscicapa collaris, closely
resembling the foregoing, but with a white ring round its neck, might be
expected occasionally to occur, and may, perhaps, have been confounded
with MV. atricapilla in some instances; as also the little Red-breasted Fly-
catcher, Muscicapa parva, several specimens haying been obtained in the
Land’s End district and on the Scilly Islands. |

Family HIRUNDINIDEZ.
THE SWALLOWS.

These universally welcomed and favourite birds may lay
claim to being the best known of our summer migrants to
ordinary people; and yet, although the various species
which come to our shores are most easily to be distinguished,
it is common to hear of their being all lumped together,
and even confounded with the Swift, which together with
the Martin bears the general name of Swallow, whilst
Swallows are often called Swifts. Following this general
idea ornithologists formerly united the Swallows, Swifts,
and Nightjars together amongst the Fissirostres, or wide-
gaping birds, but most scientific men now separate the
Swifts and Nightjars on account of certain anatomical
differences and place them with the Picarie, a course
which we have pursued in this work, because the Committee
of the British Ornithologists’ Union have done so in their
‘ List,’ which we have elected to follow, though such an
arrangement can only be considered as provisional. In
discussing the Swallows in general, however, we have
dealt with the Swift in connection with them; they are
so constantly associated together that it is difficult to
avoid doing so in a work of a popular character.

The Swallows are pre-eminently the heralds of spring,
and when they have all left us we are sadly reminded that
the dark days of winter are about to return. ‘Their pre-
sence is to be detected the very day of their arrival, as they

HIRUNDINID&. el

love to frequent our dwellings, and to place their nests in
simple confidence in trust to our care and keeping—our
chimneys, cottage-eaves, church-towers, railway-stations,
and out-buildings being the usual sites in which they
build.

First to reach-our shores in the spring is the tiny Sand-
Martin, who truly, like the primrose, ‘* comes before the
Swallow dares,” and is generally the subject of the notice
of ** An early Swallow ” in the local newspapers. In West
Somerset we have seen the Sand-Martin as early as 12th
March, and it has been observed in the early part of that
month in South Devon. By theend of March it is usually
common.

About the end of March also dweilers by the sea-side
may count upon seeing a pair or two of genuine “ early
Swallows ” hunting for flies among the depressions of the
sand-hills, or beneath some sheltered wall close to the
beach. In such places on the Braunton Burrows we have
come across Swallows on the 26th March, and in South
Devon they have been seen as early as 8th March. ‘The
first large flight, however, does not reach this country
until 10th April as an average date, and is closely followed
by successive flights until the end of the month, by which
time every cottage chimney and accustomed station will
have received its contingent of these cheerful twittering
birdsofsummer. The latest of the family to arrive is the
House-Martin, and it depends altogether upon the season
whether it or the late-coming Swift is the first to make its
appearance. ‘The 26th April is an average date for the
first Swifts, but in some late springs they will not have
been detected before the 4th or 5th May. ‘The end of
April also witnesses the arrival of the House-Martins, but
if the weather is ungenial they sometimes delay their
passage until the middle of May.

56 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

In departing from us they reverse their order in arriving,
the Swift, usually the last to come, being always the first to
go. The 10th of August is an average date for its migra-
tion south, a few stragglers are sometimes seen in the early
days of September, and there are instances of the Swift
having been seen in South Devon as late as November 27th.
We next lose our delightful little friends the Swallows.
About the middle of August the early broods begin to
congregate on our house-tops, church-towers, telegraph-
wires, or favourite trees, and with much twittering lay
down their plans for their approaching exodus. As they
arrive by successive flights so they take their departure.
A second mustering takes place in the middle of September,
when the great body leaves us. In North Devon only a
small detachment remains behind to be brought together
in October, and any Swallows seen later are due to very
late broods not yet strong enough for the long journey to
the sunny south. But these soon become exercised in wing
and are able to follow their companions. In South Devon
numbers of both old and young remain on the coast up to
the end of October. ‘The chance Swallows sometimes seen
in the winter months are unfortunate weakly laggards
compelled by accident or stress of weather to linger in our
ungenial climate. ‘The Sand-Martins are seldom seen after
September ; but latest of all to leave are usually the House-
Martins, which have often eggs in their nest or young
nestlings to feed at that date. This pretty little bird will
linger on, seeming loath to go, until the chill autumnal
winds checking the supply of insect food, and the irresis-
tible instinct driving it south, compel it, too, to depart,
often at the last moment in a great hurry, and leaving
callow young ones to die of starvation in the nests. We
have seen numerous House-Martins on the North Devon
coast as late as 20th November, a stiff and freezing

HIRUNDINID. a

N.E. wind blowing at the time, the birds having
evidently a great difficulty in obtaining food and hunting
for it under any sheltered wall or hedge. As long as
the wind kept in the N.E. they seemed unable to depart,
but directly it veered a point or two they were off. In
their migrations birds cannot fly with the wind dead abatft ;
they wait for a side wind which renders their passage easy,
and for this reason, no doubt, these House-Martins were
detained so long upon the coast. In South Devon and
Cornwall, House-Martins have been often seen as late in
the year as mid December.

Swallow. MHirundo rustica, Linn.
{Chimney-Swallow. |

A summer migrant, generally distributed and abundant. Breeds.

‘The Swallow arrives usually in the second or third week in April, but
stragglers were observed on March 22nd, 1855, March 16th, 1862, March
18th, 1867, March 8th, 1881, and March 16th, 1882. We have also several
times seen Swallows in the first week of April in South Devon. They are
generally first noticed on the southern coast of the county, but as they fly at
a considerable elevation when migrating they may strike some distance
inland before descending, andare often first seen flying over riversand ponds.
Great numbers congregate on the South Coast in autumn preparatory to
their departure for the south, many not leaving until the end of October.
We have more than once seen young birds in November, and shot one on
the 24th of that month in 1854,

The Swallow is not sonumerous within the City limits of Exeter as the
Martin, but at Exmouth it is the most abundant of the two. It breeds in
barns and outhouses and cottage chimneys, begiuning to build soon after its
arrival, and rearing two broods in the season.

White specimens occur rather frequently. A brood of buff-coloured
Swallows was hatched at Honiton some years before 1883, as we were
informed by Mrs. Parkin. Mr. HK. A. 8. Elliot shot a specimen with light
chestnut underparts on April 28th, 1857, at Thurlestone. This specimen
was examined and identified by Messrs H. E. Dresser and R. B. Sharpe.

In few birds is the migratory instinct so strongly developed as in this
fayourite companion of our English summer, which, perhaps, may claim
with the common Stork to have enjoyed the closest observation and study *.
It has heen ascertained over and over again that the same Swallows return
year after year to the same homes, and we can well remember, when

* Jeremiah, viii. 7.

D8 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

strolling on our lawn one beautiful April morning, the sudden descent of a
little band of Swallows which seemed to burst from the clouds directly
overhead, and after circling a few times with joyful twitterings, accepted
by us as a glad greeting and, perhaps, thanksgiving for the sheiter thay
had previously found upon our premises, flying off to the chimneys to
inspect the condition of their old abodes. Sometimes Swallows are observed
either arriving on our shores or departing from them in great flocks. In
the ‘ Zoologist ’ for 1864 is an account of an extraordinary flight which was
seen at Instow, on the North Devon coast, one evening at the beginning of
May. Between the hours of seven and eight a large flight of birds was seen
approaching which proved to be Swallows. It was calculated that the birds
covered a space of nearly a mile in length, by one third of a mile in breadth,
and that they were many thousands in number. Their course was from N.
to S$. They were from two to three gun-shots high, and appeared to be in a
fatigued condition. The direction these birds were taking indicated that
they had been driven from their line of flight by an adverse wind, which
having abated they were returning towards land, after having been carried,
it may be, a great distance out to sea. The different intonations of the
Swallow’s cry will tell any one acquainted with their language what is
happening to the bird at the time. ‘There is the shrill, unmistakable note
of anger as the bird pounces at a dog or cat: one of our tame Hawks
used especially to afford a mark for the Swallows to insult as they would
stoop over him at less than an inch from his head. Then there is the
twitter expressive of satisfaction and pleasure, as the bird is catching the
flies in the meadow some genial day, when one can hear the snap of
the bill as it closes upon its prey.

When it leaves us the Swallow works southwards by degrees, and is
not content until it has reached a great distance from its summer home.
The North-African oases will not satisfy it; only a few, young birds of
weaker wing, will tarry there; the rest push on still southwards, some
speeding across the vast African continent until they reach their winter-
quarters in Natal and the Cape of Good Hope. Others going further to the
East find their winter home in N.W. India, China, and Japan. Few
birds have so great a range between their settlements ut the various
seasons of the year.

Martin. Chelidon urbica (Linn.).
[ House-Martin : Martlet of heraldry. ]

A summer migrant, generally distributed and abundant. Breeds.

The Martin usually arrives towards the end of April, though stragglers
are seen much earlier, and in 1874 we saw two on the 2nd, and many on
the 5th of that month. In 1891 none were observed by us until 14th
May. Martins generally disappear before the last week of October. Young
birds are, however, often seen late in November, and have been observed
even in December (Exeter, December 20th, 1863) and January (Brixham,
January Ist, 1866). Immense numbers congregate about houses near
the sea on the South Coast in September and October. Martins breed

HIRUNDINID. 59

under the eaves of houses in Exeter, where they are much more numerous
than the Swallows. They also breed on the sea-cliffs, as at Beer, Teign-
mouth, Berry Head, and Wembury Cliffs at the mouth of the Yealm.
(J. G., Zool. 1872, p. 3168.)

White specimens are not uncommon. One from Col. Montagu’s col-
lection was in the possession of the late Rev. J. Hellins, who himself once
saw one. Another occurred at Seaton. There is a Martin with white
quill-feathers from Mr. Ross’s collection inthe A.M. M. A white Martin
was observed for several days flying over the Torridge, near Torrington,
in the last week of August 1876. (G. F. M., Zool. 1876, p. 5165.)

To us there are few more pleasant sounds than the soft crooning of the
Martins to their young, heard through the bedroom window some bright
summer’s morning. Although usually content with gnats, and “ such
small deer,” the Martin is prepared to avail itself when chance offers of
larger game. Great was our indignation and astonishment one day when
entomologizing by the river side to see a fine crimson under-wing moth
seized by a House-Martin, as we flushed it from its roost on a pollard
willow, the bird appearing smaller than its prey as it carried it off!

House-Martins do not seek such distant winter-quarters as the Swallows,
but are content with N. Africa, Egypt, Palestine, &c.

Sand-Martin. Cotile riparia (Linn.).
[ Bank-Martin. |

A summer migrant, very abundant though local. Breeds.

The Sand-Martin is the smallest of the Swallow family visiting this
country, and the first to arrive. It breeds in large colonies in holes in the
sides of sand-pits ; river-banks ; cliffs of the South Coast, where the geo-
logical formation is suitable to its habits; oid quarries; and in chinks
in old walls, especially the masonry of old bridges. When the ground is
soft the birds burrow horizontally to a distance of three or four feet, their
holes being about the size of mouse-holes. These Sand-Martin burrows
are said to abound with fleas, but we cannot remember to have come
across any in the numbers we have examined. Both the old and young
Sand-Martins when on the wing look as if they had collars round their
throats.

This species is sometimes seen as early as the middle of March. In 1856 we saw
two and shot one on March 18th (W. D’U., Zool. 1856, p. 5098; Newton, ‘ Yarrell’s
B. Birds,’ 4th ed. ii. p. 359). ‘ Brown-backed Martins” were seen on March 16th,
1844, near Topsham (F. W. L. R., MS. iv. p. 185). The Rev. Thomas Johnes says :—
“ Sand-Martins build on the Tamar in great numbers; I have seen them on the river
Cary in the early part of March” (Bray’s ‘Tamar and Tavy, Ist ed.i. p.351). “ They
build in the sandy headlands at Thurlestone Cliffs, near Kingsbridge” (I. M., Trans.
Plym. Inst. 1830, p. 308), At Bantham (R. P. N., MS. Notes). “They breed in
small parties on the banks of the River Erme below Ermington ; on the Meavy near
Roborough Down; and Borough Island at the mouth of the Yealm” (R. A. J.,
‘Naturalist,’ 1851, p. 86). Other breeding-places are the Red-Sandstone Cliffs east of
Dawlish ; the Sand-pit at St. Mary’s Clist, near Exeter; and on Lundy Island. The
Sand-Martin is very numerous in North Devon, breeding in all suitable localities.

60 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

Family CERTHIIDA.

Tree-Creeper. Certhia familiaris, Linn.
[Climb-tree, Tree-climber, Hood-pecker : Dev.]

Resident, common in wooded districts throughout the county. Breeds.

To be met with wherever there are trees; in woods and plantations, in
shrubberies, lawns, and parks; there must be few who will not have
noticed the tiny ‘'ree-Creeper flitting with rapid motion up the stems of the
trees, searching the bark for minute insects, and, after it has completed
its investigation of one tree, flying off to another, settling on its trunk
close to the ground, and working its way upwards as before. Every now
and then the little bird emits a shrill, mouse-like chirp, which is its only
song. It presses its stiff tail-feathers well against the stem of the tree,
and thus gains assistance as it climbs. Draw near, and it will wind round
to the side of the tree out of view, and its brown and mottled plumage so
nicely corresponds with the colour of the bark that it can easily escape
detection. It has a slender, somewhat curved bill, which is well adapted
for picking insects out of the crevices of the bark. Its flight, like that of
most birds which seek their living exclusively on the trunks and boughs
of trees, is undulating, and it rarely takes a longer flight than from one
tree to the next. Although one of our commonest birds its nest is seldom
found, being so artfully concealed. The late Mr. T. R. A. Briggs found a
nest with young in a hollow between ivy-stems and the boll of a tree
by the Yealm between Puslinch Bridge and Kitley Quarry, May 20th,
1871.

Family FRINGILLIDA.
Subfamily FRINGILLINE.
THE FINCHES.

The large family of the Finches includes some of our
most abundant and familiar birds. They all feed upon
seeds, grain, buds, and insects, and seek their food equally
upon the ground, and in trees and bushes. In the winter
they collect in flocks, sometimes of immense size, and are
to be met with on the stubbles and around our rick-yards,
They mostly migrate southwards in the autumn, the place
of those which spent the breeding-season with us being.
taken by others of the same species which come to us from

FRINGILLID®. 61

the North and East. When they have paired in the spring
they scatter over our hedges and plantations, and their
lively presence lends an attraction to rural life.

Goldfinch. Curduelis elegans, Stephens.
[Gool Finch, Blossom-Bird: Dev.]

Resident, formerly numerous, but now rather scarce in most localities,
except in autumn. Breeds.

The decrease in numbers of this gay and attractive Finch is to be greatly
regretted. Not so many years ago hardly a garden or orchard wanted in
the spring a pair of Goldfinches and their beautifully constructed nest ;
but the ceaseless persecution of bird-catchers, combined with the better
cultivation of the land, causing the favourite plants upon the seeds of
which it feeds, such as the groundsel, ragwort, and thistle, to have
diminished in quantity, has made it quite a rare event to see an example
of this once abundant bird. Like many other small birds, as the period
of migration draws near, the Goldfinch begins to shift its quarters and
moves in flocks along the coast from west to east until it reaches the
narrow seas, and finds a short passage across to the opposite coast.
This is the time when bird-catchers are on the look-out for it, and in some
favourite localities will sometimes catch scores of dozens in a single
morning. A large proportion of the miserable little captives perish the
first and second days after they are taken, refusing to feed, and beating
themselves to death against the wires of their cages. .

The Goldfinch is usually met with on canal and railway embankments,
in marshes, on commons, and other open spots where ragwort and thistles
abound. It has been so constantly trapped by bird-catchers near Exeter
that it is now seldom seen in that neighbourhood, Great numbers perished in
the severe winters experienced at intervals during the last forty-five years.
We remember seeing many caught in the snow of March 1845, near
Topsham, and again in February 1853, the birds being too weak to
escape.

Bird-catchers still take a good many near Exmouth and Littleham early
in October, when there appears to be a large influx into Devonshire. The
Goldfinch is fairly numerous at Kingsbridge, though scarcer than it was
fifty years ago, although there are no bird-catchers in that neighbour-
hood, the decrease in numbers being probably owing to the better cultiva-
tion of the land, which has rendered thistles &c. less abundant than formerly
(K.P. N. and E. A. 8. E., MS. Notes). We found it plentiful in October
1873, under the northern slopes of Dartmoor (M. A. M., Zool. 1874,
p- 3825), Mr. G. B. Corbin thought it had increased again in South
Devon in 1877 (Zool. 1877, p. 444). Mr. W. Crossing informed us in
1589 that he had not seen any for five or six years near South Brent. It
was formerly a very common bird in North Devon, but has much de-
creased in numbers there also.

62 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

Siskin, Chrysomitris spinus (Linn.).
[ Aberdavine. ]

A winter visitor of uncertain appearance. Small flocks sometimes
occur in severe seasons between Michaelmas and April in South Devon.
We have generally found them feeding on the seeds of alders amongst the
débris left by the sides of streams after floods following heavy snow. They
are usually very tame and easily captured with a fishing-rod smeared with
bird-lime for a few inches at the top (cf. W. R.5., Zool. 1849, p. 2385)
or a hoop-net (F. W. L. R., Zool. 1845, p. 1191).

Montagu saw a small flock in December 1805 busy extracting seeds from the fruits
of the alder trees in the South of Devon (Orn. Dict., Suppl.). Turton and Kingston
say that it is “‘a visitor found occasionally in the neighbourhood of Ashburton, and
Cockwood, near Starcross. Three specimens were caught in the summer of 1828 in the
marshes near Newton.” It israre near Plymouth. In the autumn of 1836 five were
caught in a trap in the lines at Devonport (E. M., Trans. Plym. Inst. 1830, p. 312;
Mag. Nat. Hist. n.s. 1837, p. 176; Rowe’s Peramb. Dartmoor, p. 232). A few
were seen near Plymouth in December 1845 and January 1846. A large flock
December 1847 and February 1848 (R. A. J., ‘Naturalist,’ 1851, p. 44). One killed in
February 1853 was the only specimen Mr. Bolitho had sent to him in twenty-one years,
1852-72. Some seen under the Hoe, February 1870. Large flocks on the alder
bushes by sides of the Plym, December 17th, 1874, and some March 20th, 1875. Young
ones were taken with Goldfinches, September 24th, 1880 ; and a flock of thirty or forty
were seen on the Larches in Bickleigh Vale, but their stomachs were full of insects
(J. G., MS. Notes, and Zool. 1875, pp. 4371, 4459; 1880, p. 249; 1881, p. 51).

It has only been met with a few times near Kingsbridge. In December 1878 a flock
of about thirty were seen, and some about 1880, and in February 1886 (H. N. and
R. P. N., MS. Notes).

It is very unusual near Torquay. A pair seen there January 15th, 1870 (Von H.,
Zool. 1870, p. 2059).

It has frequently appeared in the Exeter district. Flocks occurred in 1845
(F. W. L. R.) and it was very numerous in the winter of 1848-9 (W.R.S., Z. c.).
We met with small flocks near Topsham in 1852-3, February 1855, November 1862,
February 1863, and January 1866.

Considering what a common bird the Siskin is all round Taunton in the
winter months it is singular that it should be very rarely met with in North
Devon, where we know of only one or two instances of its occurrence.
In our collection we had one which was secured near Barnstaple. When
we resided at Bishop’s Lydeard, a little to the west of Taunton, we often had
Siskins in our garden, and one day when we had a cage containing some
tame Siskins hanging near an open window a small flock actually came
into the room to pay our birds a visit. The Siskin makes a delightful cage-
bird, being very easily tamed, and may be taught some amusing tricks,
We know of no instance of its having nested in Devonshire, but in the
neighbouring county of Dorset it seems probable that it does so occasionally.
We have heard of mules between a cock Siskin and a hen Canary.

[ Observation.—An example of the Serin (Serinus hortulanus), a Finch closely allied
to the Canary, and which has been obtained about a dozen times in the east of England,
occurred at Taunton, Somerset, in January 1866.]

FRINGILLID.Z. 63

Greenfinch. Ligurinus chloris (Linn.).
[Green Linnet. ]

Resident in part, generally distributed and abundant. Breeds.

Large flocks arrive in autumn, remaining till March. Great numbers
visited the neighbourhood of Plymouth during the winter of 1854-5,
especially at the Docks where ships were discharging their cargoes of grain,
(J. G., Zool. 1885, p. 377.)

In 1854 a Greenfinch’s nest was found in the garden at Newport, near
Topsham, composed entirely of the downy achenes of the garden anemone,
and being from choice sorts was estimated to contain at least ten shillings’
worth of seed. In winter we find it extremely destructive to the berries
of the Cotoneaster, but it does some good by eating the seeds of dandelion
and other weeds.

It also commits many a theft in the kitchen-garden, where it will devour
the cabbage and other seeds directly they germinate, unless the beds are
protected with nets. A pair of Greenfinches actually placed their nest in
some ivy on a wall of our garden, close above our seed-bed, in order that
they might be handy to this favourite food. Without possessing anything
in the way of song to render it attractive, the Green Linnet is, neverthe-
less, a very entertaining cage-bird, becoming very tame and fearless, and
we have known it to live in confinement for ten or twelve years, It
begins to build in April, and nests with eggs may be found up to August.

Hawfinch. Coccothraustes vulgaris, Pall.
[ Grosbeak. ]

A winter visitor of irregular occurrence in small numbers from October
to April. It is sometimes seen in breeding-plumage in spring near Exeter,
and it has been known to nest near Kingsbridge.

It has been obtained at Plymouth, Kingsbridge, Milton Abbot, Ash-
burton, Starcross, Exmouth, Exeter, Christow, and Barnstaple. It is an
occasional visitor to Lundy Island (Trans. Devon. Assoc. iv. p. 605; viil,
p. 309).

“A few years ago a pair of Hawfinches bred in the plantation near
Woolston House, Loddiswell, The nest was found containing eggs, ‘They
were allowed to hatch. The old birds reared their young, which remained
in the neighbourhood through the greater part of the following winter,
and were frequently seen during that time ” (H. N., MS. Notes). Of this
family one old and two young birds were shot, and are in the possession of
Mrs. Elliot, Tresilian House, Kingsbridge (E. A. 8. E., MS. Notes).

We only know of the Hawlinch as an occasional winter visitor to North
Devon, where it is seldom seen before January or February. We often saw
it during the winter and spring months in our garden at Bishop’s Lydeard,
near Taunton, where one spring a pair remained with us for several
months, and were very destructive to our rows of peas, but disappointed

64 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

our expectations by leaving us without having a nest. In its wild state
no other small bird is, perhaps, more readily to be recognized. Its dipping
flight, in which the white tips of the tail-feathers are very conspicuous,
at once betrays it.

House-Sparrow. Passer domesticus (Linn.).

tesident, extremely abundant, and generally distributed. Breeds.

On Dartmoor and its borders Sparrows are, as might be expected,
not numerous, food being scarce and human habitations few and far
between. But in summer a few visit the lonely farm-houses and cottages
and breed about them. According to Mr. J. Brooking Rowe, in the
parish of Sheepstor, a small moorland village, about eight miles from
Plymouth, it is never seen (Trans. Plym. Inst. 1862-3, p. 63). The Rev.
C. H. Crooke, however, says that Sparrows are by no means uncommon
there (Pidsley, ‘ B. of Devonshire,’ p. 42). It used also to be asserted that
this everywhere too abundant bird did not occur at Withycombe-in-the-
Moor, a romantic village situated on the eastern side of Dartmoor. How-
ever, Mr. J. Gatcombe soon proved this to be an error, for, on visiting the
village in question, the first bird to greet him in the street was the
ubiquitous House-Sparrow. Itis only an occasional visitor to Lundy Island.

Albinos and varieties with white heads and wings frequently occur.
We have seen many white and particoloured specimens in and near
Exeter and at Exmouth.

Tree-Sparrow. Passer montanus (Linn.).

A casual visitor of rather rare occurrence in the winter months, but it
is apparently extending its range westward and becoming more frequent.

In 1830 Turton and Kingston stated that it was rarely seen in Devon-
shire, and Dr. E. Moore included it in a list of birds which had not been
noticed in the county, when he published his paper “ On the Ornithology
of the South of Devon ” in the Trans. Plymouth Institution for that year.
Mr. J. Gatcombe found two specimens amongst a lot of small birds exposed
for sale in Plymouth Market in March 1857 (Zool. 1857, p. 5592); and
another was killed at St. Budeaux on March 20th, 1857, by Mr. Jolley,
a friend of Mr. Gatcombe, who recognized it. Mr. Gatcombe also obtained
one in Plymouth Market on February 21st, 1860 (MS. Notes). Capt.
J. C. Tyrwhitt-Drake shot one at Bicton, near East Budleigh, December
30th, 1862. Three were seen and two shot November 3rd, 1884, by
Mr. Burridge, at Worthy, near Kingsbridge (E. A. 8. E., Zool. 1885, p. 32,
and R. P. N., MS. Notes). Mr. Elliot has obtained other specimens in his
district since then, and Mr. R. P. Nicholls, a few years ago, met with a
flock in a hedge near Ticket Wood Bridge in winter. Some occurred at
West Alvington in October, and some at Milton Ley in December 1890
(E. A. 8. E.).

A more dapper, dandified-looking bird than the cosmopolitan House-

FRINGILLID A. 65

Sparrow, this species is very local and is somewhat rare in the Western
Counties. In Somerset small colonies are reported as existing at Wivelis-
combe, Williton, and Burnham, and we have ourselves occasionally seen
Tree-Sparrows in the east of that county. According to Mr. Mansel-
Pleydell it is resident at various places in Dorsetshire.

The best distinction between the Common and Tree-Sparrows is to be
found in the character of the black scarf worn by the two species. ‘This
in the House-Sparrow is sprawling and untidy, widening into a broad
cresceutic band upon the breast, whereas in the Tree-Sparrow it is
neater and better defined, and runs down the throat narrowing to a point.
In the Tree-Sparrow there is no difference between the two sexes in
plumage, while in the commoner bird the sexes are very distinct. We
never saw a Tree-Sparrow in North Devon.

Chaffinch. Fringilla celebs, Linn.

[Maze Finch, Copper Finch, White Finch or Winch, Silver Winch,
Daffinch (NV. D.), Chink, Pink, Twink: Dev.]

Resident, generally distributed, and very abundant. Breeds.

Large flocks of females and young birds are seen in winter, probably
immigrants from the North and East.

Of the whole tribe of Finches there is no more determined aggressor of
the small seeds and fruit-buds in the garden than the Chaffinch, or White
Finch, as it is generally called in the West. But in justice it must be
said that by devouring the seeds of various noxious weeds it reuders
ample compensation for its thefts. The song of the Chaffinch is one of
the well-known sounds of spring. First come a few hurried notes, and
then the strain, ending in a higher pitch, distinctly seems to syllable
** ginger-beer,” for which beverage the cock birds may be heard calling all
through the day. To bird-catchers the Chaffinch is known by the name
of “ Battling-Finch ;” for a cock placed in a small cage tied to a stick, or
exposed on the ground, by his aggressive challenge-notes will draw all
other small birds within hearing to approach the limed twigs prepared for
their capture. In the summer time the Chaffinch may often be seen
flying up from some perch on a tree in pursuit of a passing insect like a
Flycatcher. Chaffinches are bold and venturesome, and we have occasionally
had them entering our windows and hopping about our floors to pick up
the stray seeds which fell from the cages of our various pets.

A very remarkable variety of the male was shot by the late Major
George Woods in 1865, The crown of the head and the wings are white,
the rest of the plumage being curiously mottled with pink, green, yellow,
grey, white, and black. It is now in the A. M. M.

Brambling, Fringilla montifringilla, Linn.
A winter visitor of irregular appearance, generally rather scarce, but
sometimes abundant near Exeter, ‘opsham, Torquay, Ashburton, Totnes,
Fr

66 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

Kingsbridge, and Plymouth. We have seen and obtained many ourselves,
and so also have Messrs. E. A. §. Elliot and R. P. Nicholls. During the
severe frost of December 1890 Mr. Elliot found a large flock of Bramblings
amongst the reeds of Milton Ley, together with Tree-Sparrows, Lin-
nets, &c.

Bramblings were especially abundant in the winter of 1852-53, January
and February 1855, November and December 1864, December 1870,
January 1871, January 1881, December 1890, and January 1891.

An adult male occurred at Landkey, near Barnstaple, July 20, 1856
(M. A. M., Zool. 1857, p. 5346).

The late Mr. F. W. L. Ross, of Topsham, informed us in 1854 that a
pair of Bramblings had bred in his garden, but we are inclined to think
that it must have been in his aviary, where he kept many kinds of small
birds.

In severe weather we have often observed this beautiful bird in North
Devon in company with other Finches crowding the stack-yards, but
have never met with it in the great concourses which we have sometimes
encountered in Somerset in the neighbourhood of beech trees, the mast
of the beech being a very favourite food. We have found Bramblings
entertaining cage-birds. At the migration-time they become very restless,
dashing themselves to and fro in the cage, and their uneasiness greatly
increases towards evening, the time chosen by nearly all birds for their
journeys.

Linnet. Linota cannabina (Linn.).

(Brown Linnet (in winter); Rose, Fiery, and Red Linnet (in spring) :
Dev. Greater Redpole of Montagu. |

Resident, generally distributed and abundant.

Although reported to be becoming scarcer in some parts of the kingdom,
owing to the continuous breaking up and enclosing of commons and wastes,
we do not believe that the cheerful Linnet is at all decreasing in numbers
in the West Country, where furzy patches still abound to provide its
favourite shelter. A familiar little bird, with a pleasant song, we should
indeed be sorry were it to be banished, and agriculturists might with reason
lament it, as it renders good service by feeding eagerly upon the seeds of
various injurious weeds.

The adult male in his full spring apparel is an extremely handsome
bird, with his forehead 2nd breast of the brightest rose-red ; in the autumn
moult these brilliant tints disappear and are replaced by wood-brown,
and all through the winter the “ Brown Linnet,” as he may then properly
be termed, is a dull and inconspicuous bird, to be met: within large flocks
in stubbles and turnip-fields, and often by the sea-side, where the seeds of
maritime grasses provide him with food.

The immense flocks seen on the stubble-fields in autumn and winter
are probably immigrants from the North and East. They sometimes visit
the mud-flats in the estuaries of our larger rivers to feed on the seeds of

FRINGILLID.£. 67

Salicorniu (J.G., Zool. 1873, p. 3466). Flocks also appear in spring on
the sea-coast at Exmouth for a few days. On April 12th, 1890, we saw
a large flock of very dark-coloured Linnets feeding on the golf-links there,
though there were none to be seen on the previousday. At the same time
the resident birds had nests and eggs.

In South Devon the male rarely develops much red on the breast, and
we have never seen any in the rich livery it puts on in the East of
England in the breeding-season. Mr. R. P. Nicholls observes that speci-
mens obtained on the sea-coast are much brighter than inland ones.
Mr. Comyns had a variety with the head white (EK. M., Trans. Plym. Inst.
1830, p. 312). Bellamy mentions having seen a specimen with a white
ring round the neck (Nat. Hist. 8. Devon, p. 204), A pure white speci-
men was caught in October 1881, and another was shot near Plymouth in
1883 (J.G., Zool. 1882, p. 66, 1884, p. 55). Mr. Henry Nicholls shot
one in the spring of 1845 (or 1846) which was pure white, except the
breast, which was of a lovely rose-colour (E. A. 8. E., MS. Notes).

Mealy Redpoll. Linota linaria (Linn.).

A casual visitor of extremely rare occurrence.

The only known instances are not so satisfactorily authenticated as
could be desired. Dr. Edward Moore says ‘“ Linota canescens, rare, one in
Pincombe’s collection” (‘‘ Passerine Birds of Devonshire,” in Mag. Nat.
Hist. 1837, p. 176); and Bellamy, probably following Moore, simply says
“‘ very rare.”

In their migrations the northern Linnets appear to follow the line of the
Eastern Counties, and but very rarely stray towards the west. This
remark applies to the Twite, and more especially to the Mealy Redpoll,
of which we only know of one Devonshire example, the one we purchased
at the sale of the late Mr. Cecil Smith’s collection labelled ‘ North
Devon.” Only one specimen seems to have been obtained in Cornwall,
that mentioned by Dr. Bullmore in his ‘ Cornish Fauna’ as having been
shot by Mr. Copeland at Carrythenick. This was a male ‘in full bridal
dress.” We have ourselves never seen this species either in Devon or
Somerset. The two Mealy Redpolls said to have occurred near Plymouth
were regarded by Mr. J. Gatcombe as doubtful. It is possible that hoary
examples of the Lesser Redpoll have been mistaken for the rarer northern
species in these two instances.

Lesser Redpoll. Linota rufescens (Vieill.).

A winter visitor, of irregular appearance, principally to Eastern Devon.

This pretty little Finch, a great favourite as a cage pet, is peculiarly a

British bird, as it seems to be confined in the breeding-season in its distri-

bution to the British Islands, and is unknown in the northern parts of

Europe. But it belongs to our north-country birds, and nests but

sparingly in the southern counties, where it is chiefly known as a winter
F2

68 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

visitant, making its appearance in September and October, and leaving
again for the north in April. In the winter we may meet with it in
company with Tits and Siskins engaged in searching alders and birches
for food. We have only once or twice seen it in the spring in North
Deyon, while around Taunton it was far more common, a little flock
generally visiting our garden each spring and remaining with us for some
weeks, It has been known to nest both in Dorsetshire and Somerset, but
is reported as being very rare in Cornwall.

The Lesser Redpoll was numerous near Topsham from September to
December 1854, and again in 1862 and 1868. The small flocks which
we observed in those years fed exclusively on the seeds of the birch,
remaining day after day on the same trees close to our house. Mr. R.
Cumming, however, informs us that he has often seen Redpolls near
Exeter in winter, and that it feeds on the seeds of the alder.

Dr. E. Moore found it ‘rather rare” near Plymouth in flocks about
alder-trees (Trans. Plym. Inst. 1830, p. 312). Mr. Bolitho received one
from Dr. Whipple, of Plymouth, on October 8th, 1859, and this is the
only specimen we can find mentioned in his MS. Memoranda of birds sent
to him for preservation from 1852 to 1872.

Some occurred in February 1844 at Topsham, and Mr. F. W. L. Ross
says “it visits the banks of the river every season in small flocks, feeding
on the seeds of the rushes washed in by the tide” (MS. vol. iv. p. 10).
An old gunner, Richard Hall, however, informed us in 1854 that he had
not seen any for thirty years, and then he saw some on the beach at
Topsham. The Lesser Redpoll has not been obtained in the Kings-
bridge district, but Mr. E. A. 8. Elhot thinks he saw some at Milton
Ley in December 1890. It is only a chance winter visitor to North
Devon. Mr. Howard Saunders, in his ‘ Manual of British Birds,’ p. 183,
gives it as “a very local breeder” in Devon, probably on the authority
of the Rev. H. A. Macpherson, who “observed an old Redpoll feeding
a newly-fledged nestling on the branch of an ash, near Lynton, in July
1879 ” (Pidsley’s ‘ Birds of Devonshire,’ p. 44).

Twite, Linota flavirostris (Linn.).

A casual visitor of very rare occurrence in South Devon, where the
only known instances are not well authenticated, but not unfrequently
seen in the northern part of the county.

It is included in Dr. E. Moore’s “ List of Dartmoor Birds” in Rowe’s
‘Perambulation of Dartmoor,’ Ist ed., 1848, p. 230; and in his “ Cata-
logue of Passerine Birds of Devon” in ‘ Magazine of Natural History,’ n.s.
i, p. 176 (1837), he says: “In Devon, according to Polwhele, in his
‘History of Devonshire.’ Two in Bolitho’s collection.” Dr. Moore is
followed by Bellamy, Brooking-Rowe, and Parfitt, who say “rare,” or
“scarce,” without giving any particulars as to its occurrence.

Flocks used to visit North Devon in autumn and winter. We have
seen them on Northam Burrows and on the side of the North Walk

FRINGILLID. 69

in the town of Barnstaple. We once killed six or eight Twites out of a
flock near Barnstaple. There was a specimen from North Devon in the
collection of the late Mr. Cecil Smith.

This common frequenter of moors in the North of England and Scotland,
where it is well known as the “ Heather Lintie,” is far from a common
autumnal migrant to the South-west Counties. It has, however, occurred
to us in the winter in salt marshes, both in Devon and Somerset, and also
on high ground in North Devon. Its longer tail and the rufous patch
upon the upper tail-coverts easily distinguish it from the Common Linnet,
as well as its yellow beak, and it never, like the other Linnets, assumes
any crimson patch upon the breast or forehead.

It is so rare in Cornwall that Mr. Rodd knew of only one example,
which was procured in the neighbourhood of Penzance. In Dorset, also,
it has very rarely been obtained.

Subfamily LOXIIN A.

Bullfinch. Pyrrhula europea, Vieill.
[ Hoop, Budfinch, Bud-picker, Coal-hood: Dv. ]

Resident, and numerous in some localities, throughout the county.
Breeds.

A frequenter during the summer and autumn months of thick woodland
lanes and of copses, the Bullfinch, although generally. dispersed, is seldom
seen, being of shy and retiring habits. ‘Towards the close of the winter
and in the early spring it, however, approaches our residences, and then
with mischievous intent. ‘There is no bird whose appearance in the garden
more justly excites the fears of the gardener, for a pair of Bullfinches, if
uninterrupted, will steadily work through all his fruit-trees, returning day
after day to their assault upon the buds, and will only desert the garden and
seek another when there are no more left to devour. At this time, with
the aid of a hen bird to call and a trap-cage, they are most easily caught,
and we have captured upwards of thirty in our small garden in this way
in a single winter. Some kind-hearted people, in their desire to defend the
Bullfinch, have stated that it only devours buds infested by insects, and in
doing so commits no injury; but a ready answer is at hand in the fact
that at the time of the year when the Bullfinch attacks the fruit-trees,
there are no grubs as yet developed in the buds, and that it is the tender
heart of a perfect blossom-bud, as we have ourselves over and again dis-
covered after shooting a Bullfinch in the very act of pilfering, and then
examining its gizzard, which the bird is making its food. In the parish
books of Dulverton we have read that more than a hundred years ago so
much as 3d. was paid for every “ Hoop” brought in, and this high price
is proof of the estimation in which the bird was held as a perpetrator of
mischief. In captivity Bullfinches can be easily tamed and taught many

70 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

tricks, and are exceedingly docile and affectionate birds—so much so,
that in our small aviary we take care never to be without some. Unfor-
tunately, they are short-lived, and we have seldom kept them longer than
a couple of years.

The Bullfinch is very destructive to the buds of the pear and the larch
in March, and of the beech in May. We saw two fine males feeding
on the buds of the hawthorn at Exmouth in February 1890. In the
spring of 1855 numerous small flocks were observed near Topsham, but it
is not usually common there. It is sometimes plentiful near Plymouth,
Kingsbridge, Lydford, Okehampton, Rousdon, &c., especially in oak-copses,
It is also common in many places in North Devon.

Mr. Comyns had a variety quite black, and another entirely white,
except the breast, which was roseate (E.M., Trans. Plym. Inst. 1830,
p. 313). A white male specimen was shot near Totnes in May 1851.
The back was slightly tinged with blue and the breast with red (S. Han-
naford, Jnr., ‘ Naturalist,’ 1852, p. 85).

[Pine-Grosbeak, Pinicola enucleator (Linn.).

We do not consider the evidence relating to the specimens of this species
said to have been obtained in Devonshire to be trustworthy, and in our
opinion it should be excluded from our list.

Prof. A. Newton says, in ‘ Yarrell’s British Birds,’ 4th ed. ii. p. 178,
“Thirdly, is a male example, which the editor is informed by Mr. Byne is
in his collection, and that he believes it to have been killed near Exeter
in the winter of 1854-55 and brought to his late father, by whom it was
preserved.” This individual, with the rest of Mr. Byne’s collection, passed
into the possession of the late Mr. Marsh-Dunn, of Teignmouth, who
kindly allowed us to see it in August 1883. It is a male in splendid red
plumage, and, as far as we could see through the glass of the case con-
taining it, there is nothing to militate against its having been a British-
killed bird. It is nicely stuffed, as are most of the birds in Mr. Marsh-
Dunn’s fine collection. We do not, however, believe that it was obtained
near Exeter, as at the time it is said to have been killed we were living
near that city, and giving much attention to the ornithology of the neigh-
bourhood, and were in the habit of recording the occurrence of any rare
species that came to our knowledge. We paid frequent visits to the shop
of the bird-stuffer named Truscott, who mounted specimens for Mr. Byne,
Senr. (then living in Exeter), and he generally showed us any rare birds
he had received to stuff. We cannot find any note of the occurrence of a
Pine-Grosbeak, nor have we any recollection of such an event, which would
most certainly have arrested our attention. We must add that the taxider-
mist. in question had only returned from Canada, where he had been residing
for some time, a few years before the date indicated, and had brought
home many skins of birds from that country, where the American form is
sometimes numerous in winter. In 1869 Truscott stated that he had a
Pine-Grosbeak which was shot and stuffed ty a gardener at Powderham,

FRINGILLIDA. val

and also that he knew the specimen in Mr. Byne’s collection to be British,
“as he skinned it himself. It was shot in company with some Crossbills
about nine or ten years since by a gentleman in the army of the name of
Hooper.” After Mr. Byne left Exeter he resided at Milligan Hall, near
Taunton, where a specimen of the Pine-Grosbeak is said to have been
killed about 1851-52 (C. P., Zool, 1852, p. 3474). This specimen
Mr. Henry Nicholls believes was purchased, with other American birds,
from a collection which belonged to a Mr. Hellard, which was sold in
Taunton. It is “No. 18” of Mr. Gurney’s list in his interesting article
*‘on the Claim of the Pine-Grosbeak to be regarded as a British Bird,”
published in the ‘ Zoologist’ for 1877, pp. 247, 248, and the editor of
that Journal, in a footnote, suggests that perhaps it is ‘‘the same as
Mr. Byne’s specimen;” but it is certain it is not so. The ghost is, how-
ever, not yet laid, for Mr. EK. A. 8. Elliot tells us there is a specimen of the
Pine-Grosbeak in the possession of a Mrs. Weeks, who was at one time
housekeeper to Mr. C. Prideaux, which is said to have been shot in
Brownston Wood, near Kingsbridge, but is more probably “No, 18”!
The bird said to have been killed at Powderham we believe to have been
a@ Hawfinch. It is “No. 26” of Mr. Gurney (second article on Pine-
Grosbeak, Zool. 1890, pp. 128, 129), who has apparently confused it with
Mr. Byne’s specimen (‘‘ No. 22” of his first article). See our note in the
* Zoologist’ for 1890, pp. 183, 184. ]

Common Crossbill. Zovia curvirostra, Linn.
[Shell-apple. j

A casual visitor of very irregular occurrence at all times of the year.
Has bred in the county.

The Crossbills take their name from their singularly formed beaks, in
which the extremities of the upper and lower mandibles overlap each other,
supplying the birds with perfect cutting-instruments for dissecting apples,
tir-cones, &c., and for the purpose of extracting the pips and seeds withir,
which form their food. They are also remarkable for their singular
changes in plumage, which varies from an olive-green to a brilliant red or
a bright yellow. They are among the earliest birds to nest, beginning to
build in February and having eggs by March. While feeding they keep
up a continuous soft twittering, and have very much the gestures of Tits,
hanging to the cones on the firs head downwards, and also when holding
a cone in their feet they resemble small Parrots. The Common Crossbill
has been known to nest on a few occasions only in the South-western
Counties.

Flocks were seen in the South of Devon in June 1837, in the winter of
1835-39, and the following spring, June 1848, November 1861, March
1567, July to October 186%, January to March 1869, and a young bird
in striped plumage was shot near Budleigh Salterton in September 1889,
and was seen by us soon after it had been mounted by Mr, Seaward, of

HD THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

Exmouth; and an adult was killed at South Brent on 1st November of that
year, (R.P.N,, in litt.)

Mr. Henry Nicholls was walking in the Coombe Royal grounds on
June 12th, 1837, when he saw about thirty of these birds feeding on fir-
cones. They were very tame (MS, Notes). Mr. W. R. Hall Jordan says
Crossbills were very plentiful in South Devon in the winter of 1838-39,
and on April 10th, 1839, he saw a nest in a spruce-fir tree at Ogwell House,
near Newton Abbot, The male was shot, but the female still continued to
attend the nest (Zool, 1843, p. 39; and Trans. Devon. Assoc. vi. p. 710).
Turton and Kingston mention that they had frequently shot specimens in
the neighbourhood of Ashburton during the summer months. In July
1848 a few appeared at Raleigh House, near Barnstaple, and remained
about a week on some Scotch firs. The birds were so tame that an old
gardener knocked some down with a stick when they were examining the
cones on the lower branches. Many occurred at Topsham in that year,
and specimens then obtained are in the A. M. M. from the collection of
the late Mr. Ross, who records their occurrence (MS. Journal).

Two specimens were killed near Plymouth by the Rev. R, A. Julian a
short time before November 27th, 1861 (J. G., MS. Notes). Several were
shot on Chapel Hill, Torquay, in March 1867, and are now in the Torquay
Museum, and some are said to have occurred about this time at Alphington,
near Exeter, and a male was also shot near Kingsbridge.

There was a simultaneous immigration of Crossbills into Ireland, Corn-
wall, Devonshire, Somersetshire, and Gloucestershire in July 1868 (Zool.
1870, p. 2235). They were tolerably plentiful at Barnstaple in that
summer, and eight or ten were seen and three shot by Mr. A. F. Holds-
worth in his grounds at Widdecombe, near Kingsbridge, in July, working
on pine-cones (G. F. M., Zool. 1868, p. 1460; and R. P. N., zn litt.). In
August a flock used to frequent the fir-trees at the Moult, near Salcombe,
and eight were shot (R. P. N.). In the same month one was shot at
Plymouth (B., MS, Notes). In October a flock appeared at Stoke Canon,
near Exeter, and several specimens shot there arein the A. M.M. About
the same time another flock appeared at Chudleigh.

In January 1869 one was obtained at Plymouth (B., MS. Notes), and
some occurred in March at Kingsbridge (Zool. 1869, p. 1721). In No-
vember 1869 Crossbills and Snow-Buntings mixed together were seen
flying across Lundy Island, and some of both were shot (Zool. 1877, p. 12).
The Common Crossbill is stated to have nested once or twice in Somerset.

A large northern race, commonly known as the Parror CrossBIxt, is an
accidental visitor of very rare occurrence in winter. Dr. R. B. Sharpe
(Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xii. p. 439) and other leading ornithologists con-
sider this bird to be merely a large stout-billed race of the Common Cross-
bill, ‘‘ not worthy even of subspecific rank,” and Mr. Howard Saunders
does not give it an independent place in his‘ Manual.’ This race inhabits
the pine-woods of Scandinavia, Northern Russia, and the Baltic provinces,
and rarely reaches Devonshire, but one instance only being known,
Mr. Newton is stated to have shot nine specimens near Millaton, Bride-
stowe, in 1838 (KE. M., Rowe’s Peramb. Dartmoor, p. 232). We have

FRINGILLID. 73

examined some of these specimens in Mr. Newton’s collection, and believe
them to be merely the ordinary form of Crossbill (M. A. M.).

In January, 1888, a large flock visited Marley, near Exmouth, remaining
for several weeks. Some specimens were shot, which we examined in the
flesh, and are undoubted examples of this larger race. ‘wo were in fine
red plumage (W. 8. M. D’U., Zoologist, 1888, p. 105). Mr. Seaward, of
Exmouth, has several still in his possession.

White-winged Crossbill. Zoxia leucoptera, Gmel.
[Considered by Messrs. Sharpe and Saunders as a subspecies of Lowia
bifasciata (C. L. Brehm). |

The only instance known of the occurrence of this bird in Devonshire is
that recorded by Mr. E. B. Fitton (Zool. 1845, 1190). It was a male in
his second plumage, and was picked up dead by Mr. Fitton himself on the
sea-shore at Exmouth, apparently just washed ashore, September 17th,
1845, A strong wind from the south-west was blowing, and had con-
tinued for several days. This was the second example obtained in England
(Proc. Zool. Soc. 1845, p. 91). It had probably had an assisted passage
on the rigging of some vessel on its voyage from America to England. An
example of the White-winged Crossbill has also been obtained in Cornwall.

Subfamily EMBERIZIN 2.

THE BUNTINGS.

These birds differ from the Finches in having a bony
protuberance in the palate of the upper mandible which
is received into a corresponding cavity in the lower jaw,
and peculiarly fits them for feeding on grain and hard
seeds. Only five out of the ten recognized British species
of Bunting have been observed in Devon, and of them the
Yellow Hammer alone can be considered really plentiful
all the year round and generaily distributed in the county.
The others are of somewhat local distribution or else
seasonal visitors. Another species, the Ortolan Bunting,
has occurred once at Trescoe Abbey, Scilly, in autumn, but
has never been detected in Devonshire. ‘Three more
species, the Black-headed, Rustic, and Little Buntings,

74 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

which have occurred a few times in the East of England,
have not as yet been met with in any of the Western
Counties. The Lapland Bunting, an occasional winter
visitor to the East Coast of England, is also unknown

with us.

Corn-Bunting. Lmderiza miliaria, Linn.
{ Horse-Lark, Bunting Lark. ]

Resident, but local, and principally along the coasts. It is nowhere
numerous in Devon, except when migrating. Breeds.

It is sometimes abundant on the coast near Plymouth. Bellamy says
that it is common, but not so plentiful as the Cirl Bunting, and that it
frequents fields close to Plymouth and Devonport (Nat. Hist. 8. Devon,
p- 204). It was numerous amongst furze-bushes on the cliffs at Bovisand,
Aug. 30th, 1873, and many were seen on the walls and hedges near the
cliffs at W embury, July 23rd, 1874 (J. G., Zool. 1873, p. 3719; 1874,
p. 4228).

It is common, and breeds near Kingsbridge, more particularly on the
sea-coast. (R. P. N., MS. Notes.)

Turton and Kingston found it frequent in various parts of their district
(Teignmouth, Torquay, Ashburton, &c.),

In the neighbourhood of Exeter, according to our own experience, the
Corn-Bunting is quite scarce. One was shot at Topsham, July 1844 (F.
W.L. R., MS. iv. p. 117). A buff-coloured variety was obtained in
February 1575 at Alphington, near Exeter, and was seen by us in the
flesh.

This, the largest of our English Buntings, is very inconspicuous in
plumage, which in its sober russets not a little resembles the garb of the
Sky-Lark, whence the bird is called by some the Bunting Lark. It is
rather solitary in its habits, except during the winter months, so that it
is unusual to find more than a pair in one locality. In North Devon it is
very local; a few frequent the high ground above Ilfracombe, and we have
seen it on the Braunton Burrows and at Instow. We have ourselves
never met with this Bunting in flocks in the winter time anywhere in
the Western Counties. From its habit of taking its station on some
high twig in a hedge-row, whence it utters its few harsh notes, it is
easily to be detected where it occurs.

In Pembrokeshire, also, we have noticed that the Corn-Bunting is a bird
of the coast, being very plentiful in the St. David’s district, while it is
very rarely seen a few miles inland.

FRINGILLID.E. 1D

Yellow Hammer. L£ydberiza citrinella, Linn.
[Gladdy, Gladie, Gladdie, Golden Gladdy, Yellow Yowley : Dev. |

Resident, generally distributed and abundant. Breeds.

The Yellow Hammer is one of the best known, and is also one of the
most abundant of our indigenous birds, as it is one of the gayest in
plumage. Its bright yellow crest and throat and underparts of the same
attractive colour render it very conspicuous, as it sits on some prominent
perch in the hedge-row, pouring forth its lively, but unmusical song,
which it continues all through the hottest and most sultry weather of the
later part of the summer. When most other birds have hushed their
notes, this merry bird still continues his simple ditty, which has been
rendered in English words as “a little bit of bread and more cheese,” and
enlivens the moorlands when they are bright with golden furze and hare-
bells, and it is associated in our memory with many a summer ramble.
It is easily tamed as a cage-pet, and one we had for several years was
permitted to fly about the room, when it would frequently perch on the
back of our dog or cat lying asleep before the fire, receiving from both
animals tender treatment.

A lutino variety of a canary-colour occurred on Dartmoor, September
23rd, 1876. A similar variety from Devon was in Mr. F. Bond’s collec-
tion (J. G., Zool. 1876, p. 5146; 1877, p. 44).

Cirl Bunting. /mndberiza cirlus, Linn.
[French Yellow Hammer: Dev. ]

Resident. It is rather local, but common in some places on the south
coast, and near Barnstaple in the north of the county.

The Cirl Bunting was first observed as a British bird by Col. Montagu
at Kingsbridge, South Devon, in 1800. In the following year he found
it breeding in Devon, and communicated an account of the mode by
which he successfully reared the young to the Linnean Society (Trans.
Linn. Soc. vii. pp. 276-280).

It is numerous in N. Devon, around Barnstaple especially, where we
have observed that it is a shier bird than the Yellow Bunting, and is fond
of concealing itself in the spring and summer in thick hedges, where
it creeps about out of sight at the bottom, and where its presence can
only be detected by the sibilant call-note, which closely resembles
that of the Robin. When we have heard this note we have waited
patiently until the male bird has hopped up the twigs in the hedge, when
he will show himself for an instant, and then plunge back into its leafy
depths. Both in the spring and again in the autumn the male bird is
often to be seen perched on a branch of some hedge-row elm, from whence
he delivers his very unpretending song.

Mr. J. Gatcombe has recorded that he heard a Cirl Bunting singing

76 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

near Plymouth on 5th December (Zool. 1874, p. 3909). Mr. T. R. A.
Briggs heard it on 29th December, 1879.

Mr. E. H. Rodd considered its song bore some resemblance to that of
the Wood-Wren.

“The Cirl Bunting is found, but always near the sea-coast; there it
remains all the year, and changes its plumage in the autumn, so as to
become more like the Yellow Hammer; some, however, come over from
the continent in the spring, as they are then found in greater numbers
than in winter” (T. J., Bray’s ‘ Tamar and Tavy,’ vol. i. p. 350).

It is a common bird about Plymouth (T. R. A. B., Zool. 1873, p. 3774).
It was plentiful near Kingsbridge in the spring of 1887 (E. A. 8. E., MS.
Notes).

During the winter of 1843, the Cirl Bunting was very abundant in
the neighbourhood of Exeter, and several were Naso. but during the
following winter none were tobe seen, (W. R.8., Zool. 1845, p. 983.)

It has been frequently obtained at Teignmouth, Tor quay, and Ashburton,
and we ourselves have seen it at Lidford, Seaton, and Exmouth. In the
winter months this Bunting associates with other small birds about farm-
yards &. We saw some feeding in our field at Exmouth, December 21st,
1890, after a heavy fall of snow, with a flock of Larks which had just
arrived from the eastward.

Reed-Bunting. Lmberiza scheniclus, Linn.

Resident, but not very common. Breeds.

A generally distributed species, but nowhere numerous, the Reed-
Bunting will be found in pairs by the side of streams, especially where
there is any growth of reed or sedge, by swampy hedges, and in osier and
alder beds. It is never met with in flocks, and is rather a shy bird, never
venturing near houses. ‘The male has a few monotonous notes, hardly
worthy of the name of a song. He is a gay-looking fellow, with his black
head, white collar, and russet back.

In the immediate neighbourhood of Plymouth this species is not at all
common, but some were seen there February 3rd, 1875 (J. G., Zool. 1875,
p- 4448). It is also not very abundant in the Kingsbridge district, but
occurs about the various Leys, and many examples were obtained in the
spring of 1879 (R. P. N. and E. A.S. E., MS. Notes). The Rev. Thomas
Johnes says it is found on the reedy banks of the Tamar below Morwell
Rocks (Bray’s ‘Tamar and Tavy,’ vol. i. p. 350). Turton and Kingston
found it in meadows near Ashburton, Bradley Meadows, near Newton
Abbot, and on Bovey Heathfield. It is pretty numerous in the Clyst and
Exe marshes near Topsham ; also near Axmouth.

The Reed-Bunting is not uncommon in North Devon, where it is to be
seen all the year. It is said to be a winter visitor to Lundy Island.
(Trans. Devon. Assoc. viii. p. 308.)

A fawn-coloured variety is in our collection. (M. A. M.)

FRINGILLID.2. ra

Snow-Bunting. Plectrophenax nivalis (Linn.).
[White Lark: Dev.]

A winter visitor of irregular occurrence.

This species is sometimes met with as early as September, and remains
rarely as late as April and May. It ocvurs most frequently near the
coasts, more especially in the north of the county.

The Snow-Bunting, and another species of far rarer occurrence in this
country, the Lapland Bunting, form a good link between the Buntings
and the Larks, as they possess the elongated hind claws of the true Larks,
with the hard conical bill with its cutting palatal knob of the Buntings.
About the end of October the Snow-Bunting is to be met with in flocks on
high grounds, and is a frequent winter Visitant to the South-western counties.
When the flocks first arrive they are in a dingy yellow and black plumage,
in which garb they received from the older ornithologists the name of the
Tawny Bunting. Astheseason advances the yellow gradually disappears,
the edges of the feathers wearing off, and black and white are left as the
sole colours. The Snow-Bunting in this plumage was the Mountain
Bunting of Montagu. Some specimens we shot on Lundy in January had
become pure white below, with a slight concentric mark on the breast of
flame-colour, and dusky yellowish white on the back; on raising the
latter feathers slightly it can be seen that they are all black, with the
exception of a dusky white fringe, which becoming gradually abraded the
bird is left with the glossy black back it assumes in the spring. The
changes of plumage in the Snow-Bunting are very interesting, and afford
a good example of the manner in which, in most small birds, the transition
from the plumage of one season into that of another is effected, not by the
shedding of old feathers and the production of new, but by the growth of
the old feathers from within outwards, and the gradual wearing off of their
edges. We have some very beautiful examples of the Snow-Bunting
shot by the late Mr. Vingoe in April, on some sand-hills near Penzance, in
the complete summer garb with the exception of the bill, which, strangely,
never becomes black until the bird arrives at its summer home in the
north. Our examples, like those in all stages of plumage obtained in the
south, have still the yellow beaks of the immature birds. We ourselves
never met with the Suow-Bunting either in autumn or winter on Dartmoor,
whose high plateau is entirely avoided by the flocks of migrating birds,

Some Snow-Buntings occurred near Plymouth in October 1851, November 1852,
March 1853, December 1864, November 1872, September 1880, November 1881,
November 1886 (R. A. J., ‘Naturalist, 1852, p.7; J. G., op. cit. 1853, p. 84, and
‘Zoologist, 1873, p. 3399; 1881, p. 51; 1882, p. 65; 186, p. 378; B., MS. Notes).
A specimen in perfect summer plumage was killed by a boy with a stone under the
Hoe, Plymouth, April 23rd, 1868 (J. G., MS. Notes),

The Snow-Bunting is not unfrequent in autumn and winter on Dartmoor (J. B. R.,
MS. Notes). Turton and Kingston obseryed it several successive winters on Ashburton
Down.

Montagu obtained a male near the Start, 20th October, 1802 (Orn. Dict., Suppl.).

Several spectmens have occurred in the neighbourhood of Kingsbridge (I. N. and

78 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

R. P. N., MS. Notes). The late Mr. J. Elliot shot a beautiful male near Serley in
October 1841, and his son Mr. E. A. 8. Elliot shot a young bird on the cliffs at Thurles-
tone, November 18th, 1885 (MS. Notes). An adult was shot by Mr. Luskey. November
Stn, 1849 (H. N.). A mature bird was shot October 29th, 1869, near Ilsham Farm,
Torquay (Von H., Zool. 1870, p. 1988).

Several specimens have been obtained near Exeter and on Haldon (W. R. S8., Zool.
p- 2585). ‘The Snow-Bunting is not unfrequent on Dawlish Warren in winter, and
four were shot there on 10th and 11th April, 1867, in nearly perfect summer plumage,
by Messrs. R. Taylor and Cecil Smith (Zool. 1867, p. 882; and ‘ Birds of Somerset,’
p- 158). It is also sometimes seen at Exmouth in autumn and winter in the state
of plumage in which it was known as the “‘ Tawny Bunting.”

We observed one close to Barnstaple for more than three weeks in January 1858,
which frequently pitched on trees and bushes (M. A. M., Zool. pp.6015, 6208). Although
some English ornithologists doubted this fact, we can affirm that we have often seen
flocks of Snow-Buntings sitting on trees and bushes in Canada (W. D’U.). Mr. G. F.
Mathew met with a large flock feeding in a stubble-field early in the autumn of 1863
between Barnstaple and Ilfracombe, «nd three of them in different stages of piumage
were killed at a single shot (Zool. 1863, 8845; and ‘ Naturalist,’ 1866, p. 358). The
Snow-Bunting is sometimes met with on Northam Burrows in October (Zool. 1870,
p- 2025). A female with well-developed eggs in her occurred on Lundy Island at the
end of May 1858 (M. A. M., Zool. 1858, p. 6015). Some specimens were shot there in
November 1869 (Zool. 1877, p. 12).

Family STURNID.
Starling. Sturnus vulyaris, Linn.

[Stare, or Steer, from the cry. ]

Resident throughout the county, except on Dartmoor and its borders,
where it is an autumn and winter visitor. It has greatly increased in
numbers in Devonshire since about 1544, and now breeds in the south-
western portion of the county, where less than forty years ago it was only
known as a winter visitor. It breeds freely under the eaves, in chimneys,
and in rain-shoots of houses in and near Exeter ; in holes in the masonry
of railway-bridges and viaducts ; in hollow trees in woods ; amongst ivy ;
in holes in walls; and in the cliffs of the sea-coast. Hundreds breed in
the walls of the trenches of the fortifications at Devonport (J. G., in litt.).
Vast flocks are seen on the marsh-lands in the winter months, and there is
a large immigration from the eastward in autumn and winter. Thousands
die in severe winters—as at the beginning of January 1871, and February
1888.

This bird has now become a terrible pest to the fruit-grower, being
most destructive to cherries, pears, apples, &c., and it is so bold and fearless
that it cannot be scared away.

Polwhele (1797) says that Starlings never breed in the county. Dr.
Moore (1830) remarks on this bird:—‘*Common here (Plymouth) in
winter; arriving in flocks in October, and departs in spring; but some of
them have been known to breed at Haldon, the seat of Sir Lawrence Palk.
Mr. Comyns has a specimen entirely white” (Trans. Plym. Inst. 1830,
p. 313). Turton and Kingston (1830) say it rarely breeds in their district

STURNID. 79

(Teignmouth, Torquay, &c.). ‘*‘Two pairs have bred in the avenue of
Indio, near Bovey Tracey, for the last two years.” Bellamy (1839) says
it “ breeds in some few spots in Devon” (Nat. Hist. 5. Devon). It was
breeding plentifully enough near Topsham in 1846 to our own knowledge
(W. D’U.). The late Mr. T. R. A. Briggs saw a flock of about a dozen
at Manadon, May 9th, 1854, and his father saw a pair going in and out
of a hole in an ash tree there, May 12th, 1860. A pair were breeding at
Lee Hill Bridge, June 7th, 1564. Mr. J. B. Rowe (1863) says “in the
south, formerly in the winter only; but recently many pairs have been
known to breed” (Trans. Plym. Inst. 1862-3, p. 65). The late Mr. J.
Gatcombe informed us that even in 1873, when he wrote to us, young Star-
lings were quite a puzzle to many of the bird-stuffers at Plymouth. In the
Kingsbridge district Starlings only commenced breeding a few years before
1860 (R. P.N.). This sprightly bird is very numerous in the Exeter dis-
trict,breeding in the holes in trunks of trees, and in the shoots which carry
off the rain-water from the roofs of houses. Many pairs bred at our house
near Topsham, and were very troublesome to us, filling up the heads of
the pipes with masses of straw and other soft substances, and though after
every heavy rain in the breeding-season some of the callow young were
drowned in the nests, yet the old birds persisted in building in the same
situation year after year, until we were compelled to exclude them by
means of wire caps over the shoots. With us also they frequently came
down the chimneys into the bedrooms, bringing down a mass of soot with
them, a very unpleasant habit. The Starling’s eggs ought to be of a
delicate light: blue, but we have often found them quite dingy from the
soot washed into the nest by the rain, or accumulated in the plumage of
the chimney-loving parents, who seem to “ sleep black” like the sweeps.

In June 1872 a large flock of Starlings frequented the trees round the
cottage at Becky Falls, near Manaton; an unusual sight for the time of
year. None nest very near there. They appeared to be attracted by the
quantities of caterpillars which had stripped the oak trees of their leaves.
They must have left their breeding-places in flocks like Rooks. (W. W.
B., in litt.)

The reed-beds at Slapton Ley are agreat resort for Starlings in autumn
and winter. The numbers roosting there are enormous, and form quite a
feature of the place (E. A. 8. E.). Polwhele mentions their roosting
there; and Westcote speaks of vast multitudes roosting in the few
straggling elders which grew on Lundy Island. Hundreds roost in ivy-
covered walls and inshrubberies in and near Exeter, and the south of the
county, in winter, their strong Cormorant-like odour and uncleanly habits
rendering them unwelcome neighbours, and necessitating wholesale de-
struction,

Fifty years ago the Starling was looked upon as only a winter visitor to
N. Devon, and we can well remember when the early appearance of the
flocks in the autumn was considered a sign of a severe winter. The
enormous increase of this very useful bird during the last quarter
of a century is one of the facts of our West Country ornis. The good
it does in clearing the pastures of grubs and worms is incalculable.

80 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

In the fruit-season, however, it is an unwelcome visitor to gardens,
and is very fond of cherries, soft-fleshed early apples and pears, and of the
ripe berries of the elder, which prove an irresistible dainty. It is also
said to eat the berries of the ivy, but we have never seen Starlings
feeding on them, Flocks may be seen feeding on saud-hoppers on the,
seashore in autumn, digging them up from a considerable depth in the
sand. After severe winters we have found the rabbit-earths some-
times choked with dead Starlings, the birds having crept into them
for shelter. It is a proof of the Starling’s being unknown to nest in
Devonshire at the beginning of this century that even Col. Montagu was
puzzled by a young Starling in its first plumage, and actually described
it under the name of “the Solitary Thrush.” When immense flocks of
Starlings congregate in the winter their extraordinary aerial evolutions
as they are on their way to their roosting-places are as well worthy of
observation as those of the multitudes of Dunlins, Ring-Plovers, and
Sanderlings when they wheel over the sand-flats. Sometimes the flock
suddenly contracting will take the shape of a monster balloon, and, again,
suddenly expanding out into a gigantic ribband, the birds rush on with
great velocity, the swish of their wings being audible at a considerable
distance.

In bright warm weather in spring and summer, when the air is perfectly
still, Starlings may be seen hawking for and chasing flies through the
air, like Swallows, and soaring on extended wings, especially about the
cliffs of the sea-coast, and often mingled with the Jackdaws, which also
have the habit of soaring about in the air for hours together.

We have once or twice seen albino Starlings, and it seemed as if the
other birds were proud of them and guarded them, as they were in-
variably in the centre of the flock, when it was feeding on the ground, so
that our efforts to obtain a shot at the variety would be baffled by this
caution on the part of the birds.

The Starling was still pushing to the west and settling itself in Cornwall
long after it had made itself familiar throughout Devon. It was not till
the spring of 1855 that it was known to breed in Cornwall, and then
only one pair nested at Trewardale, near Bodmin, increasing to five pairs
in 1864 (J. R. Collins.) Even up to 1878 Mr. Rodd stated he had not
succeeded in marking it as a resident west of Truro. It is now, we
believe, established as a resident bird throughout Cornwall.

In Mr. Byne’s collection there was a cream-coloured specimen obtained
in Devon. Varieties often occur near Kingsbridge (E. A. 8. E., MS.
Notes). There is a specimen with the upper mandible curved to one side,
in the A. M. M., which was shot near Exeter. Mr. Gatcombe saw a bird
entirely of a “beautiful glossy black” amongst some Starlings near
Plymouth, on April 15th, 1873 (Zool. 1873, p. 3566). A specimen of
the Southern Cow Bunting (Volothrus sericeus) was shot when feeding
with a flock of Starlings at Polsloe, Exeter, December 7th, 1872. It was,
doubtless, an escape, many of that species being imported to England
from 8. America (Zool, 1873, p. 3411).

STURNID. 81

Rose-coloured Pastor. Pastor roseus (Linn.).

A casual visitor, of rather frequent occurrence, principally to the South
Hams and to Lundy Island, during the spring and summer months (May
to October). It was especially numerous in the fine summer of 1851,
when a female was shot at Berry Head which was full of eggs, and
might, perhaps, have bred in the county if she had not been killed. If
unmolested this beautiful bird would probably become a regular summer
migrant. One was shot at Teignmouth, July 17th, 1817 (T. & K., and
W.R. H. J., Zool. 1843, p. 188). Two specimens were sent to the
British Museum from Aveton Gifford by the Rev. B. Kerr Vaughan, and
another was shot there in June 1834. The last specimen is probably the
one now in the collection of the late Mr. J. Elliot, at Kingsbridge, but
which was formerly in Mr. Vaughan’s possession (E. A. S. E.). Another
bird in the British Museum was obtained by Dr. Tucker at Ashburton.
It has been seen at Saltram (E. M., Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837, p. 176, and
Rowe’s Peramb. Dartmoor, Appendix, p. 233). A male was shot near
Berry Head in June 1845 (E. B., Zool. 1851, p. 3233, and Von H., Zool.
1874, p. 3908). One was shot in the parish of Bigbury in 1850 (H. N.,
MS. Notes). An adult female occurred at St. Budeaux, or Tamerton,
near Plymouth, June 17th, 1851 (R. A. J., ‘ Naturalist,” 1851, p. 211;
J.G., MS. Notes; J. B. R., Trans. Plym. Inst. 1862-63, p. 65). An
adult male was shot at Pitt, near Chudleigh, June 18th, 1851 (Zool.
p. 3233), and is now in the A. M. M. One recorded from Chudleigh,
July 10th, 1851 (W. T., ‘ Naturalist,’ 1852, p. 19), was perhaps the
same as the last specimen. A female full of eggs was shot at Berry
Head, July 12th, 1851, and is now in the Torquay Museum (E. B., Zool.
p. 3233). An adult male shot at Kingsbridge in 1852 is in the A. M. M.,
and another occurred at Alphington near Exeter in July of that year.
A fine male was shot in July 1855 on Highhouse Farm in the parish of
Dodbrooke, adjoining Kingsbridge, by Mr. H. Nicholls, and was purchased
by Lord Lilford (H. N., MS. Notes). Lord Lilford describes this bird as
a singularly fine example, as brilliant in plumage as any he had ever
obtained on the continent. A male in full plumage was seen near Prawle
Point in May 1871 (Zool. 1871, p. 2679). One was obtained in the
neighbourhood of Bideford at the end of October 1875 (M. A. M., Zool.
1875, p. 4720). One occurred on Lundy Island a few years before 1866
(G.F.M., ‘ Naturalist,’ 1866, p. 359).

The Rev. H. G, Heaven used to say that any year he could confidently
expect to see Rose Pastors on Lundy in the spring, and going out actually
shot a pair for his friend Dr. Woodforde, of Taunton. Since the island
has been almost entirely broken up for cultivation, and, in consequence,
is much more disturbed than it used to be, Rose Pastors, Golden Orioles,
and other scarce migrants are now seldom seen. We have known several
instances of the occurrence of the Rose Pastor on the N. Devon coast.
Mr. W. Brodrick obtained one near Ilfracombe at the time he resided in
that picturesque watering-place, and we knew of another which was shot

G

82 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

in a garden at Bideford by Mr. Willcocks, who kindly showed it to us,
This was a fine male, shot in the autumn of 1875 while feeding on some
hawthorn berries in company with Blackbirds. Although Col. Montagu
described it as a ‘‘ beautiful species of Thrush,” and gave it the name of
the ‘* Rose-coloured Ouzel,” in the parts of the world where it commonly
resides the Rose Pastor has very much the habits of our familiar Starling,
assembling in vast flocks, being fond of the society of cattle (hence its
name of Pastor or herdsman), and building together in holes of rocks and
old buildings. It is about the same size as a Starling, although the crest
upon the head gives it the appearance of being a little larger. Unfor-
tunately the beautiful rose-colour in the plumage of this very handsome
bird is very evanescent, quickly fading in skins and mounted specimens.

The Rose Pastor occurs often in Cornwall, as many as seven or eight
having been procured in one season in the neighbourhood of Penzance.

In the Eastern Counties Mr. Stevenson has recorded that most of the
Rose Pastors are met with in the autumn, whereas on our 8.W. coasts the
summer months have yielded the greatest number. This renders it likely
that small flocks arrive in the 8.W. Counties in the spring, gradually
scattering themselves eastwards. It rarely happens that single specimens
are recorded in any one year, the rule being that, if one has been pro-
cured, several others will be met with in various parts of the kingdom,
these being some of the other members of the flock, the survivors not
reaching the east of the island until the autumn months.

The Rose Pastor may be even a more common visitor than is generally
supposed, for, as Dr. Saxby has remarked in his ‘ Birds of Shetland,’ in
the plumage of its first year it is so unattractive, and so closely resembles
a young Starling in the nestling dress, that in a flock of those birds it
might easily escape notice. The fact that these birds are sociable at the
nesting-time makes it difficult for us to credit that single pairs have had
nests in this country.

Family CORVIDZ.

THE CROWS. -

The important family of the Corvide, or Crows, has
been, until very recent years, well represented in Devon-
shire. Comprising some of our most familiar birds, such
as the Rook, Jackdaw, Carrion-Crow, Magpie, and Jay,
which are generally distributed and common in most parts
of the kingdom, it also includes some rarer British re-
presentatives, such as the Cornish Chough and Raven,
very characteristic in former years of our West Country

CORVID.E. 83

ornis, but now, owing to persecution, in great danger of
becoming ere long extinct. The Raven is such a powerful,
wary, and hardy bird, that he is likely to survive for some
years to come, although his numbers annually diminish ;
but the Cornish Chough is, we fear, within measurable
distance of complete disappearance from our county list.
The Crows are all wary, sagacious, and powerful birds,
furnished with a pickaxe of a beak, which in the Raven
is indeed a formidable weapon. They may be termed
omnivorous, as there is hardly anything which they can
swallow which they will not digest, and they are ubi-
quitous in their search after food, being met with on
moors, in meadows, in woods, by the banks of inland
streams and rivers, as well as on the sands and oozes and
on the cliffs by the sea-shore. One of them, common in
the North, and on our eastern coasts in the winter time,
the Royston or Hooded Crow, was, in our memory, a
regular visitor in the autumn to our shores, but from
causes which can only be surmised has deserted the West
of England, and is to-day only a very rare straggler.

Chough. Pyrrhocoraa graculus (Linn.).
[Red-legged Crow. |

Resident in small numbers in some places on the north coast of the
county, but it no longer breeds on Lundy Island, where it was once
plentiful. On the south coast it is now hardly more than a casual
visitor of rather rare occurrence, though it has been known to breed once
or twice. The only instance in which, to our knowledge, it has been met
with far inland is one that was seen by Miss Radford near Lydford about
1881. It was, probably, passing from one coast to another across the
county.

The history of the Devonshire Choughs during the last few decades is
indeed a sad one. While the birds were gradually diminishing from
some unexplained natural causes, perhaps owing to the Jackdaw having
become the dominant species, their final disappearance has been rapidly
accelerated through the greed of collectors for their eggs and skins.

On Lundy, where thirty years ago we found Choughs fairly numerous,
and confining themselves to the neighbourhood of the dwelling-house for

G2

S84 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

the sake of seeking protection from their enemies the Peregrines, we are
informed that the birds are now no longer resident, and are only repre-
sented by a chance straggler from the mainland at long intervals.

At Abbotsham, on the north coast, where we can remember Choughs
being numerous and nesting in some old chimneys, we are told that none
have been seen for years, And the same sad tale is repeated from other
old haunts of the bird. In the romantic neighbourhood of Lynton, on
the bold promontory called Countesbury Hill and in the Valley of Rocks,
on most of the cliffs which stretch westwards from Ilfracombe to Baggy
Point, especially at Croyde and Morthoe, we used formerly to see the
Chough ; and, again, on the opposite side of Bideford Bay along the cliffs
towards "Clovelly and Hartland Point, and, turning that headland, the
slaty cliffs of North Cornwall, used to afford them a home, and cue
presence added to the wildness of the scenery at Boscastle and Tintagel.
We have reason to believe that a pair or two are still to be found in some
of these old stations, although we must mournfully confess that Choughs
were no longer to be seen on some of them which we have recently
visited.

In South Devon Mr. E. A. S. Elliot informed us that Choughs used to
frequent the cliffs at Prawle Point and Bolt Head, and nested there, and
Mr. G. F. Mathew saw them in those localities when searching for
Lycena arion in the summer months. We have no information as to
the presence of the Chough on the cliffs between Exmouth and Sidmouth.
In the course of many visits we have never detected it on that part of
the coast. Further east, Mr. J. E. Harting found Choughs nesting on
the Dorsetshire coast near Lulworth, and Mr. Mansel-Pleydell thought
they were increasing in his county, and says that they have returned to
their old quarters on the Purbeck cliffs, whence they had been driven by
persecution.

The Chough is easily to be distinguished from the Jackdaw when in
the air by its longer wings and more buoyant and skimming flight. It
feeds on insects, worms, sometimes on carrion, rarely on erain, In the
winter Choughs come inland for some iittle distance, and may then be
seen walking about in the fields, although Col. Montagu supposed,
erroneously, that they were averse to walking on turf. We know of six
having been killed at a single shot when feeding on a manure-heap at
Braunton by a sportsman wishing to discharge his gun before returning
home. This was long ago in the muzzle-Joading days. In the severe
winter we spent on Lundy Island we noticed Choughs picking the bodies
of the starved Sky-Larks and Redwings.

Choughs are easily tamed, becoming very impudent and familiar. We
remember one, taken out of a nest at Abbotsham, which was allowed to
have the run of Bridge Street, Bideford. It belonged to a family in-
habiting one of the houses, and was the general pet of the whole street,
flying in and out of the different windows in turn.

Mr. J. Gateombe has stated that a tame Chough learned to imitate
exactly the call-note of a Canary.

The late Mr. Ralph Sanders, of Exeter, for many years kept a small

CORVID.E. 8d

flock in his garden in Colleton Crescent, all haying been reared from
young ones obtained on the coast of Cornwall. Several of these birds are
preserved in the A. M. M. and other collections. He informed us that
his Choughs attempted to build several times, but never really nested,
and he felt pretty cunfident that they never laid an egg, and that he had

55?
some doubts at the time whether any of them had even mated, and
whether the carrying sticks did not proceed more from their restless dis-
position than anything else. When we saw them in 1853 they were
extremely tame and fearless, and the little tlock had a remarkably pretty
appearance wandering about in a body.

In a manuscript Note-book of Col. Montagu, lent us by the late Rev. John Hellins,
under date 1798, he says, ** ‘She Chough is trequent on this coust (S. Devon) where
the cliffs are high.” Dr. E. Moore says in 1837 it was not so numerous as in Corn-
wall, but many specimens occurred in winter (Mag. Nat. Hist. n.s.i. p. 176). It
appears to occur occasionally in autumn and winter on the coast in the neighbourhood
ot Plymouth (Zool. 1879, p. 114; 1880, p. 47; 1881, p. 5; 1885, p. 21). Mr.
Bolitho had specimens sent to him for preservation January 2Uth, 1853, April 20th,
1855, and September 12th, 1864. The late Mr. J. Gatcombe wrote as follows :—‘* July
16th, 1875. My friend, Mr. Bignell, of Stonehouse, told me that he had seen a
family of six Cornish Choughs at the Bolt Head, near Salcombe, on the Devonshire
coast, and the same gentleman haying observed a pair of these birds a month or two
befure at the same place, I have no doubt that they had bred aud brought out four
young ones, which would account for the family of six seen on the second occasion,
bolt Head is, I think, qnite a new locality tor the Cornish Chough ” (Zool. 18735,
p. 8717). Mr. R. P. Nicholls says that about a dozen specimens have occurred
between the Bolt Head and Bantham in twenty-five years (MS. Notes). Specimens
killed near Torquay and Kingsbridge are in the Torquay Museum, where also are
preserved two eggs found at Berry Head in 1880. Mr. F. Pershouse, Jny., found a
dead Chough lying on the sands at Paignton on January 8th, 1880 (Trans. Devon.
Assoc. xii, p. 91). One was shot at Kingswear about 1881 after a gale (H. Balfour,
in litt.). A pair were shot at Folly Cliffs, Bantham, about 1885 (E. A. 8S. E., MS.
Notes). Half a century ago Choughs were always to be seen on any part of the
north coast between Lynton and Hartland Point, the cliffs at Abbutsham being a
favourite locality. A few are still sometimes met with in certain localities, as at
Braunton Burrows, Morthoe, and Langleigh Cleave, near Ilfracombe. A few were
seen at Morthoe in August and October 1874 (Zool. 1874, pp. 4229, 4254). A flock
ot seven was seen by Mr. J. Gatcombe on Braunton Burrows, October 25th, 1875
(Zool. 1875, p. 4718). Mr. O. V. Aplin saw six flying abont the cliffs at Little
Hangman on August 16th, 1856 (Zool. 1887, p. 71).

Nutcracker. Nucifraga caryocatactes (Linn.).

An accidental visitor of rare occurrence.

The Nutcracker is an inhabitant of Northern and Central Europe,
preferring mountainous districts and pine-forests, where it feeds on the
seeds of the fir-cones, and is only an accidental straggler to this country.
It is about the size of a Jackdaw, brown in colour, and is speckled all
over with triangular spots of white. It is such a singular-looking bird,
in consequence of this spotted plumage, that it is easily to be detected,
and can hardly be confounded with any other bird when seen close at
hand, and it is for this reason that we are disposed to accept the

86 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

numerous instances in which this bird is stated to have been seen and
not obtained, although in the cases of other birds it would be incautious
to do so. We ourselves one day towards the end of the summer of 1873
are confident that we saw a Nutcracker when riding down the beautiful
stretch of the Bridgwater and Taunton Road which passes through
Cothelstone Park. A bird which was at once perceived to be a stranger
was perched upon a post at a short distance from the road, and its
speckled back and breast revealed to us what it was. Mr. Austin, the
Bridgwater correspondent of Col. Montagu, saw a Nutcracker near
Bridgwater upon a Scotch fir in the autumn of 1805. Mr. T. Cosmo
Melville in the ‘Field’ of August 16th, 1875, writing from Maunsell
House, near Bridgwater, about the same date that we saw the Nutcracker
mentioned above, stated that one was seen by himself and friends near
North Petherton. And we know of yet another Somerset Nutcracker,
for in a collection of birds belonging to the late Capt. Tomline, of Rum-
well House, near Taunton, we saw one which we were informed by him
had been shot close to Bath.

A specimen was shot in North Devon in August 1808, which was pre-
served in the collection of Mr. Comyns, a gentleman who resided at Mount
Pleasant, Starcross, and had a large collection of birds (Montagu, Orn.
Dict., Suppl.). This collection was dispersed sometime between 1837 and
1848. Another Nutcracker was killed at Washford Pyne Moor, near
Tiverton, by Mr. W. Tucker, of Dawlish, in 1829 (E. M., Mag. Nat. Hist.
1837, p. 179). Dr. A. G. C. Tucker mentions this species in his ‘ List of
Birds discovered in the neighbourhood of Ashburton,’ and his sons include
it in the “ List of Birds of the District” in Carrington’s ‘ Dartmoor.’
Bellamy also says he believed it had been killed on Dartmoor (Nat. Hist.
S. Devon, p. 201). One was seen on the banks of Hvuoe Lake, in the
parish of Plymstock, by the late Mr. Thos. Bulteel (E. H. Rodd, Yarrell’s
B. Birds, 2nd ed, ii. p. 127). Mr. J. Brooking Rowe thinks he saw one
in the woods at Saltram in October 1862 (Trans. Plym. Inst. 1863).
One was seen by Mr. M. H. Rotheram on July 14th, 1883, in Huntsham
Woods, near Bideford, N. Devon; and one was seen two years previously
at Instow, by Mr. C. F. Hinchliff (Zool. 1883, p. 338).

A specimen in the possession of Mr. L. Sparrow, of Strode, near
Ivybridge, is believed by that gentleman to have been obtained by his
father (Pidsley, B. of Devonshire, p. 52).

Jay. Garrulus glandarius (Linn.).
[Jay Pie: Dev.]

Resident. Breeds.

Confined to wooded parts of the county, only to be reported as still
common in those few woodland districts which are as yet safe from the
hands of keepers, who wage war against this handsome bird because of its
weakness for eggs. Like others of the Corvide, the Jay feeds indiscri-
minately on insects, grain, fruit, young birds, eggs, mice, kc. The follow-

CORVID.E. 87

ing excellent account of the bird is from the pen of Col. Montagu :—
“The Jay is a cunning, crafty bird; is a great devourer of fruit and
grain, and seems particularly fond of cherries and peas; will frequently
plunder the smaller birds’ nests of their eggs and young, and sometimes
pounce the old birds, on which it preys, as well as on mice. Its common
notes are various but harsh; it will sometimes in the spring utter a sort
of song in a soft and pleasing manner, but so low as not to be heard at
any distance, and at intervals introduce the bleating of a lamb, mewing
of a cat, the note of a Kite or Buzzard, hooting of an Owl, or even
neighing of a horse.” We have never heard Jays “ hooting,’ but have
often been deceived by their clever imitation of the soft mating notes of
the Brown Owl, and a young Jay we took from a nest in our shrubbery
and reared in the same room in which we kept rather an accomplishea
Parrot very soon learned all the Parrot’s words and phrases, and repeated
them in the same ludicrous voice, the consequence being that the Parrot,
jealous and indignant, for a long time maintained a sullen silence. The
late Mr. T. R. A. Briggs examined four young Jays on June 11th, 1852,
that had been shot, and he found that the old birds had been feeding
them on the small round galls that are so common on oak-leayes. On
June 17th, 1857, he found a nest with nearly full-grown young ones
built in the fork of an apple-tree, with ivy growing around it, in an
orchard at Derriford. The old birds were exceedingly bold, and when he
Was up in the tree appeared half inclined to fly at him. Their agitation
and clamour were excessive; they flew round, chattering and menacing
him, now cawing like a Rook, then mewing like a cat, and in their
extreme agitation actually plucking off leaves and biting off pieces of
dead twigs from neighbouring trees. Their solicitude pleased and amused
him much (MS. Notes). We were always glad to see Jays about our
grounds because of the entertainment they afforded us, and bore with
them in spite of considerable depredations in the garden, until one summer,
wishing to destroy the rats which were fast carrying off all our peas, we
spread about the garden pieces of bread and butter anointed with phos-
phorus paste, and we were sorry to find that these had been eagerly
devoured by the Jays, whose dead bodies we found lying about our grounds.
It was several years before we again had any Jays, for it seemed as if
intelligence of this fatal occurrence had been spread abroad by the survivors,
and our garden was for a long time avoided by the Jays of the district.
From its fondness for the acorn, on which it largely feeds in the autumn,
the Jay has received the specific name of glandarius. Its bright blue
wing-coverts are in great request for artificial flies for salmon-fishing, and
its wings for ladies’ hats.

Magpie. Pica rustica (Scopoli).

| Pie, Mock-a-pie, Piannet (NV. D.): Dev.]

Resident, generally distributed and common. Breeds.
** What a beautiful foreign bird!” is often the exclamation when we

88 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

are exhibiting our collection to visitors and a specimen of the Magpie,
mounted in all his pride with expanded tail, is reached. And when the
information is given that the Magpie is one of the most common of our
indigenous birds the usual response is ‘‘ We did not know there were such
beautiful birds in this country!” Indeed, Master Mag, with his lustrous
metallic green and white plumage, is a splendid fellow, especially when
the sun is shining upon him, and it is a pity that his very mischievous
propensities should render it needful to keep his numbers within bounds.
He has a special weakness for birds’ eggs and, as is well known, the surest
bait for him is a hen’s egg laid carefully on the gin. He is, however, a
shy and cautious bird, and does not often get himself into trouble. At
the nesting-time he loses some of his caution, and will approach near to
houses if any of the garden trees afford a desirable situation in which to
build, and he is very partial to a Scotch fir, placing his large untidy nest
of sticks, dome-shaped, and with a hole for ingress, in a fork of its branches.
At the time when we were ranked in the fraternity of birds’ nesting
urchins, we had a belief that “‘ Bush Magpies ” and “ Tree Magpies” were
distinct species, a widely prevalent belief among rustic egg-collectors.
Young Magpies taken from the nest are not often reared, being very liable
to severe cramps, in the paroxysms of which we have seen their miserable
little legs snap and break like pieces of glass. In no place have we seen
Magpies so numerous as they are on the rich pastures of Mid-Somerset,
where they go by the name of the “‘ Pheasants of the level,” at evening
flocking to some favourite larch-plantation to roost. Here they may be
easily thinned by anyone who chooses to lie in wait for them. Great is
the chattering when each little party comes in, and has its day's doings of
successful thieving and mischief to relate. Sometimes we have seen
Magpies assembled in the fields in flocks of a score or more, and the noise
of the caucus has been astounding. Instances have been known of two
large parties meeting, when a fight has taken place. In the autumn of
1862 we saw fifteen Magpies together on the ground in a field near Ex-
minster surrounded by immense flocks of Rooks and Starlings. The |
Magpie is a favourite bird to keep as a pet, but is extremely mischievous, |
and not to be trusted in the neighbourhood of the poultry yard. Like the
Jay, the Magpie delights to head the teasing parties of small birds which

make fun of any unfortunate Brown Owl discovered asleep on some not
very cleverly selected perch, when a characteristic woodland scene follows,
until the Owl can endure the noise no longer and plunges into a
deeper and safer roost. Sometimes the game changes, and Master Mag is
made to afford amusement in turn. He is a very entertaining quarry to
the faleoner, and is dexterous on wing beyond belief. Those who only
know him by his skulking flight as he dips along the hedge-rows would be

surprised by the efforts he makes to shake off the Falcon. His craft leads
him to take shelter in any bush where he may lie perdu, not stirring until
the whips of those following the sport are cracked over his head, when he
will venture forth again to dodge the swoops of the expectant Peregrine.

When his last efforts have proved i in vain, and the dreaded fatal stroke of
the Falcon’s powerful talon has been given, his bright tail is cut off, as

CORVID. 89

the brush of the fox is, and is presented as a trophy to some one of consi-
deration who is “in at the death.”

In the severe winter of 1880-81, Magpies kept sleek and fat, finding
plenty of starving small birds to devour.

Observation.—The Californian Magpie, Pica nuttallii, only differs from
our English bird in having a yellow beak. Two specimens, at least, of
this variety have been detected in Britain—one in Stirlingshire, by
Mr. Harvie-Brown, of Dunipace House; the other in this county near
Bucktastleigh, by Mr. Gervase F. Mathew, R.N. These two excellent
obseryers are neither of them likely to have been mistaken. Mr. G. F.
Mathew obtained a close view of the bird, and sent the following account
to the ‘ Zoologist’ at the time (Zool. 1867, p. 1016) :—* One day last July,
while walking with a friend in the neighbourhood of Buckfastleigh, we
saw in a hedge-row before us a Magpie busily employed searching for food.
On approaching the bird it did not exhibit those symptoms of alarm which
are generally common to the species, but, on the contrary, continued
grubbing about in a very unconcerned manner, This appearing unusual,
I paid more attention to it than I should otherwise have done. We still
continued to advance, and it was not until we were about twenty yards from
the bird that it imagined it time to be off. It then walked deliberately
into the middle of the road before taking wing. While here it was in the
full glare of the sun, and I then observed to my astonishment that it
possessed a bill of bright lemon colour at the base, but of a darker hue
towards the top. I uttered an exclamation of surprise, and called my
companion’s attention to it, and he agreed with me that he had never seen
or heard of a Magpie’s beak so coloured.” ‘The tameness of this bird
proves it to have been a stranger. However, Dr. Coues and other eminent
American ornithologists look upon the American Magpie with the yellow
beak as not specifically distinct. ‘1 continue to regard the yellow-billed
race,’ writes Dr. Coues, ‘as simply illustrating the perpetuation of a
fortuitous condition.” The Yellow-billed Magpie is the Common Magpie
of California, and when there we did not notice any difference in its
habits from those of the English Magpie. ut it disappears as the
country becomes settled, keeping to the oak-covered districts,

There are some well-known lines about the Magpie :—

“One for sorrow,
Two for mirth,
Three for a wedding,
Four for a birth,”

and we have known superstitious people spit on the appearance of a single
Magpie to avert the evil omen!

A white variety was in the possession of Mr. Comyns (KE. M., Trans.
Plym. Inst. 1830).

90 - THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

Jackdaw. Corvus monedula, Linn.
[Daw, Chauk: Dev.]

Resident, generally distributed and very numerous. Breeds in the
towers of Exeter Cathedral; old church-towers ; ruins, such as Berry
Pomeroy Castle ; under railway viaducts; in thick ivy against walls of
country houses; with Rooks in trees; in rabbit-burrows, as at Vitifer Tin-
mine on Dartmoor; in clefts of the Dewerstone rock ; and in the cliffs of the
sea-coast in all suitable localities. This bird is decidedly on the increase
in the Kingsbridge district (EK. A.S. E.). White specimens have occurred
at Exeter, Torquay, and Plymouth. Mr. R. P. Nicholls had a spotted
variety brought to him about ten years ago.

We must confess that the impudent and rather mischievous Jackdaw is
one of our favourites. We like to see him at large either soaring about
the windy pinnacles of some cathedral tower, popping in and out of the
crevices of some old ruin, or with his chatter adding another note to the
music of the sea-shore as he flits along the cliffs. From our beautiful
church-tower at Bishop’s Lydeard we were compelled to shut Master Jack
out by netting the windows with wire, as it was his troublesome habit to
bring in cartloads of sticks, depositing them in the bell-chamber and on
the stairs, to the risk of anyone visiting the tower getting a nasty fall.
There is no bird which is more easily tamed than a Jackdaw, nor makes a
more entertaining pet, and none that becomes more affectionate to its
master, Some young Jackdaws we once kept about our grounds, which
were permitted perfect liberty, became very clever. One thing they
discovered was the opportunity for mischief afforded by the few quiet
moments of our morning family prayer. For this they would be waiting
somewhere on the lawn, and the moment after they had seen the servants
enter the room they would fly in at one of the windows, alight on the
breakfast-table, and be at the butter in a trice, and would then make their
escape with some spoil or other in their beaks, Some wild Jackdaws
which were daily passing at last decoyed our tame birds away, but some
weeks after this happened we were returning from church one Sunday
morning when a flock of Jackdaws flew over, and on calling to them one
was seen to display uneasiness, and separating from his companions gra-
dually descended until he settled on our brother’s shoulder, manifesting
the greatest delight at the presence of his master. Jackdaws are insatiable
for water, and in warm weather like to bathe several times a day, and
several of our pets came to an untimely end by getting into water-butts
&e. while seeking to indulge this craving. We have had them fly to us
with delight to place themselves under the rose of a watering-pot for a
good sprinkling. Insects, carrion, grain, birds’ eggs, fruit, especially
cherries, and other things, go to form the very varied diet of the Jackdaw.
When we had our tame birds we were keen entomologists, and often had
the mortification to see ‘‘ good specimens” of lepidoptera devoured by our
pets, who were more clever in capturing the insects than we were with
our nets. For some time a friend of ours in Barnstaple had a tame white

CORVID.S. 9]

Jackdaw which used to fly in and out of the windows and pervade the
street. The cliff-haunting Jackdaws assemble in large flocks in the
autumn, aud come inland, visiting the stubbles.

Carrion-Crow. Corvus corone, Linn.
[Blackbill.]

Resident, generally distributed and common in the southern part of the
county. Breeds. According to Polwhele it was not common when he
wrote in 1797 (Hist. Devon. i. chap. 6).

This most mischievous bird, well styled a raven in miniature, is common
enough throughout the south-western district except in those few localities
where the guns and traps of keepers have effected some diminution in its
numbers. It is a solitary bird, and it is rare to see more than a pair
together, except at the time when the young birds are first out of the
nest, when they keep in company with the old birds for a few weeks.
The Common Crow can also be credited with a full share of the wariness
and cunning of its tribe, and it is in general a difficult bird to approach.
Shooting on Dartmoor, we have once or twice been astonished at the un-
suspicious conduct of the Crows frequenting its wilds, which have flown
deliberately up to our gun to their own exceeding discomfiture.

Young birds, birds’ eggs, carrion, insects, and grain form the food of
the Crow. It is very destructive to young poultry, and Col. Montagu saw
a Crow strike a Pigeon dead from the top of a barn. It will also attack
sickly lambs, and kill young hares and rabbits. The Crow, when it has
satistied its hunger, will conceal the remainder of its food for a future
meal. Col. Montagu saw two Crows by the sea-shore busy in removing
some small fish (the refuse of a fisherman’s net) from the edge of the
flowing tide, and conveying them one by one beyond the usual flux of the
tide, or just above high-water mark, and there deposit them under the
larger stones or broken rocks, after having most amply satisfied the imme-
diate calls of hunger. The Colonel also once witnessed a combat between
a Crow and a weazel, in which the latter succeeded in killing its opponent
and carried off its body.

The Carrion-Crow is not a very common bird in N. Devon. It was far
otherwise when we resided in North Pembrokeshire, where we had very
ample opportunities of studying this bird, as the Crows came from all the
country round to nest in the small plantations adjoining our house. One
spring we took twenty-two nests in our grounds, and at all times waged war
against these egg-stealers. Beneath one nest which was placed in an ivy-
covered ash tree we picked up ten recently-sucked Pheasant’s eggs and five
Moorhen’s eggs; all were quite fresh, still containing the whites, proving
that it is only the yelk which the Crow cares for and carries in its beak to
the young birds in the nest. Crows are devoted parents, as we observed in
several touching cases, when the old birds, at other times so wary, were
willing to expose and sacrifice themselves rather than leave their broods,
The noises these birds make in the spring, and again in the autumn, we

92 THE BIRDS OF DEVON,

considered quite diabolical and used greatly to irritate us. Perched on
the top of some Scotch fir, with inflated throat, and jerking its body for-
wards with each repetition of the monotonous, discordant ery, the Crows
would sometimes, one against the other, keep up their uncanny music for
hours at a time.

Carrion-Crows appear to feel the first frosty nights. A severe frost set
in early in November 1887, and after it we found numbers of dead Carrion-
Crows; and passing an oak tree one very cold morning, saw a Crow fall
out. We picked the bird up, when it gave one faint croak and expired.
We have also found them lying dead on the ground after a long protracted
drought. ‘These omnivorous birds are very tond of fish, aud one morning
we encountered a Crow in N. Devon flying heavily over a water-meadow
with a good-sized trout in its bill, which it dropped as we approached in
order to make off more rapidly. In the summer, when the streams are
low, we have noticed Crows searching for freshwater mussels (Unio and
Anodonta).

In winter Crows seek the sea-shore to feed on shell-fish, and many may
be seen at low tide thus engaged at Teignmouth on the sands.

A pair will frequent the same plantation year after year to breed. A
pair have bred for more than forty years in a small wood near Topsham.
Crows have sometimes been made use of to hatch bantam’s eggs, their own
being removed from the nest, and the precaution taken to closely pencil
over the shells of the substituted ones. On Skomer Island we were informed
by Mr. Vaughan Davies that some hen’s eggs placed in a Crow’s nest and
hatched by the Crow resulted in black chickens. As there were no black
fowls in the poultry-yard on the island, this was, of course, looked upon as
due to the foster-parents’ influence upon the eggs !

Carrion-Crows are still numerous near Kingsbridge (E. A. 8. E., in
litt.), and near Newton Abbott (R. Greene, v. v.).

A white variety was in Mr. Comyns’ collection (E. M., Trans. Plym.
Inst. 1830); and a cream-coloured one occurred near Kingsbridge in 1588
(Rt. P. N.).

Hooded Crow. Corvus cornix, Linn.
[| Mussel-Crow (NV. D.).]

t
A casual visitor of occasional occurrence during the autumn and winter .
months, but rare in the spring. It appears to have been formerly much
more numerous, frequenting the sea-shore near Plymouth in winter
(Polwhele, Hist. Devon, i. chap. 6), and Dr. E. Moore says it was common
about our coasts in winter from October to April (Trans. Plym. Inst.
1830). In his “ List of Birds of Dartmoor” in Rowe’s ‘ Perambulation’
(ist ed. p. 230) he observes that it was “said by Pennant (‘ Zoology,’
vol. 2) to breed on the Moor, but resorts to the coasts in winter: be-
coming scarce, however.” But Polwhele says it was never seen on Dart-
moor insummer. Turton and Kingston (1830) say it was scarce, but had
been shot in the neighbourhood of Plymouth.

CORVID. 93

We can remember when the Hooded Crow was a common autumn
visitor to N. Devon, where we have seen numbers of them at the mouth of
the Taw at low water on the mussel-beds. In company with Herring
and Lesser and Great Black-backed Gulls they would be seen flying con-
tinually a short distance up into the air, and then dropping a mussel on
the rocks below in order to break the shell. From some cause or other
the Hooded Crows gradually became scarce and are now very rarely seen.
It could not be persecution, for so wary is this bird that an instance of
one being shot hardly ever came to our knowledge. Perhaps the over-
dredging of the mussel-beds has led to their being forsaken by the Crows.
We were informed that a pair of Hooded Crows nested one spring in
Youlston Old Park, N. Devon. Mr. G. F. Mathew had reason to believe
that one had mated with a Carrion-Crow (‘ Naturalist,’ 1866, p. 359).

Professor Newton considers the Black and Hooded Crows only forms of
the same species (cf. Yarrell’s B. Birds, 4th ed. ii. p. 274). Mr. Dresser,
however, says young birds, the produce of mixed marriages, are, like all
hybrids, intermediate in appearance, whence he judges that the two species
are fairly distinct.

One occurred near Topsham, April 6th, 1841 (F. W. L. Ross, MS. iii. p. 70). One
was killed in a field at St. Thomas, near Exeter, December 12th, 1849 (‘ Exeter Gazette’).
Two near Plymouth, March 12th, 1853 (B., MS. Notes). We saw one near Topsham,
October 21st, 1854; it was being mobbed by Rooks. A specimen was obtained in the
marshes near Newton Abbot in the autumn of 1854 (E. P., Trans. Devon. Assoe. viii.
p- 271). One was seen at Duryard, near Exeter, January 7th, 1866 (R.C.). Two
were shot on Woodbury Common in December 1870, and are now in the possession of
Mr. W.Snow. One which occurred on the Dart isin the Torquay Museum. One was
killed at Plymouth, March 31st, 1873. It is uncommon there (J. G.). Several were
seen by Mr. G. B. Corbin in March 1877 at Watcombe Park, near Torquay (Zool. 1877,
p. 444). One was seen near Exmouth, November 15, 1881. A specimen was shot near
Halwell, on the mud of the Kingsbridge Estuary, January 27th, 1886, by Sir Harold
Hewett (E A.S. E., MS. Notes). About six have occurred in the Kingsbridge district
in twenty-five years (R. P. N., MS. Notes).

The Hooded Crow used to visit Lundy Island in autumn and winter (Trans. Devon.
Assoc. viii. p. 308).

Rook. Corvus frugilegus, Linn.
[Anglo-Saxon Hroc, 7. e. Croaker. |

Resident, generally distributed in wooded districts, very abundant, and
in some places increasing enormously in number, ‘There are many large
Rookeries in the neighbourhood of Exeter, and some pairs breed in the
elms in the Cathedral Close in that city. There was a famous Rookery in
Pixton Park, near Dulverton, but the trees were cut down in 1891. In
Sharpham Woods, on the Dart, immense numbers of Rooks breed, and the
Rookery there is supposed to be the largest in the kingdom.

Although Mr. Carlyle was of opinion that “to hold a dialogue with a
rookery” was the best expression for the most utter confusion and be-
wilderment, we must confess that we have often listened with pleasure to
the confabulations of the Rooks high above us in their breezy homes, and

94 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

have thought that we could detect a meaning in the variously inflected
caws with which the young in the nests are chided or encouraged, the
partners returning with food are saluted, a lazy thief who would pilfer
sticks from other nests rather than seek them for himself is objurgated,
and the general affairs of rookdom are discussed. There are many, we
know, who look upon the Rook as an unmitigated nuisance, as a thief and
robber at the very best, and who would not grieve if he were altogether
exterminated ; but we should regard it as a sad day if he was to be
removed from the landscape in which he is so interesting an object, and there
are numerous arguments at hand in favour of his preservation. Chief of
these is the vast service he renders agriculturists in clearing their fields
of “ wireworms ” (larvae of Elateride or click-beetles), ‘* leather-jackets”
(larvee of Tipule or daddy long-legs), and the even more destructive grubs
of the cockchafer, which feed on the roots of grass ; and the overwhelming
fact that where the Rook has been destroyed he has been reimported, as
it was discovered that the crops could not grow without him. If he does
occasionally pilfer the potato-grounds and the newly sown wheat, yet he
may be easily warned off, and any little injury he does is a thousand-fold
counterbalanced by the benefits to which we have referred above.

The Rook is more or less omnivorous; and in their season walnuts and
nuts of various kinds, apples, pears, fruits, and berries, as well as carrion,
meet with his attention ; and he is not free from suspicion of occasionally
adding eggs and young birds to his menu, and even young rabbits. He
also feeds on mice and young rats, and sand-eels on the sea-shore, and
shell-fish. Young Rooks are extremely fond of cockchafers, and may be
seen picking these beetles off from the trees soon after they have flown from
their nests in May. In October flocks of Rooks visit walnut-trees, pluck-
ing the nuts off the branches, and the acorns off evergreen oaks. Whilst
the young are in the nest the old birds principally feed them on newly sown
grain, as may be seen by the castings under their nesting-trees consisting
entirely of the husks of the grain ; in autumn after harvest they pick up
much grain from the stubble-fields, and in winter may often be seen pulling
the ears out of wheat-stacks. They often seek for food on the ooze of
the estuaries and sea-shore with the Gulls, and boatmen by the seaside
consider this a sign of bad weather coming. Mr. Henry Nicholls saw a
Rook on Thurlestone sands during very cold weather seize a Thrush and
tear it, and then fly off with it in its claws; and during the cold spell of
December 1890 and January 1891 we ourselves saw a Rook pegging
away at a dead Thrush, which was frozen quite hard, returning to it for
several days, until all the flesh &c. had been devoured. We have seen a
Rook hovering over the Exe at Exeter and picking up floating substances
from the water. This habit has been observed by Mr. Gatcombe also
(Zool. 1873, p. 3393).

The Rook is at all times an interesting bird to watch; one of the
common objects of country-life; and may he long continue such! See
him on a wet day when the whole landscape is blotted out by the clouds
and the rain is pouring down hopelessly ; he then sits, with his tail droop-
ing down, on the hedge-row elms the picture of patient misery. But how

CORVID.A. 95

different his attitude on the same trees some bright breezy autumn day!
he then poises himself joyously on his perch, his tail horizontal or slightly
perked upwards, as he talks to his companions and scrutinizes the
neighbourhood for the best prospect of a successful day’s campaign against
his juicy insect food. And then how characteristic a sight of a warm
summer’s evening, just at the still sunset hour, the flocks of Rooks seen
returning from their feeding-stations to their roosts, some ancient bird
leading the clanging rookery home—their numbers seemingly interminable ;
they have all apparently passed overhead, yet still are there specks which
grow out of the distance and reveal themselves as birds. The cry is still
they come, and if there be a large rookery in the neighbourhood the long-
drawn-out stream will be perhaps a quarter of an hour or more streaking
the sky, until at last the army becomes reduced to one or two laggards
which bring up the rear.

The direction of these homeward flights will be often observed to alter
at different seasons of the year, as the Rooks are a little capricious in the
choice of their quarters for the night, and will shift from one wood to
another according to its position on sheltered or exposed slopes of the
hills. However, when we lived in Pembrokeshire, the inmates of a large
rookery, two miles distant, used to pass over our house every morning
about half an hour after sunrise, on their way to some high moors above,
where they scattered about to feed, and always returned just before sunset,
streaming over our house again. For eight years we noticed that they
never failed to pass each morning and evening, whatever the weather, over
our house, and never deviated fifty yards from their usual aerial path.

It is well known that in the autumn the Rooks revisit their rookeries
and examine the condition of their nests. They do not, however, remain
there, but after assembling at the trees Ay off to their roosting-station in
the sheltered woods they have selected for the winter. Very rarely Rooks
have been known to hatch off a second brood in the autumn. Larly in
October 1865 five pairs of Rooks were building, and in one nest there
were several young, at Mr. Willcock’s farm, ‘ Pengelly’s,’ near Exeter. A
similar instance was communicated by Mr. E. H. Rodd to Mr. Yarrell,
Rooks having hatched their young in a sheltered valley in Cornwall in
November 1836.

In Devonshire Rooks begin to build usually about the middle of February,
but in 1874, 1877, and 1882 at the beginning of that month, and in
1890 in January, at Topsham. They line their nests with earth, and on
April 8th, 1865, we picked up a clod of earth dropped by a Rook which
was attempting to carry it to her nest in her beak, and we found it to
weigh 24 02.

Young Rooks are very often more or less marked with white, especially
on the chin and throat, and the claws, toes, and legs are frequently white
or mottled. We have shot many in our own rookery near Topsham
marked in this manner. One with white quill-feathers and mottled feet
was shot at Crediton, July 15th, 1882 (Zool. 1885, p. 28). Mr. Comyns
had one entirely white except the scapulars (K. M., Trans. Plym. Inst.
1830). There is a curious lead-coloured variety in the A, M. M. Mr.

96 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

R. P. Nicholls has had mottled varieties sent to him; and Mr. Gateombe
records a remarkably mottled specimen shot near Ply mouth in May 1880,
with the bill and toes of a beautiful chrome-yellow (Zool. 1881, p. 50).

We have always considered rook-shooting, even with pea- “rifles, as very
poor sport, hardly to be ranked above pigeon battues ; but there is one
kind of sport afforded by the Rook which deserves to be spoken of in
higher terms. This is rook-hawking with trained Peregrines, especially
in those parts of the kingdom where the Rooks are in the habit of seeking
their food on high ground, and the falconer has an opportunity of inter-
cepting them on their return to their nests. When the Rook first becomes
conscious of danger and detects his enemy his alarm is often ludicrous,
and he will fly down a farm-house or cottage chimney, should one be at
hand; but if there be no shelter available he will nerve himself to the
effort, and will at once begin mounting the air, and will afford a very
good flight.

Young Rooks are extremely delicate eating and make delicious pies ;
Devonshire country people will go any distance to fetch a bunch of them
when a great shoot comes off at some large rookery.

Raven. Corvus corax, Linn.

Resident, and up to forty years ago numerous, but now only occasionally
seen, except in certain places where a few pairs still breed on the cliffs of
the sea-coast, on the rocky tors of Dartmoor, and on trees in some woods
in North Devon.

This powerful depredator is still not uncommon around the south-west
coast, where he occupies a nesting-station (to which the same pair return
year after year) on some of the high cliffs, and there lives a life of almost
constant warfare and bickering with the Peregrines and his other near
neighbours. Ravens also inhabit and nest in some of the Dartmoor tors,
from whence young birds are annually brought into Plymouth for sale.
Although preferring rocks and cliffs for their eyries they occasionally
place their nest in a wood, generally choosing some tall Scotch fir, where
they construct an untidy edifice, sometimes contenting themselves with
enlarging a deserted Crow’s or Sparrow-Hawk’s nest, and are among the
earliest birds to lay, often having eggs before the end of February. The
eggs are very small in proportion to the size of the bird.

Justly dreaded for the mischief they do, the destruction of any of these
wary tyrants is hailed with satisfaction by the farmers in the vicinity
they frequent, who have had many missing chickens to lay to their account :
and we recollect when one very ancient and powerful Raven was shot on
Brean Down, in Somerset, it was carried round the district to be exhibited,
its slayer receiving sundry small gratuities to reward him for the benefit
he had conferred upon the henwives. Ravens may be judged to be
scarce in a locality, and yet any carrion will not fail to attract them from
a great distance, as we have observed ten or eleven congregated in an
orchard around a dead horse some miles inland. The presence of these

CORVIDE. 97

birds is made known by their hoarse croak, which sounds like a very
guttural “ pork,” which they rarely fail to emit as they are on wing on
one of their aerial journeys. We noticed on Lundy a daily encounter
between a pair of Ravens and a pair of Peregrines, and one morning
a very fine Raven was picked up lying dead on the “sidlings,” with
no visible mark of injury upon him. ‘The verdict we pronounced.
at the time was that he had probably been choked when engaged in.
resisting the attack of the Falcons. A tame Raven we had once was a
very amusing and also a rather formidable pet. He was permitted to be
at large, and delighted to frighten and annoy every creature he found he.
could alarm. He would lie perdu, and cunningly pounce out upon the
female servants from behind and peck their ankles. He would sit on the
top of a spaniel’s kennel, and whenever the dog looked out would stoop
down with a well-aimed dig at his head. And when the dog was fed the
Raven would extract the choicest bones and tidbits from his bucket, and
then bury them one after the other in the ground an inch or so beyond
the reach of the unfortunate spaniel’s chain, croaking all the time to him-
self in supreme enjoyment of his cleverness in teasing. Nor would he
leave the gardener unmolested. Directly he had gone away for dinner
the Raven would hasten to unearth any seeds he might have been sowing,
and when the asparagus first broke above ground in the spring he would
delight in cutting off the shoots and flying away with them. After any
extra piece of mischief he would retire to the stable-roof, and there sit
croaking to himself until he thought it safe to venture down again. One
spring he was shut up in the stable, because he was found to have a liking
for hens’ eggs and young chickens, and visited the poultry department
oftener than his presence was desired ; he then gave the greatest proof of
his ingenuity in mischief. He succeeded in cutting with his powerful
beak a small hole at the bottom of the stable-door large enough for a
chicken to pass through, and just inside it he would lay a bait consisting
of small shreds of his own food, and would then stand quietly expectant
behind the door until a hen and her brood approached, when some
foolish chick, in spite of the anxious maternal cluckings, would be sure
to run through the treacherously prepared hole and fall into the
Rayen’s beak. But he met at last with the just reward of his misdeeds.
Chasing a chicken one day it ran into a wood-rick, and the Raven
following became entangled in the wood, and in his efforts to extricate
himself was strangled.

Another, a young bird from Dartmoor, that was under our care not long
ago, wheneyer he observed us take a spade to do some gardening would
join us, intently watching our operations and greedily devouring any large
earthworms we happened to turn up. When not engaged in such serious
work as pulling up the marks for seeds and nipping off the heads of car-
nations, or any other bright flower which attracted his attention, he would
look about for amusement. Coming quietly up behind our unsuspecting
tabby he would inflict a sharp pinch on her tail, and when she fled from
his too pressing attentions would pursue her with such gigantic hops
that she had to put on her best speed to escape from him, thoroughly

u

98 THE BIRDS OF DEVON,

frightened. Bold and fearless as he was ordinarily, yet if a blue-bottle
or other large fly came near him he showed the most abject terror.

It is not difficult to attract a Raven within range by lying down per-
fectly still upon the ground as if you were dead. We have done this
successfully upon the coast. At first the Raven will alight at a cautious
distance ; but if you remain quite motionless he will after a time begin to
approach with long sidling hops, and may chance to come sufficiently near
to rue his temerity if you have a concealed gun.

Instances came under Col. Montagu’s observation of Ravens nesting in
a tree at no great distance from a rookery, in order to have an easy living
upon the eggs and young Rooks, and he knew of a rookery having been
broken up and the Rooks compelled to go elsewhere from the persecution
they thus sustained from their powerful neighbours.

A friend of Mr. Gatcombe’s scraped acquaintance with a Raven inhabiting
the wild cliff at Tintagel, which became so familiar with his presence that
it really seemed pleased with his company, and would actually fly to meet
him every morning when he approached the place, and alight within a few
yards of his feet, eying him knowingly all the while, without exhibiting
the slightest symptom of fear, On one occasion when coming round a
sudden turn on the cliff, a long way from the usual place, happening to
see his friend fly by in quite another direction, he stopped and exclaimed,
‘* Hulloa there, where are you going in such a hurry?” At this the bird
actually turned round and alighted on a wall close by his side, afterwards
following him all the way to the spot on the top of the cliff just under
which the nest was placed.

“A dealer in live birds at Plymouth has had nearly twenty young
Ravens sent to him this season from the coast of Cornwall; the men who
got them said that they did so at the risk of their lives, and had to walk
twenty miles and carry 40 1b. of rope to the breeding-places.” (J. G.,
May 1872.)

«T found Ravens plentiful among the magnificent cliffs at Ilfracombe, and
on one occasion saw a flock of seven or eight flying by the celebrated Tors
Walks, where a pair or two may be daily seen. It is very curious to
watch the singular evolutions performed by a pair of Ravens when dis-
turbed in their haunts, even at this time of the year, but more especially
during the nesting-season, At such times they will rise croaking above
the intruder’s head, pass and repass, rising, falling, and tumbling almost
over in the air as if hit, and disappearing behind a projecting crag, will
reappear from quite a different quarter over the brow of the cliff, and
continue their manceuvres until the invader has left the spot.” (J. G.,
October 15th, 1875; Zool. p. 4717.)

Great numbers of Ravens frequented a field at Compton, near Plymouth,
to feed upon offal and the sweepings of slaughter-houses deposited there in
April 1855 (T. R. A. B.).

We have seen Ravens near Topsham and Teignmouth, but not since 1865. A pair
used to breed at Killerton, and one was seen at Stoke Wood, near Exeter, about 1873,
by Rev. J. Hellins. One was shot at Downes, near Crediton, October 12, 1888
(Pidsley, ‘B. of Devonshire,’ p. 54). Ravens breed at Wembury on the cliffs of the

ALAUDIDA. 99

sea-coast near the mouth of the Yealm, and ten were seen in a flock there July 23rd,
1874; also at Bovisand, near Plymouth, where a pair have nested in the same spot
for forty years, up to April 1883 (J. G.) ; and at Mount Edgeumbe and the Rame Head.

Formerly Ravens used to breed at Tavy Cleave and on the Dewerstone (E. M.). A
pair breed on the Muswell Rocks on the Tamar. Mr. Gatcombe speaks of young
Ravens being obtained on Dartmoor in April 1880 (Zool. 1880, p. 251); and Mr.
A. Radford informed us in 1883 that a pair were breeding on a tor near Lydford.
Mr. Romney Greene obtained a young bird from rocks near Hey Tor in April 1890. A
pair breed in an old quarry near Okehampton (A. Mitchell).

Some pairs breed at or near the Start Lighthouse and also near the Bolt Tail
(R. P. N., MS. Notes), and Mr. EH. A. 8. Elliot says he scarcely ever misses seeing a
pair or more at any period of the year in walking around the cliffs of the Kingsbridge
district.

A pair have built in the cliffs at Watcombe, near Torquay, from time immemorial
(Von H., Zool. 1869, p. 1846).

In the eastern part of Devon Ravens breed at Rousdon, near Axmouth (Zool. 1883,
p. 85); and at Peak Hill, near Sidmouth.

In the north of the county Mr. Gatcombe found them plentiful near Ilfracombe in
October 1875 (Zool. 1875, p. 4717), and a pair breed at Langleigh, near that place.
When fishing on the Torridge in April 1889, we encountered a pair of Ravens in a
wood some couple of miles above Torrington, and found them at the same spot as we
returned late in the afternoon, Their angry gestures and notes, as we passed their tree,
made us feel pretty certain that they had young close at hand. Mr. O. V. Aplin
mentions that he had heard that Ravens were still found in some numbers on Exmoor
in August 1886 (Zool. 1887, p. 71). We learn from Mr, H. A. Evans that Ravens still
nest on the cliffs at Portledge.

Capt. Wade, of the ship ‘Great Britain,’ informed us that in November 1851,
when homeward bound from Canada, in latitude 49° N., longitude 20° W., about 500
miles west of Ireland, he captured a Raven which came on board his vessel. It was
placed in a hen-coop and soon became very tame.

Family ALAUDIDA.
THE LARKS.

Of the true Larks there are only two, both of them
general favourites on account of their delightful melody,
which are ordinarily met with in Devonshire, the Sky-Lark
and the Wood-Lark, and both of these are fairly numerous
throughout the county, the Wood-Lark being one of our
most characteristic birds. Of all our small English birds
the Sky-Lark is commonly taken as the representative par
excellence of English country life, so much so, that we are
familiar with the pathetic tales of the value set upon this
homely songster when it has been carried far away into
the Australian bush, where its well-known notes have
conjured up loving recollections of the distant English
home,

H 2

100 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

Sky-Lark. <Alauda arvensis, Linn.

Resident in part, generally distributed and abundant. Breeds.

The Sky-Larks that remain with us to breed are few in comparison
with the hosts that come to us in autumn and winter from the north
and east. Large flocks arrive in the autumn and remain with us during
the winter, feeding on the stubble-fields; but,if the weather be excep-
tionally severe, they congregate on the south coast and move on further
west, or, becoming congested in the district, fly out to sea in quest of a
warmer climate. In heavy snow, however, they become so weak from,
want of food that thousands perish, especially if the cold spell comes in
February. In winter, as we have noticed, Sky-Larks, almost to a bird,
disappear from the cold highlands of Mid Devon, resorting to the coast.

In the winter of 1860 we were Woodcock-shooting on Lundy Island,
when there was a heavy fall of snow, with a long continuance of hard
black frost. After three or four days of this weather Sky-Larks began to
arrive on the island, and every day the frost lasted there were fresh acces-
sions. While we were trying the top of the island we could see flock
after flock drop in, until the Larks became so thick upon the ground that
often several would be shot unavoidably when a Woodcock or Snipe rose
before the guns. Numbers perished from cold and hunger, and had their
boves picked by the hungry rats, which swarm upon the island. In deep
snow Sky-Larks crowd into kitchen-gardens to feed upon the varions
greens. We have then watched them standing round a plant picking off
the green flesh from the leaves on all sides, until nothing is left but the
bare ribs, and the snow is trampled hard with their feet. But in the
severe winter of 1890-91 many died in our garden, becoming too weak
and frost-bitten even to feed upon the tops of the greens which stood out
above the snow. Although the poetical idea of the Sky-Lark associates
his song with the blue vault of heaven, from which it floats down to earth,
yet when the male bird is in vigorous song at the nesting-time he sings
with equal indifference whether he is mounting the air, or standing on a
clod upon the ground or on the top of a stone wall, and we have even
heard him singing from the top of a hedge. We had a new revelation
respecting the character of the Sky-Lark when we were recently in a
bird-catcher’s shop, and in a long cage containing a dozen or more lately
captured Larks witnessed a most desperate combat between two young
cocks, while others stood round ruffled and bleeding from recent contests.
We had no idea before that they were so pugnacious. But being huddled
together in a small cage is enough to make any birds quarrelsome !

Fuller, in his ‘History of English Worthies’ (London, 1662, part 1, p. 273), mentions
the great wonder of an incredible number of Larks, ‘for multitude like Quails in the
wildernesse,”’ that visited the city of Exeter during its siege by the Parliamentary forces
in the cold winter of 1645-46, and contributed to the resources of its defenders (cf.
‘Yarrell’s B. Birds,’ 4th ed.i. p.619). Montagu records their extraordinary abundance
in the winter of 1803 in South Devon (Orn. Dict., Suppl.), and, as before stated, vast
flocks visited Lundy Island at Christmas 1860 (M. A. M., Zool. p. 7381). On the 24th
February, 1873, when the weather was extremely severe and the ground covered with.

ALAUDID.E. 101

snow, we saw thousands of Larks flying out to sea from the coast between Dawlish and
Teignmouth; and when heavy snow had fallen on 21st December, 18U, multitudes were
seen arriving from the east all over the south of Devon, flying in a continuous stream
for several hours, with Redwings, Fieldfares, Starlings, and Lapwings, towards the
south-west.

Some of the Larks that come to us in winter are of very much smaller size than our
resident birds, and probably come to us from Germany. A white specimen was in the
possession of Mr. Prideaux,-of Plymouth (H. M., Trans. Plym. Inst. 1830). A similar
specimen was shot at Topsham, October 19th, 1847, and is now in the A. M. M., where
there is also a buff variety, shot at Hoopern, Exeter, February 3rd, 1866, and Mr. Henry
Nicholls also has a buff specimen. There is a melanie variety in Mr. Byne’s collection
from Devon, and we have recently seen a “‘ Black Lark” in a cage at Littleham, near
Exmouth, which was reared from a nest found there. Another very dark-coloured
eee obtained there has the quill-feathers of the wings and the tail-feathers all
white,

Wood-Lark, Aluuda arborea, Linn.

Resident; common in some woodland districts in the county. This
bird is easily overlooked, even where it is numerous, by those who are
unacquainted with its note. It is more often heard than seen, and is an
excellent ventriloquist. Specimens are difficult to procure, except in
winter, when Wood-Larks are to be found in small flocks. When mi-
grating it is found on high rough ground, Montagu considered the
Wood-Lark more common in Devonshire than in any other part of England,
and especially so in winter (Orn. Dict., Suppl.). Breeds.

This species is rather local at Plymouth, but a few may be scen near their
favourite haunts throughout the year. During severe storms in winter,
however, great numbers appear on the sea-coast in small parties, or pairs,
from the east (J. G., Zool. 1867, p.3050 ; 1872, p. 3258).. Woodlarks were
more plentiful than Sky-Larks under the northern slopes of Dartmoor in
October 1873, little parties being seen in almost every field (M. A. M., Zool,
1874, p. 3825); and on Ist October in that year they were plentiful at
Tiverton (J. G., Zool. 1873, p.37&5). The Wood-Lark is not untrequently
heard near Teignmouth (W. R. H. J., Trans. Devon. Assoc. vi. p. 70);
breeds in the neighbourhood of Kingsbridge (R. P. N., MS. Notes); and
occurs in a small wood near Topsham. A buff-coloured specimen was
shot near Crediton in August 1851 (W. T., ‘ Naturalist,’ 1852, p. 19).
Interesting observations on the habits of this bird are to be found in
Bellamy’s ‘ Nat. Hist. S. Devon,’ p. 384.

The high price to be obtained by bird-catchers for Wood-Larks—we
have known cocks in good song fetch 15s., and even a guinea, each—has
led to the extermination of this delightful songster in several places in
the West of England. When we lived in North Devon it was a very
common bird, and was never far away from our house at any time of the
year. We have had it nest in our strawberry-bed, and on all tine days
could hear its delightful song. We once heard it singing throughout a
cold March night. Every now and then there would be a squall of hail,
when the little songster would be hushed, but directly the moonlight
shone out again the clear notes rang once more through the night. In the

102 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

winter we used to see little parties of Wood-Larks consisting of the old
birds and the young of the year in most of the fields, and our impression
was that unless the weather was very severe the Wood-Larks did not stray
many fields away from the site of their nest. In the high ground around
Hatherleigh we used to find Wood-Larks very numerous in the autumn,
while Sky-Larks were comparatively scarce.

We one day discovered a nest of a Wood-Lark in an open ferny field,
and did not take it. ‘The next time we passed the spot we found that
the birds had erected a dome of ferns very skilfully above the nest for
extra concealment.

Crested Lark. Alauda cristata, Linn.

An accidental visitor of rare occurrence.

Lord Lilford has informed us that in the month of July 1852 he re-
peatedly saw a pair of Crested Larks close to the Sands Hotel at Slapton
Ley. He then took them for Wood-Larks, but adds that directly he
became acquainted with the Crested Lark in Spain he recognized the note
and several habits of the bird whose acquaintance he had made in South
Devon. The pair seen at Slapton frequented the road which runs along
the shingle-beach between the Ley and the sea.

A specimen of the Crested Lark, shot on the Braunton Burrows about
the year 1851, was in the collection of Mr. Clevland, of Tapley Park, near
Bideford. A granite pillar, standing in Tapley Park above the Torridge,
commemorates this young officer, who fell in the cavalry charge at Bala-
clava.

Like the Wood-Lark, the Crested Lark is somewhat of a stay-at-home.
It is abundant on the northern coast of France. but seldom takes the
trouble to cross the Channel to our shores. In flight it resembles the
Wood-Lark, but differs both from that bird and the Sky-Lark in its
partiality for the haunts of man, being commonly found in village-streets,
perched upon the houses and sheds, thus seeming to share the vulgar
habits of the House-Sparrow. Its nest and eggs are said closely to
resemble those of the Sky-Lark. The crest is characteristic of both
sexes, being slightly smaller in the female bird.

Four specimens of the Crested Lark have occurred on the south-western
coast of Cornwall, but it does not seem to have been met with either in
Dorset or Somerset,

(Short-toed Lark. Calandrella brachydactyla (Leisler).

Some individuals of this species were reported to have been caught alive
in Devonshire in November 1889 (‘ Field’ for November 9th, 1889, p. 667 ;
Zool. 1889, p. 58). The Rev. H. A. Macpherson has, however, ascertained
that these birds had been imported from Italy and bought by a dealer at

ALAUDIDZ. 103

Peckham (Zool. 1890, p. 394). The Short-toed Lark has occurred once
on the Scilly Islands.

When we visited the Zoological Gardens this last summer we saw in
the Western Aviary a Short-toed Lark, probably one of these very birds,
labelled “ Devonshire. Presented by Com*. W. M. Latham, October 28,
1889.” This small species of Lark is a summer migrant to the South of
Europe, being abundant in some parts of Southern France and throughout
Spain and Portugal, and is only a very rare and accidental straggler to
higher latitudes. We are convinced that we saw one of these little Larks
one day in early autumn on the Braunton Burrows. We followed it for
some time, but did not succeed in shooting it.

The example obtained by Mr. Jenkinson on Scilly was also reported as
“rather wild.” It was observed among some bents growing on the sand
a few yards from the beach, and attracted attention chiefly by uttering a
note that was unusual, as well as by its general appearance. |

[Calandra Lark. Melanocorypha calandra (Linn.).

This fine species of Lark, well known in Spain and in Southern Europe,
where it is as favourite a cage-bird as our own Sky-Lark is in England,
has been twice obtained in South Devon, and although it may be objected
that these birds were probably escapes, yet this applies to so many birds
now admitted into the “‘ British” list, that we need not scruple to record
these Devonshire examples, although with the reservation mentioned
beneath. Writing from Plymouth on 15th August, 1863, Mr. J. Gatecombe
says :—‘‘ A short time since, when looking over the collection of Mr. Pin-
combe, taxidermist, of Devonport, I recognized a specimen of the Calandra
Lark, which he assvred me had been killed in the neighbourhood, but that
he had hitherto considered it to have been a specimen of the Shore-Lark ”
(J. G., Zool, 1863, p. 8763). Commenting upon this, Mr. J. H. Gurney,
Jnr. (Zool. 1869, p. 1599), adds that Mr. Gatcombe had detected another
of these Larks in the possession of Mr. Byne, which that gentleman had
procured from Truscott, the Exeter bird-stuffer, who said it was a Lapland
Bunting, and killed near Exeter. Subsequently, in the ‘Zoologist’ for
1876 (p. 4835), Mr. J. H. Gurney writes, ‘the Calandra Lark is said to
have occurred once at Plymouth and once at Exeter, With regard to the
latter specimen I have my doubts; nor is the former entirely without
suspicion, though the specimen, which is in my collection, has not the
appearance of having been a foreign skin. When I purchased it I ob-
tained, through Mr. Gatcombe’s intervention, the following certificate :
‘I certify that this Calandra Lark was killed by St. John’s Lake (Ply-
mouth), and I had it in the flesh, and mounted it myself.—Abraham
Pincombe.’ This bird is said to have been killed by a man named Ken-
dall, now dead. It agrees very well with specimens obtained by me in
Spain and Algeria.” But, after this, we must quote from Mr. Brooking
Rowe :—‘* No reliance is to be placed on anything Pincombe says, and
that the specimen was obtained here is to be received with caution. ‘The

104 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

only thing to be said in favour of the authenticity of the specimen is ns
possessor’s ignorance of the bird.”

Both these instances being “ dealer’s birds,” we have thought it best to
include this species between brackets. (Cf. Newton, ‘ Yarrell’s B. Birds,’
4th ed. i. p. 646.) |

Shore-Lark, Otocorys alpestris (Linn.).

A casual visitor of very rare occurrence.

Although a regular autumnal migrant in small numbers to the south-east
of England, this pretty little visitor from the north-east very rarely extends
its flight to the Western Counties, and there are very few records of its
appearance in Devonshire. We do not know of a single instance of its
occurrence in Cornwall, while in Somerset it has only been obtained once,
The Rev. Marcus Rickards wrote to tell us that one had been caught alive
in a net, together with some Sky-Larks, at Wraxall, near Bristol, about
the year 1874. This Lark in its summer home has a delightful song, and
in Lapland is called the “ Bell-bird,” from its clear and musical call-note.
Those caught alive by bird-catchers in England are in great esteem as
cage- birds, and we have often seen them in aviaries.

‘An adult specimen in the collection of the late Mr. Cecil Smith is nid
to have been shot at Paignton. This bird was given us by Mr. E. Burt,
of Torquay, and we subsequently presented it to Mr. Smith. Mr. Burt,
however, was doubtful about it. Mr. Hutchinson, of Bideford, saw a
flock of Shore-Larks on Northam Burrows, January 2nd, 1875, and shot
one (‘ Field,’ as quoted in Zool. 1875, p. 4337).

Two specimens said to have been obtained on Dawlish Warren are in
the A. M. M. and the collection of the late Mr. Byne respectively. They
both came from James Truscott, the Exeter bird-stuffer, and were most
probably mounted from American skins. We have reason to believe that
the reported finding of a nest and eggs of this species at Exmouth (Zool.
1852, p. 3707) was a mistake,

CYPSELID.Z. ~~ 105

Order PICARI.

Suborder CY PSELIL.

Family CYPSELIDA.
THE SWIFTS.

The Swifts are now removed from their old position
among the Hirundines, and are included among the Picarie.
“We have only one of them, the well-known Common Swift,
which is a generally dispersed summer visitor in this
country, while another fine South-European Swift, the
Alpine Swift, has as yet been but once detected as a
chance straggler in the north of the county. We have
already dwelt at length upon the Swift when we were
engaged with the Swallows, as from old associations we are
still led to couple the Swift with its familiar companions.

There is this to be said in favour of separating the Swifts
from the Swallows, namely, that the pure white eggs of
the former are very dissimilar in shape to those of the
latter, and are only two in number, agreeing in these
respects, as well as in others, with the Humming-birds,
‘to which some ornithologists consider the Swifts to be
allied.

Swift. Cypselus apus (Linn.).

[Devil’s Screecher, Skeer Devil (skeer, to move along swiftly and
slightly touching). ]

A summer migrant, usually very numerous throughout the county.
Breeds,

Arrives at the end of April or beginning of May, and leaves about the
second weekin August, ‘This year(1891) two were seen near Kingsbridge
on April 26th, but the earliest arrival noted by.us was on April 27tn,

106 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

1883. Mr. Gatcombe saw one April 28th, 1871, near Plymouth (Zool.
1876, p. 4992).

Mr. Cornish is reported to have seen one in Devonshire on November
27th, 1835 (‘ Yarrell’s B. Birds,’ 4th ed. ii. p. 365). On September 2nd,
1876, at Torrington, a Swift was observed repeatedly flying in and out of a
hole beneath the eaves of a thatched house, where no doubt she had young.
The Swift usually leaves North Devon about August 14th (G. F. M.,
Zool. 1876, p. 5165). On the 4th October, 1876, about a score were
seen near Ilfracombe (H. E. Rawson, Zool. 1880, p. 108). Mr. E. A. 8.
Elliot saw one September 27th, 1886, at Pinstow, near Kingsbridge.
Near Plymouth it has been seen as late as August 29th (1851 and 1883)
by Rev. R. A. Julian and Mr. Gatcombe (‘ Naturalist,’ 1852, p. 7; Zool.
1583, p. 422); and on the same day in 1890 at Exmouth (W. D’U.).

Swifts have become more numerous in the immediate vicinity of
Plymouth than either Swallows or Martins (J. G., Zool. 1876, p. 4992).
On Dartmoor they are said to breed in boles in the stone boundary-walls
(W. W. B., v. v.). Swifts are certainly very numerous on the moor
in summer, and there are no other available nesting-places for them
except in some of the rocky tors. In Exeter, where they are very
abundant, they breed under the roofs of houses, squeezing themselves in
between the barge-boards and the walls, where one would think it impossible
for them to pass, but their flattened form enables them to do so with
ease. A gamekeeper informed us that, in the woods on the slopes of the
Haldons, Swifts nest in holes in trees. At Berry Head and Beer Head
they breed in the cliffs (J. G., Zool. 1872, p. 3168). We have observed
that the food of these birds principally consists of small Coleopterous
insects, the elytra of red-coloured species of Aphodius being conspicuous
in their droppings.

The wild scream of the Swifts, as they rush through the air in sportive
chase of one another, is one of the accompaniments of summer life, and
there are hardly any localities which know them not. They place their
nests in crevices of the cliffs overhanging the sea, in church towers, in
holes beneath the eaves of cottages, and in the cistern-heads of water-
shoots on mansions in fashionable squares, so that town and country and
sea-shore are familiar with their presence, and on the moors they nest in
fissures in the granite tors. Swifts have been captured and marked, and
in this manner it has been ascertained that the same birds frequent the
same quarters year after year. The largest of our (generally so-called)
English Swallows, with the exception of the White-bellied Swift, an
occasional visitor only, the Swift is the last to arrive and the first to
leave us, spending only three clear months in this country, and is, appa-
rently, more sensitive to the cold than the other species, as, after a
* cold-snap ” in May, Swifts are often to be picked up dead and dying
upon the ground. One May, after a week of very cold weather, there
was a sudden change to a genial westerly wind with warm showers, and
by a trout-stream we found Swifts and all the customary British hirun-
dines feeding rayenously upon the insects which infested the stream; so
eager were they after their prey that they continually pounced upon our

CAPRIMULGIDA. OR.

artificial flies trailing behind us, and, in spite of all we could do to warn
them off, we had the misfortune to catch several of the Swifts which
swallowed our hook. Disengaging them as tenderly as we could we
restored them to liberty.

The Swift is nearly unable to rise on wing from the ground, as it can
give itself no impetus with its legs, which are very short and are
furnished with tiny feet armed with sharp, prehensile claws, with which
it clings to the vertical sides of cliffs and buildings. The Swift is a
regular visitor to Lundy Island, and nests there. In the winter time the
Swift is very numerous in Upper Egypt, Natal, and at the Cape of Good
Hope.

White-bellied Swift. Cypselus melba (Linn.).
[Alpine Swift. ]

An accidental visitor of extremely rare occurrence.

An immature specimen was shot and two others were seen near
Ilfracombe, October 4th, 1876 (H. E. R., Zool. 1880, p. 108). They
were flying about the cliffs in company with about a score of Common
Swifts.

Some fine examples of this large Swift in our collection were taken by
Mr. G. F. Mathew, RN., off the rocks on which they were roosting in
Turkey ; they were clinging to the face of the cliffs as tight as limpets.
This rare visitor to our country is to be recognized in a moment by its
pure white underparts from the Common Swift, which is all over of a
greenish black. It is also considerably larger.

Two specimens of this species have been secured in Cornwall, and
another was seen at sea forty miles to the west of the Land’s End. In
the county of Somerset one is said to have been obtained, and is probably
the example included in Mr. Baker’s List of the birds of that county
published in the Proceedings of the Somerset Archeological and Natural
History Society for 1850 (C. 8., B. of Somerset, p. 287).

Iu its habits the Alpine Swift does not differ from the Common Swift,
and arrives at the Cape of Good Hope at the same time as our common
and well-kuown bird.

Family CAPRIMULGIDZ,

Nightjar. Caprimulgus europeus, Linn.
[Goat-sucker, Fern-Owl, Night-Crow, Dor-Hawk: Dev.]

A summer migrant, common about woods, ferny heaths, and orchards,
especially on the borders of Dartmoor and in the south of the county.
Breeds.

It usually arrives at the end of April or early in May, and departs
generally at the end of September, but we have often seen it as late as

108 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

the middle of October. Mr. Gateombe noticed its appearance on April 10th,
1872, at Plymouth (Zool. 1872, p. 3258). Montagu mentions having
shot one in Devonshire, November 8th, 1805 (Orn. Dict., Suppl.); and
Dr. E. Moore saw a pair in an orchard near South Milton on November
10th, 1828 (Trans. Plym. Inst. 1830). One occurred in Cornwall,
November 27th, 1821.

This beautifully marked and singular-looking bird is very partial to
commons and the borders of woods covered with bracken, in which it
conceals itself during the day, coming forth in the gloaming to hunt for
the night-flying insects which form its food. In the daytime it often
roosts on the branch of a tree, perching in the direction of the branch,
and not crossways like other birds. The nest is placed on the ground,
usually near a tree, and is nothing more than a depression chosen by ‘the
bird, and here it lays two marbled eggs, which are among the most
beautiful of eggs laid by British birds. When entomologizing late in the
autumn we have often been annoyed by Fern-Owls. The blossoms of
the ivy are a great attraction to Noctuz, and visiting them at dusk to
secure specimens we have been much interrupted by these birds, which
would come and snatch the moths off the ivy, or intercept them in the act
of settling within an inch or two of our face, and it was natural to con-
clude that the individual carried off by the bird was some special rarity—
perhaps a ‘Tawny Pinion” or ‘‘ Dotted Chestnut.” We were obliged at
last to take a gun with us and to send a shot at the bird asa hint to
betake itself elsewhere for its feast of Lepidoptera. When these birds
are disturbed in the daytime they are very foolish, and seem only half
awake, and are not difficult to capture. Immature birds may often be
seen on the south coast in September, pitching on garden-paths in the
daytime, and are very tame and stupid. Their note is a curious squeak-
ing ery, which they utter in the evening, when they rouse themselves to
come forth to feed. They also make a sound like the spinning of a
wheel or the tearing of a piece of calico or silk, produced while perched
with the head downwards. ‘The tints of this bird’s plumage—diflerent
shades of brown in curious streaks and patches—are very similar to those
of the Wryneck, and corresponding closely with the colour of the bark of
‘trees, m materially assist it in concealing itself on its roost.

The male bird only differs from the female in having a patch of white
on each of the inner webs of the first three primaries, and in having a
white band across the edge of each outer tail-feather.

The Fern-Owl captures its insect-prey with its foot (like a Kestrel)
and has the inner edge of the middle claw serrated for the purpose of
giving it a firm hold upon the slippery backs of beetles. In September
1571 we were shown the contents of the stomach of one, mainly consisting
of the elytra and thighs of Dor Beetles (Geotrupes). It is said to be
especially fond of the “Ghost-Moth ( ‘Hepialus humuli), so very numerous
flying over grass-fields at dusk in June and July— i

“The busy Dor-Hawk chases the White Moth
With burring note.” — Wordsworth,

--» PICIDA 109

Like many others of the Picariz, such as the Wryneck, Woodpeckers,
&c., the Nightjar has a viscid saliva which helps it to secure small insects,
and. its wide mouth is armed with stiff bristles on either side to prevent’
the escape of struggling prey.

In September we have arora: flushed } enters in turnip-fields,
and, when pheasant-shooting at the end of October, and posted at the
corner of small fir-plantations, have had them driven out to us by the:
beaters. 3 ,
- A friend, in returning from fishing, was walking through a wood when
a bird flew low towards him along the path. Striking it with his rod it’
fell dead at his feet, actually dropping upon its nest, in which were two,
eggs. This poor bird and her eggs came, in this singular manner, into
our collection.

- We have often been amused by the actions of Nightjars when we hare
come upon their young. They tumble and twist about in the air close to,
the intruder, feigning to be wounded, and employ all their art to Ey
him from the spot.

The Nightjar is a summer visitor and common breeder on Lundy,
Island (Trans. Devon. Assoc. vill. p. 308).

_ Mx. Comyns, of Mount Pleasant, Dawlish, possessed a pied specimen
(J. C. B., Nat. "Hist. 8. Devon, p. 208).

Obser vation,—Two other species of Nightjar have occurred in England,
namely , the Red-necked (C. ruficollis, Temm.) and the Ee ey ptian (CO.
cegyptius, Licht.). The first has been shot once in Northumberland and’
the second twice in Nottinghamshire and Cambridgeshire. Other examples:
of these species may have visited this country and been mistaken for the
Common Nightjar.

ernacten P LC Ls
Family PICIDA.

THE WOODPECKERS.

In spite of numerous woods and finely timbered lawns
and parks, we cannot claim for the West Country that it is
much beloved by the members of this important family,
who, in general, make their home and seek their food
among the trees, and are more often heard than seen.
They are all of bright and conspicuous plumage, easily to,
be known as they pass from tree to tree by their dipping
flight; they are noisy and clamorous, and their presence

110 THE BIRDS OF DEVON,

is often revealed by the tapping of their bills on the
trunks of the trees, or by the curious jarring sound they
make with their bills against the branches. ‘They are
partly insectivorous and partly fruit-eaters, and do good
service in destroying the larve of moths and beetles
which prey upon the wood, and are all furnished with
curious long tongues and glands for supplying them with
a viscous fluid, by means of which they easily capture
myriads of ants and minute insects. The tongue-bones
are of immense length, curling up over the back of the
skull, so that the tongue can be shot forth or retracted at
will. Its tip is armed with a barbed and horny point, by
means of which grubs deep in the wood of a tree can be
speared and drawn out through the hole made by the
bill.

The Green Woodpecker is the only one of the family
to be considered at all common in Devonshire; the hand-
some Great Spotted Woodpecker is rare, and the Lesser
Spotted Woodpecker, although more numerous, is ex-
tremely local ; while the Wryneck is only a casual visitor
to the county, although a common summer migrant in
many parts of the kingdom.

[Great Black Woodpecker. Picus martius, Linn.

Dr. Latham says he had been informed that this species is sometimes
met with in the South, and in particular in Devonshire (Gen. Syn., Suppl.
1787, p. 104). According to Dr. E. Moore a specimen was in Mr.
Newton’s collection which was shot near Crediton (Rowe’s Peram. Dart-
moor, 1848, App. p. 223). Prof. Westwood has stated that Mr. C.
Robertson, of Oxford, assured him that he had repeatedly seen this bird
in the woods at Clovelly, and that Mr. Jackson, of New College, had
observed it in East Devon (Proc. Ent. Soc. November 20th, 1871, as
reported in Zool. 1872, p. 2914). The Rev. Clement Ley says he saw
one at Mount Edgcumbe in 1876 (Zool. 1888, p. 279, and 1889, p. 341).

The above evidence of its occurrence in this county is decidedly weak,
and no importance can be attached to it, as no specimen has been ob-
tained, except the one mentioned by Dr. Moore, which is still in the

PICIDA. Pel

possession of Mr. Newton’s family, though in a very bad state of preser-
vation, and has been seen by us, sil is a female bird. There was,
however, possibly some mistake about its being killed in this county.
This fine Woodpecker is only to be found in pine-forests, and is therefore
most unlikely to occur in England. It is not admitted into the british
List in recent works on ornithology. |

Great Spotted Woodpecker. Dendrocopus major
(Linn.).

[French Pie, Pied Woodpecker, Magpie Woodpecker. |

Resident, but more often met with in winter and spring than at other
times of the year, and probably some arrive from the continent late in
the autumn.

Though not common anywhere this Woodpecker appears to be generally
distributed throughout the county in wooded districts. It is occasionally
seen at all times of the year in woods near Plymouth, Slapton Ley,
Kingsbridge, Bovey Tracey, Ashburton, Chudleigh, on the slopes of the
Haldons, Exwick Woods near Exeter, Rousdon, and in North Devon.

A nest was obtained in Ham Woods in 1835 (EK. M., Rowe’s Peramb,
Dartmoor, p. 233). Mr. T. R. A. Briggs found a nest with young in a
hollow oak in Saltram Wood, June 14th, 1860. It bred in the woods by
the side of the Tamar in 1877 (J. G., Zool. 1877, p. 494). It is also
known to have bred on Haldon and in Exwick Wood.

Some years since Mr. Tl. Wrey Harding, of Upcot, near Barnstaple,
informed us that a pair of the Great Black Woodpecker bred annually
in his beautiful grounds; but this we found to be a mistake, the birds in
question being the Great Spotted Woodpecker, and to this confusion
between the two birds we have little doubt many of the reported occur-
rences of the fine Scandinavian Woodpecker in this country must be
traced. In North Devon the Great Spotted Woodpecker, an extremely
handsome bird, with its vividly contrasted colours of red, black, and
white, can only be considered rare, mostly affecting mazzard orchards,
in which a fine pair in our collection were obtained, and fruit-gardens ;
we have also seen it sometimes in parks and woods, where tall poplar
trees seemed its favourite haunt; but it is certainly the scarcest of
the three English Woodpeckers in the West Country. In the collection
of birds at Westward Ho! College there is an example obtained in a fruit-
garden. It is said to be fond of fruit having kernels which it can crack,
hence its partiality to the mazzard orchards, the ‘“‘ mazzard,” as every-
body knows, being an extremely sweet and juicy little black cherry,
abundantly cultivated in some parts of the county. From its habit of
creeping round the tree on which it is feeding when any one approaches
for the purpose of concealment, and from the success of this manceuvre,
it may not be quite so rare as it is generally supposed to be.

Jt has a monotonous note, oft repeated, of ‘* quet, quet,” and makes

IA THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

a strange vibrating sound by inserting its beak into the crack of a limb

of some large tree; this it does chiefly in the spring and autumn, and-

then, by a quick tremulous motion of the head, a sound is produced as if

the tree was splitting, and this is said so to alarm the insects that they.

hasten out from their crevices and become an easy prey.

It is much more common in the Midland and Northern Counties than
it is with us in the West, and has been noticed to be a regular migrant,
arriving annually on our 'N.E. coasts about the same time as the Wood-
cock. It is seldom seen on the ground like the Green Woodpecker. —

-/

Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. Dendrocopus minor
(Linn.).

Resident, and not uncommon in woods in some localities. Breeds.

This species appears more plentiful in spring and autumn than at any
other time, according to Mr. Gatcombe (Zool. 1875, p. 4404); but in our
experience and that of Mr. Bolitho, of Plymouth, it is most frequently
obtained in the months of January, February, and March, chiefly because

the trees are then destitute of foliage. Owing to its small size and its.

habit of concealing itself behind the branches of trees it is easily over-
looked. It is, however, often observed on elm trees in gardens in Exeter,
Topsham, Teignmouth, Plymouth, Seaton, Barnstaple, &. It is rare at
Kingsbridge (R. BD): Dr. W. R. Scott, found the nest in an old apple-
tree near “Exeter j in. 1847 (Zool, 1849, p. 2384). A pair used to breed.
in an old walnut-tree at Alphington, near Exeter. This Woodpecker
breeds in woods at the side of the Tamar (J. G., Zool. 1877, p. 494).

We have found this small species to be far from uncommon in the
wooded districts of Devon and Somerset; in the moorland county of
Cornwall it is, as might be expected, very rare. In North Devon we
have often met with it in woods and parks; also on old rails and gate-

posts, and have observed it to be very common by the banks of the Taw

below Mr. C. Chichester’s beautiful seat, Hall; and can bear out Mr. ©.
H. Rodd’s description of its call-note, which he aptly compares with the
roosting-cry of the Blackbird. Like the Great Spotted Woodpecker it is
fond of fruit, and will go some distance to visit gardens. One summer a
brood paid such persistent visits to the garden of a friend of ours at
Instow, a small watering-place situated among sandhills, with no wood-
lands immediately near, that three of them had to be shot before the rest:
could be driven away from their attacks on the raspberries and currants.
We have watched a fine male Lesser Spotted Woodpecker while perform-
ing with its beak upon a branch of an old wych-elm in our grounds, and
felt astonishment that so small a bird could produce such an extra-
ordinary noise. We have followed one to a large tree, waiting for it to
show itself upon the trunk; but the bird has kept itself concealed in the
upper branches, which it mostly affects, and its nest is generally placed
high up, a hole in a poplar tree being a favourite site. :

|
|
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PICID.Z. 113

Green Woodpecker. Gecinus viridis (Linn.).

[ Woodwall, Woodawl, Woodwalf, Woodmaul, Hoodall, Hoodwall,
Ooodall, Oodmall, Parrot Woodpecker: Dev. |

Resident, generally distributed and sometimes numerous. Breeds.

There appears to be a considerable immigration of the Green Woodpecker
into the West of England in severe winters, as so many are killed at such
times. Its attractive plumage leads to its destruction by every gunner who
comes across it, and many are taken to the bird-stuffers. We find that forty-
nine specimens were brought to Mr. Bolitho, of Plymouth, for preserva-
tion in twenty-one years (1852-73). Mr. Gatcombe found it remarkably
numerous at the landslip at Dowlands, near Axmouth (in litt.), and it
frequently visits seaside gardens at Budleigh Salterton in quest of ants. It
breeds in holes in old trees near Exeter, Kingsbridge, &c. Young birds
Were unusually plentiful near Plymouth in July 1880, when many were
caught alive and others killed in various ways (J. G., Zool. 1881, p. 51).

This species was unknown in the West of Cornwall until 1876 (Rodd,
Zool. 1876, p. 4796).

This beautiful bird is common in all wooded parts of the county.
There is a genera] idea that it becomes very noisy before rain, hence it is
in some districts called Rain-bird; but in our experience it is always
clamorous, especially about the time when it is feeding its young brood,
and when these first emerge from the nest, and we have long ceased to
regard its cry as a weather sign. Its food consists of insects, which it
searches for on the limbs of trees, commencing its inspection at the
bottom of the trunk and ascending upwards in a spiral, grasping the bark
with its strong feet and pointed claws, pressing close against the tree
with the keel of its breast-bone, and using its stiff tail-feathers as a
support. These habits are comfnon to all other Woodpeckers, whose
wedge-shaped bills are powerful instruments for digging out from decayed
portions of the tree the insidious larvee of the Goat-Moth (Cossus), or of
the beetles of the longicorn order, which are mining into it and destroying
it. Although chiefly arboreal in its habits, the Green Woodpecker gladly
descends whenever it detects an ants’ nest, being very fond of these
minute insects. We have sometimes flushed it in salt marshes, by the
sile of little rushy pools, where it must have been seeking variety in
the shape of worms and small crustaceans. Like the other Woodpeckers,
the Green Woodpecker is said to be able to make the strange vibrating
sound with its bill; but we imagine it does not do this so frequently as
the other two English species, as we have never observed it doing so. We
have seen small birds chasing a Green Woodpecker as if they had taken
it for a Hawk. The speckled plumage of young Green Woodpeckers
appears to puzzle people, as we have often had them sent to us as rare
and unknown birds. Placing our hands against the outside of a Green
Woodpecker’s nest in some hollow tree we have been astonished at the
heat occasioned by the young birds within. The Green Woodpecker

I

114 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

sometimes takes the trouble to excavate several holes before finally
choosing one for its nest, and is very rapid in its carpentering, as may be
judged from the quantity of ‘‘saw-dust” lying on the ground beneath
the trees.

Wryneck. Jinx torquilla, Livn.
[Long-tongue, Emmet-hunter, Snake-head. |

A casual visitor of rare occurrence.

Mr. Elford only once saw this bird in Devon (Polwhele, Hist. Devon,
i. chap. 6). According to Mr. Comyns it was not uncommon in the
neighbourhood of Dawlish, and had bred there. He had two fresh
specimens in his possession in May 1829 (I. M., Trans. Plym. Inst. 1830;
Mag. Nat. Hist. n.s. 1837, p. 227). Specimens occurred at Leigham,
Millaton, and Ham, near Plymouth, and one was caught by a limed twig
on Lipsom Hill in July 1831 (E. M., Rowe's Peramb, Dartmoor, 1848).
It has occasionally been observed in the vici imity of Teignmouth and at
Ashburton (T. & K.). One was shot at Topsham, May 30th, 1841
(F. W. L. R., MS. ii. p. 82). One was obtained at Pennycomequick,
near Plymouth, March 25th, 1852 (J. G., * Naturalist,’ 1852, p. 131, and
J. B., op. cit. 1853, p. 204). In August or September 1858, Mr. G. F.
Mathew shot a young specimen in North Devon (‘ Naturalist,’ 1866,
p- 357). One flew against the Eddystone Lighthouse, April 14th, 1875
(J. G., Zool. 1875, p. 4490). There are specimens in the Torquay
Museum from Ilsham and Torquay, and in A, M. M. probably from the
neighbourhood of Exeter, from Dr. W. R. Scott (Zool. 1849, p. 2384) and
Mr. pee Sanders, but none have occurred there for many years, Mr,
R. . Nicholls, of Kingsbridge, informs us that about six have been
ie with in that neighbourhood in twenty-five years. A boy shot one
on a grass- -plot behind a house at the top of Kingsbridge, September 6th,
1878 (B.A. S.E., MS. Notes). Mr, Seaward, of Exmouth, has a specimen
shot at Topsham during the past summer (1891). The Wryneck is a very
rare straggler at the period of the autumn migration in North Devon,
the only example we ever saw being one which was shot in a clover ane
on high ground when we were after . the Partridges in September.

But where the bird most abounds it is, however, seldom seen. The
colour of its plumage harmonizes so well with that of the bark of trees
that we have looked up in vain for it into some hedge-row elm from
which we have heard proceeding its singular and aninistakabie ery,
which not a little resembles that of the Kestrel. The Wryneck has the
same elongated tongue which is peculiar to the W oodpeckers, but it has
not the stiff tail on which the Woodpeckers balance themselves in ascend-
ing trees, and is, in consequence, more of a percher than a climber. Its
faypunite food consists of ants, and these it picks up with its tongue,
darting at them with such rapidity that its motions almost escape the
eye, securing them with a sticky secretion at the tip. The bird gets its

ALCEDINID.E. 115

name from a curious habit it has of twisting its head and erecting the
feathers on the crown, giving it a very singular appearance. In Wales
one of its names is the ‘*‘ Cuckoo’s Mate,” but it has nothing to do with
the Cuckoo beyond arriving in this country about the same time as that
herald of the spring. The plumage of the Wryneck is very compact and
silky, of different shades of chocolate-brown and grey, much diversified
by wavy bars of darker colour and arrow-head markings. Although of
such inconspicuous shades it is a very handsome bird. The old birds
make a hissing noise when surprised in their nest, erecting their crest
and writhing their necks. The nest is generally in a hole in a tree,
and in other parts of England we have taken its shining white eggs
from a pollard willow by the side of a stream. We have never known
an instance of its nest in Devonshire, although in Somerset it is not
uncommon throughout the summer and breeds regularly. One hot summer’s
afternoon, when we had to wait a long time for our train at a small station in
West Somerset, we were much entertained by watching a young Wryneck,
our only companion on the platform, as it searched all the white-painted
railings one after‘the other for any small insects lodged upon them. It
Was quite indifferent to our presence, coming within a few inches of
where we stood.

Suborder ANISODACTYLA.
Family ALCEDINIDZ.
Kingfisher. Alcedo ispida, Linn.

Resident and not uncommon about rivers, streams, and ponds, both in
the north and south of the county, but rare in the central part. Breeds.

An extensive immigration takes place early in September, so that the
Kingfisher is most plentiful in the autumn and winter months. At that
period of the year many frequent the estuaries of our rivers, and are fre-
quently seen on the sea-shore both in summer and winter, especially at
Berry Head (J.C. B., Nat. Hist. $8. Devon, p.412). Severe seasons are very
destructive to this bird. In the winter of 1845-46 we saw five specimens
which were found dead with their feet frozen to the gunnel of a boat moored
in the Exe off a marsh-bank near Topsham (W. D’U.). Mr. Bolitho, of
Plymouth, had sixty-seven brought to him in twenty years (1852-1872).
Kingfishers were numerous at Plymouth in the winters of 1552-53,
1853-54, 1858, and 1862; as they always are when the weather is
severe. In November 1873 they were very plentiful on the coast
and up the estuaries, and many were almost daily brought to the
bird-stuffers’ shops. One man boasted of having killed thirteen within
afew weeks. Again, in November 1576, many were seen on the coast,
whilst in the autumn of 1880 none occurred. They were again plentiful in
the autumn and December of 1583, and in January 1885 thirty or forty

12

116 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

were received by the Stonehouse bird-stuffers (J. G., Zool. 1874, p. 3827 ;
1877, p.45; 1878, p.54; 1879, p.114; 1881, p.54; 1884, p.55; 1885,
p. 376). In September 1868 Kingfishers were unusually plentiful on the
River Teign (J. H. G., Zool. 1868, p. 1454). Six or seven were seen in one
afternoon in September 1874 near Instow, N. Devon (G. F. M., Zool.
1874, p. 4252). The late F. W. L. Ross, of Topsham (MS. Journal,
vol. iii. 1841, p. 110), records that a young Kingfisher was brought to
him on May 25th taken from a hole in the Red Sandstone cliffs on the
banks of the River Clyst behind Topsham, where a pair had bred for
seventy-five years. The young were fed on small prawns [Palemon
varians, extremely abundant in tide-pools and salt ditches in the
neighbouring marshes]. A few pairs breed close to Exeter on the
banks of small streams. Mr. Nathaniel Lloyd told us on 5th May, 1884,
that on the 2nd of that month he had found three nests near Cullompton
within half a mile of one another. One had a handful of fish-bones at the
end of the hole, another had seven eggs hard set, and the third contained
five half-fledged young birds (W. D’U.). The Kingfisher breeds in the
Kingsbridge estuary and on the Avon (R. P. N., MS. Notes).

The Kingfisher is one of the common objects of country life, and one of
the most beautiful, generally to be observed flying low over the surface of
a stream with straight and rapid flight, looking like a living gem in the
sunlight. The bird has a shrill, mouse-like ery, which often betrays it
before it is seen. We have heard it asserted that the Water-Ouzel and
Kingfisher do not usually frequent the same streams, and, to a certain
extent, our experience is that this holds good. But we have not unfre-
quently seen the two birds by the same water when fishing, although the
Kingfisher more often seeks stiller brooks than the rushing trout-streams
loved by the Dipper, and by the sides of ponds in salt marshes, or by the
sea-shore, or by the quiet shallows and backwaters of sluggish rivers
fringed by overhanging willows and rank aquatic plants, prefers to sit in
wait for the tiny fish which form its prey. Except just after the nesting-
season it is not a common sight to observe more than a single Kingfisher
at atime. For the most part the bird is a solitary hunter. We have,
occasionally, in the summer time, in some favourite spot, come across
five or six together, a little party composed of the young of the year and
the old birds. Peeping carefully over a flood-gate, where there is a little
pool below with stone walls on either side, or stakes suitable for perches,
a very interesting scene may be enjoyed, and, if we keep still, one of the
old birds may be seen to make a sudden dart into the water, emerging
with a minnow or some other small fry, which it will proceed to give to
one ef its excited young ones, quivering its wings and calling shrilly to
be fed.

The nest and nesting-habits of the Kingfisher have been often described,
by no one, perhaps, more carefully than by Col. Montagu, who devoted
much study to this beautiful bird, and, as it was no doubt more plentiful
in his day than it is now, had better opportunities for observing it. He
noticed that whenever a pair of Kingfishers had selected a convenient
hole they would repair to it whenever they wanted to regurgitate, and as

CORACIIDA. Nd

soon as a sufficient lining of castings of small bones was provided the hen
would commence to lay her eggs upon them. ‘The instinct of the birds
led to the choice of a hole ascending upwards from its entrance, so that
the watery feces of the young ones might run out of the nest, and the
stain of this seen at the mouth often betrayed the presence of the family
within. When the old birds visit their nest to feed the young they are
never observed to carry small fish in their bills, but disgorge their
partially digested food for that purpose. After a Kingfisher has caught
asmall fish it will fly with it to its station, and then hammer it about
the head until it has killed it, when it is invariably bolted head foremost.

One day when we were fishing, a Kingfisher coming suddenly upon us
round a sharp bend of the stream dashed itself against our fly-rod, falling
into the water after the contact, but, soon recovering, rose again on wing,
and went off with its usual rapid flight.

Where a drain discharges itself from a marsh into a tidal river, and
there is a small culvert and sluice, we generally expect to meet with a
Kingfisher, this being a favourite feeding-stution, and in such a spot,
should the Kingfisher be shot, his place will soon be occupied by another,
just as a big trout is succeeded when captured by the next biggest in the
favourite hover, or a Woodcock, flushed and bagged from some warm
shelter beneath a holm-bush in the cover, is replaced, perhaps the very
next day, by another Woodcock which has appropriated what, to a Wood-
cock’s eye, is the best place in all the wood in which to nap throughout
the day.

A few years since when the cruel fashion prevailed (and would that we
could record that it had been now abandoned!) for ladies to decorate
their hats and bonnets with brightly plumaged birds, the poor Kingfisher
was so persecuted that, in our despair, we looked forward to his speedy
extermination. But, whether it be the case or not that the stress of
this foolish fashion does not now press so hardly upon this beautiful
ornament of our brooks and shores, we are pretty confident that of late
years (perhaps through the help of immigrants) his numbers have been
recruited, so that he is still to be met with at many of his accustomed
haunts.

Family CORACIIDA:.

Roller. Coracias garrula, Linn.

An accidental visitor of very rare occurrence, and almost confined to
the southern part of the county.

So brilliant is the plumage of this handsome bird, which is about the
size of a Jay, that its arrival in this country from the South cannot long
be kept a secret, or the stranger escape dangerous notice and pursuit. It
is an insect-feeder, chasing and capturing moths and beetles on wing, and,
like our well-known Swallow, is a fissirostral or wide-gaped bird. Like

118 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

the Kingfisher and the Bee-eater, it places its nest in a hole in a bank
or tree.

A specimen is recorded by Mr. F. W. L. Ross (MS. Journ. iil. p. 59)
as having been obtained at the hamlet of Daleditch, near Budleigh
Salterton, in September 1841. One was shot at Alphington, near Exeter,
on October 20th, 1866, by Mr. Edmund Hart, and is still in the posses-
sion of Mrs. Hart. Mr. J. Gateombe examined a male shot on June 21st,
1866, at Spriddlestone Farm, near Yealmpton, which is now in the collec-
tion of Mr. F. C. Hingston, of Plymouth. Mr. J. Brooking Rowe gives
the date of occurrence of this specimen as June 20th, 1865 (MS. Notes).
It was killed in a hay-field, and is reported to have been bold and fear-
less. It was a fine male, and a female is said to have been in company
with it, but was not obtained. The stomach contained beetles and the
skins of long whitish grubs or caterpillars.

Only one example, as far as we know, can be recorded from North
Devon, which was shot in a ploughed field near Barnstaple, about 1850,
and brought into that town to be preserved.

Mr. E. H. Rodd recorded four obtained in the Land’s End district, and
we have seen a very fine one in the Truro Museum, which had no
particulars as to date, locality, &c., but was, probably, a Cornish bird.
Mr. Cecil Smith knew of only one Somerset example, shot many years
ago, near Orchard Portman, which was in the possession of the late Master
of the Staghounds, Mr. M. Fenwick-Bisset, at Bagborough House.

Family MEROPIDA,
Bee-eater. AJerops apiaster, Linn.

An accidental visitor during the summer months of rare occurrence,
and only in the southern part of the county.

The Bee-eater is another chance visitant to this country from the
sunny south, of brilliant green plumage, and is of scarcely more frequent
occurrence than the Roller. It is a great persecutor of bees, which it
quickly devours, and derives its name from its fondness for them, catching
and swallowing them while on the wing.

A specimen said to be from Devon was in the National Collection, and
was presented by Mr. Addis Archer. One occurred at Leigham in April
1818; another at Ivybridge, 1822; and another was in the collection of
Mr. J. B. Rowe, of Plymouth (E. M., Trans. Plymouth Inst. 1830, p.315;
Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837, p. 180; Rowe’s ‘ Peramb. Dartmoor,’ 1848, App.
p. 233). One was obtained in the neighbourhood of Ashburton (A. G. C. T.).
A male occurred near Malborough, a few miles from Kingsbridge, May
22nd, 1858; it was shot in a newly ploughed field, apparently searching
for insects, remains of which were found in its stomach; and is now in
Mr. Henry Nicholls’s collection (H. N., Zool. 1858, p. 6143, and MS. Notes).
A bird supposed to be a male Bee-eater was seen twice at Culmfoot, and

UPUPID.E. 119

at Stoke Wood, near Exeter, on July 17th and August 13th, 1889
(D. & E. Gazette, August 16th, 1889; and L. M. Kennaway, Zool. 1890,
p-. 100).

At Helston, in Cornwall, a flock of twelve appeared in May 1828,
eleven being shot. A smaller flock of four was seen in the parish of
Madron in 1807. In Somerset, a small flock appeared at Stapleton,
near Bristol, by the banks of the Frome, at the beginning of May 1869,
and three were shot, one of them being now in the collection of Mr. A.
Clayfield Ireland, of Dowrich House, Crediton. In Dorsetshire a Bee-
eater was shot at Chideoch, and was in the collection of Dr. Roberts, of
Bridport. Another was shot at Swanage.

Family UPUPIDA.
Hoopoe. Upupa epops, Linn.

A summer migrant of irregular occurrence, principally in spring and
autumn, most frequently obtained in the South Hams, especially in the
Plymouth and Kingsbridge districts, and on Lundy Island. It has been
known to breed in Devon (T. & K.) A nest with four young was taken
in a wood close to the house at Morwell in the parish of Tavistock (T. J.,
bray’s ‘Tamar and Tavy,’ Ist ed. i. p. 350, 1836).

The remarks which we made respecting the spring migration of the
beautiful Golden Oriole to our §.W. coasts apply also to the singular and
handsome Hoopoe, which, if it could escape slaughter, would become a
regular visitor to this country, and would nest in many places where it
now vainly seeks for shelter and hospitality. A slightly wounded Hoopoe
was brought to our lamented friend Mr. W. Brodrick, when he was living
at Budleigh Salterton in 1865, which he kept alive in his garden for
several years. It was a most entertaining bird, and we have seen the
clever sketches of it in all manner of postures which came from Mr.
Brodrick’s skilful brush. It was very fond of perching upon a rail, where
it swayed its body to and fro, as if it was continually making obeisance,
unfolding and closing its beautiful crest-feathers like a fan.

Handsome as this bird is, it is nevertheless a filthy feeder, frequenting
manure-heaps. It lines its nest with dung, and from this habit is
elled “ Stink-bird” in some places on the continent, and the hen-bird is
said never to leave her nest, which becomes filled with her mutings.

Strangely enough, the first recorded occurrence was in winter. Mr. Perring shot a
Hoopoe in December 1790 near Little Dartmouth (R. P., Hist. of Devon, vol. i.
chap. 6). It has been shot at Teignmouth, and has frequently occurred in the neigh-
bourhood of Totnes and Ashburton (T. & K., 1850). ‘‘ Several have been shot here
[Plymouth], one was shot at Warleigh, the seat of the Rev. Walter Radcliff, another
by Mr. Comyns in September 1828 on Kenton Warren, two are in the collection of
J. Newton, Esq., of Bridestowe, near Tavistock. In 1827 two out of a flock were
shot at Saltram by Lord Morley’s keeper, and three were obtained near Plymouth
in 1830. Specimens are in the collection at Ham, at Mr. Rowe's, Mr. Drew's, and
Bolitho’s” (2. M., Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837, p. 176).

120 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

One alighted on a mackerel boat between the Eddystone Light and Plymouth
Breakwater in an exhausted condition, April 21st, 1853 (J. B., ‘ Naturalist, 1853,
p- 204). One on April 27th near Plymouth, and another on the 29th of the same
month 1854 on Dartmoor. Others were seen at the same time. One at Plymouth at
the beginning of May 1871. A female at Saltash, near Plymouth, April 19th, 1883
(J. G., ‘ Naturalist,’ 1854, p. 209; ‘ Zoologist,’ 1871, p. 2688; 1883, p. 419). A male
was received from Plymouth April 19th, 1858, and one from Anthony (on the Cornish
side of the Hamoaze) April 11th, 1859 (B., MS. Notes).

One killed at Bigbury, from Col. Montagu’s collection, is in the National Collection.
Six were obtained near Kingsbridge between the years 1840 and 1847. One of these
was shot by Mr. Pearce, September 20th, 1844 (H. N., Zool. 1847, p. 1694, and MS.
Notes). One on the banks of the Avon, near Kingsbridge, September 1870, shot by
Mr. J. Goodman, is in Mr. Henry Nicholls’s collection. One was shot on Slapton Sands
by Mr. Toll September 1878, and one (probably the same as the last bird) was seen
flying about for several days in a small orchard at Ticket Wood, near Kingsbridge,
in the same month. One shot at Pamflete, September 11th, 1885. One seen between
Loddiswell and Aveton Gifford, April 13th, 1886, by the Rev. M. Gueritz, and
afterwards shot (‘ Field’ for April 26th, 1886), was probably the same as the male
shot by Mr. E. A. 8. Elliot, April 16th, 1886, near Knap Mill, and as the one
mentioned by Mr. Gatcombe (Zool. 1887, p. 576); its stomach contained “ phryga-
neous” lary. A female was shot by Col. Wise at South Milton, September 25th,
1888. One frequented the Rectory grounds at Thurlestune for a few days in 1890
(R. P. N. and E. A. S. E., MS. Notes).

One at Ivybridge, September 11th, 1857, and another. May 15th, 1866 (B., MS.
Notes). A pair at Ringmore, near Ivybridge, April 10th, 1872, were seen by Mr.
F. C. Hingston (Zool. 1872, p. 3112).

Two, male and female, were shot at Ilsham and Torquay, and are now in the
Torquay Museum (A. N., Zool. 1851, p. 8147). One occurred near Torquay, October
1876 (G, F. M., Zool. 1876, p. 5161).

One was shot near Exeter, July 2nd, 1820 (R.8.), and is now in the A. M. M.
One occurred at Mamhead about 1859 (J. C. B., Nat. Hist. 8. Devon, p. 202). One
shot near Woodbury in August 1851, was seen by us soon after it was killed (W. D’U.),
One at Budleigh Salterton in 1865 (W. B.). One was shot on Dawlish Warren,
August 1882, and was seen by us in the flesh (W. D’U.). One was shot by Mr. H.
A. Drew in a mangold-field near Exeter, September 12th, 1889 (‘ Field’ for September
14th, 1889).

One killed somewhere near Moreton is in the possession of Mr. Pollard, landlord
of the hotel at Moretonhampstead (C. §., Zool. 1885, p. 11).

In North Devon the Hoopoe has often been noticed and ruthlessly butchered.
Some years ago it was seen almost every year on Lundy Island.,

The Hoopoe is almost a regular visitor each spring to the Land’s End
district, but Mr. E. H. Rodd knew of no instance of its having nested in
Cornwall. Although Mr. Cecil Smith knew of no Somerset instances of
the Hoopoe, the bird has, to our knowledge, been frequently obtained in
that county. In Dorsetshire it is often noticed, and is reported to have
nested in two places, at Warmwell and in the neighbourhood of Sherborne.
Hoopoes are also said to have nested in Wiltshire close to Salisbury. A
friend who has seen the bird at large in Dorsetshire has described to us
its curious dipping flight, which is low above the ground.

The Hoopoe is widely dispersed over the world, being found throughout
Europe, Africa, and Asia, though some ornithologists consider certain of
the Hoopoes found in the two last portions of the globe to belong to
distinct species.

CUCULID.®. het

Suborder COCCYGES.
Family CUCULID.

Cuckoo. Cuculus canorus, Linn.
[Gowk, Gawk, Gookoo: Dev. |

A summer migrant, common throughout the county.

* Cuckoo! cuckoo!” This welcome voice of the spring is to be heard
very generally in the West Country, where moor, and hill, and woodland
afford the strange bird with which it is identical just the land it loves.
In some years, as in 1873 and 1881, it is very numerous. It arrives
usually in the third or fourth week of April in the southern part of
Devon. The earliest dates at which it was first heard near Exeter,
within our own knowledge extending over the last forty years, are as
follows :—6th April, 1864 and 1872; 7th April 1874 and 1882; 9th
April, 1884. Polwhele records that a Cuckoo was heard on 10th January,
1776, near Mount Edgcumbe, and in that month in several parts of the
South Hams, it being an extraordinarily mild season (cf. Gent. Mag.
vol. 66, p. 117). One is said to have been heard and seen at Stoke
Canon, near Exeter, March 27th, 1872; and Mr. M. V. Toll distinctly
heard the Cuckoo on the afternoon of March 10th, 1884, at Strete, near
Dartmouth, and saw the bird flying towards him. It passed over his
head at not more than twenty yards high, calling as it flew (‘ Field’ for
March 15th, 1884).

In the extreme west of Somerset the 16th April goes by the name of
“ Cuckoo’s Day,” if being the date when the cry of the Cuckoo may first
be expected. And we have found that this is a very fair average date.
Once or twice we have heard the Cuckoo on April 13th; but in most years
the bird does not reveal its presence until April 16th, or some day in the
week following, and if cold, dry weather with N.E. winds prevails about
that time, the Cuckoo, although arrived in the district, will keep silent.
In very backward and cold springs we have known even the month of
May, when, as the line goes, “ it sings all day,” to pass without his note
enlivening the wintry scene. The Cuckoo is most vociferous in soft,
balmy weather, especially after a warm shower, as the old country people
say, ‘‘ he likes a drop to moisten his throat.” We have, after late springs,
heard the Cuckoo on 1st or 2nd July ; but it is very rare to hear the bird
cry after Midsummer Day, and in some years we have listened in yain
for it after 10th June.

Directly she arrives the female Cuckoo proceeds to lay, and we have
found young Cuckoos strong on wing by the end of May; while we have
seen others, evidently not long from the nest, as late as 10th September,
proving that the Cuckoo continues to lay up to the time of her departure
from this country. The adult birds appear to leave the county eurly in
July, but birds of the year remain till late in autumn, We had quite a

abe

122 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

young Cuckoo brought to us in North Devon late in September which
had become eatangled in a net spread against some late-hanging currants
on a garden-wall. Mr. C. Ham saw a young bird at Morchard Bishop
early in October 1878; and one was shot near Plymouth in October
1838 (J. C. B., Nat. Hist. S. Devon, p. 420). Birds of the year have
been killed near Kingsbridge in the first and second weeks of October
(R. P. N., MS. Notes).

The usual nests into which the Cuckoo inserts her egg (which she
first lays on the ground and then carries with her beak to the home she
has selected for it, thus accounting for Cuckoo’s eggs being often found in
nests placed in holes in walls) are those of the Meadow-Pipit, Pied Wagtail,
and Hedge-Sparrow ; but there are numerous other birds who are called
upon to rear the young Cuckoos, a list of twenty-six having been drawn
up in whose nests Cuckoo’s eggs have been detected in this country.
The late Rev. J. Hellins, of Exeter, furnished us with an instance of
a Cuckoo having deposited her egg in the nest of a Wren, in this case
having selected a tiny foster-parent indeed for her voracious young.
Small birds pursue and buffet the Cuckoo whenever she appears among
them, because of her Hawk-like appearance.

The Cuckoo will return year after year to the same nest when con-
venient. We knew of a pair of commou Wagtails which had their nest
in a hole in a garden-wall near to us, and as long as the Wagtails con-
tinued to occupy this hole, which they did for several years in succession,
they had the annual distinction to rear a young Cuckoo. The foster-
parents attend upon and feed the young Cuckoo for some time after it has
left the nest, and, as Col. Montagu has described, the young Cuckoo
sprawls upon the ground, lying over on one side to enable the small birds
to reach its mouth, and sometimes extends one of its wings upwards for
them to perch upon. For several days, one summer, a young Cuckoo,
closely waited upon by two Hedge-Spuarrows, frequented our gooseberry
bushes when there was a great abundance of the destructive gooseberry
grub (the larvee of a sawfly), and with these it was assiduously fed by the
small birds. Several times we found an adult Cuckoo at the same spot,
doubtless attracted by the sawtly larvee, but we fancied she might also
have been in attendance upon the young bird. Mr. Ross saw several
adult Cuckoos together under a gooseberry bush infested with these grubs
in his garden at Topsham. Caterpillars of all kinds, especially the spiny
larvee of certain butterflies (Vanessw), and hairy larve of large moths,
form the Cuckoo’s favourite food, and good service is rendered in thus
destroying the enemies to the foliage of various trees; some sociable
larvee which are very ravenous, like those of the common buff-tip moth,
would in a short time strip large trees bare to their poles were they not
kept under by Cuckoos and other birds, whose province it is to devour
them. Mr. Gatcombe found the stomach of a Cuckoo he examined on May
9th, 1885, at Plymouth, filled with the hairy caterpillars of the fox moth
(Zool. 1885, p. 377). Cuckoos have been successfully kept in this
country through the winter, but they are very delicate birds, and one we
had brought through his very greedy youth, and had rendered a very tame

CUCULIDA. 1933

pet, grieved us much by dying towards the end of November, when he
was in tine plumage and condition, through taking a sudden and fatal
cold, owing to having been put back into his cage after it had been
cleaned, and before it had become completely dry.

We have never become converts to the theory propounded by some
naturalists that Cuckoos lay eggs of different colours, and that the Cuckoo
places its egg in the nest of that bird the colour of whose eggs most
resembles her own. We have ourselves taken the egg of the Cuckoo in
the nests of the Hedge-Sparrow, Sky-Lark, Meadow-Pipit, Tree-Pipit, and
some other birds, and have had many other Cuckoo’s eggs pass through
our hands, and all these eggs were very much alike in size and colour,
closely resembling an ordinary Sky-Lark’s egg, and very much of the same
tints.

Cuckoos, it is well known, often arrive in this country in immature
plumage, and one we have shot in the act of uttering its well-known cry
is still, partially, in its brown juvenile dress. We think these young
Cuckoos may have been bred, perhaps, in the winter-quarters of the birds,
and so were only afew months old when they reached our coasts. Various
explanations have been given of the parasitism of the Cuckoo, none of them
considered satisfactory by Professor Newton, in his admirable account of
the Cuckoo in the 4th ed. Yarrell’s ‘ British Birds,’ vol. 11., and ‘ adhue
sub judice lis est ;’ but we are inclined to follow those naturalists who
cousider that it may be rendered necessary owing to the short stay, only
a little over two months, made by the old Cuckoos in this country, in
which there would not be time for them in their own nest to hatch and
rear the numerous family which, following the analogy of foreign Cuckoos,
we believe they would have.

From much observation we have come to believe that each pair of
Cuckoos on arrival select a certain district, and that an extensive one,
of which they make the circuit periodically, having certain favourite
meeting-stations, and that in the hedges, fields, and plantations of this
district the hen-bird finds the nests she requires for her eggs, of which
she lays from eight to ten, or about one a week on an average during her
stay. The question arises, do all these eggs result in young Cuckoos ?
We think not; for young Cuckoos are rare. Perhaps they conceal
themselves very cleverly, and their brown plumage is protective, har-
monizing so closely with the colour of the branches of trees that they
may be easily overlooked. But on the few occasions when we have met
with young Cuckoos, they have always been perched awkwardly on some
exposed part of a hedge, and one reared in our garden two years ago was
always in evidence, sitting on a gate or rail, or to be seen flying from
one apple-tree to another in the orchard.

It is rare to see more than two Cuckoos together, but, occasionally,
three or four may be noticed in pursuit of a hen bird, and once we counted
seven flying one after the other from a large hawthorn. The late Rey.
R. A. Julian observed that these birds much frequented the sea-cliffs at
Bovisand,

Cuckoos are restless birds, among the last to go to roost on a summer's

124 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

night, and the earliest to awake when the first streak of dawn appears
in the east. The cry of the young Cuckoo somewhat resembles that of
the Kestrel.

The fact that the young Cuckoo ejects from the nest the eggs and
nestlings which are the legitimate produce of its selected foster-parents,
long regarded as a fable, is now accepted by naturalists as having been
satisfactorily proved, and the baby Cuckoo is said to have in its early
days anatomical provisions to enable it to get rid of its companions. If
two young Cuckoos are hatched in one nest the stronger contrives to get
rid of the weaker, as has been witnessed by a friend of ours.

A young Cuckoo with one leg and foot only, the other limb being a
mere stump, was found dead near Exeter, July 12th, 1881. Mr. R. P.
Nicholls obtained a young bird, exactly the colour of a female Kestrel on
the back, from Aveton Gifford, and presented it to the Natural History
Museum, South Kensington (MS. Notes).

Yellow-billed Cuckoo. Coccyzus americanus (Linn.).

An accidental visitor of extremely rare occurrence.

A specimen of the Yellow-billed Cuckoo was picked up dead beneath
the lighthouse on Lundy Island in October 1874, and was taken to the
Rev. H. G. Heaven for determination. This bird was carried from the
island by a friend of the keeper of the lighthouse for preservation, and
we cannot state where it is now. Mr. Heaven gave us a full description
of it at the time, and we have not the slightest doubt that it was
correctly identified. This Cuckoo constructs its own nest, and rears its
own young, in North America.

In the first edition of Yarrell’s B. Birds, vol. ii. p. 190, mention is
made of a Yellow-billed Cuckoo which was killed in Cornwall, but no
particulars are given. Mr. Yarrell only states ‘* the Cornwail specimen
was the subject of a private communication,” and Mr. EK. H. Rodd appears
to have had no knowledge of it. ‘Two specimens have been obtained in
Ireland, and two in Wales. One of these Welsh birds, shot on Lord
Cawdor’s Stackpole estate in Pembrokeshire, was presented to the National
Collection, and is still, we believe, to be seen at South Kensington. In
spite of these occurrences, this American species is not admitted into the
british List by Mr. Howard Saunders in his ‘ Manual of B. Birds,’

Note.—Another American species, the Black-billed Cuckoo (Coccyzus erythroph-
thalmus), has occurred in Ireland once.

STRIGES. 15

Order STRIGES.

THE OWLS.

The Owls form an important family of birds beautifully
adapted for the work they have to discharge in the
economy of Nature, which is to keep in check the prolific
swarms of lesser rodents, all of them feeders in the dark,
most destructive to useful crops, and capable of quickly
devastating a country were they to be suffered to multiply
without restraint. For this work the Owls are equipped
with soft plumage, their wide-webbed wing-feathers
enabling them to approach their quick-eared prey with
noiseless flight; they have exquisite ears for detecting the
least rustle of a mouse in the herbage; they have power-
ful feet and strong talons for delivering the fatal pounce ;
and they are supplied with facial disks of feathers
radiating from their large eyes, which serve to reflect every
ray of light. We have always regarded the Owls as
especial favourites, and have regretted every instance in
which such beautiful and useful birds have been slaugh-
tered. ‘There are only four British Owls which are at all
common and generally dispersed ; and of the four, two,
the Barn-Owl and Brown or Wood-Owl, are resident
throughout the county; the Long-eared Owl is a winter
Visitor, sometimes numerous, and only occasionally known
to nest in Devonshire; while the Short-eared Owl is a
regular winter visitor from the North, well-known to
sportsmen, who flush it commonly in turnip-fields and
snipe-bogs in the autumn and winter. Besides these four
British species we have, as a very rare chance visitor to
the county from the far North, the splendid Snowy Owl;
and one other small Owl, very numerous in the South of
Europe, the Little Owl, has once or twice occurred at

Lo

126 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

large; but so many of these little Owls are brought into
this country that, perhaps, all of the reported examples
may properly be considered as escapes. In addition to
these, there is also a single instance in which the Hawk-
Owl, a singular species from the northern parts of the
world, has been detected in the south of the county.

Observation.—Two other small Owls, viz. Tengmalm’s Owl and the
Scops Owl, occasional visitors to other parts of England, have not yet been
recorded from Devon. The first has been killed once in Somerset, and the
second has been obtained once on the Scilly Islands, and once on the north
coast of Cornwall.

Family STRIGIDAs.
Barn-Owl. Strix flammea, Linn.

Resident, generally distributed and still common, though its numbers
are constantly being thinned by gamekeepers and others, notwithstanding
its great utility in destroying field-mice and other rodents. Breeds.

Too often senselessly slaughtered, this valuable member of the rural
police may be met with far from his native haunts, in the very last places
where we are pleased to see him. In every little bird-stuffer’s shop the
Barn-Owl may be numbered by the half-dozen distorted and caricatured,
his face and wings, perhaps, converted into fire-screens ; too often we find
him rotting with crows and weasels in a keeper’s larder, haying been
murdered by the cruel pole-trap to which, having caught his mouse, he
has unsuspiciously betaken himself to devour it at leisure; while the
euns of those who, if they knew their own interests, “ sua si bona nérint,”
would best strive to protect him, are too often pointed at him. Feeding
almost exclusively upon field-mice and rats, and destroying great numbers
of these mischievous rodents, besides varying his diet occasionally with
large beetles and cockchafers, the Barn-Owl renders immense benefit to
the agriculturist, and, as is well known, Mr. Darwin has connected his
preservation with the interests of the farmer by an ingenious and interest-
ing chain. It has been observed that certain clovers cannot seed without
the intervention of the humble-bee to introduce the pollen to the stigma*,
The field-mouse is the humble-bee’s most destructive enemy, devouring it
and its comb by wholesale. Consequently, if the owls are all killed the
field-mice multiply and, almost exterminating the humble-bees, render
the clover crops a failure. This is an instance of that balance which
Nature preserves between all her creatures, which man often, through
ignorance, upsets to his own damage,

Mr. Barnes, gardener to Lady Rolle, at Bicton, some years ago contri-
buted several very quaint and clever letters about birds to the ‘ Exeter
and Plymouth Gazette.’ One appeared in that paper on December 4th,

* The field-bean also requires similar assistance from bees,

STRIGIDA. ey

1868, on the subject of the Barn-Owl, from which we quote a remarkable
incident. After describing the contents of various nests which he had
examined during a period of many years, finding “ four varieties of mice
in hoard at one and the same time in the Owl’s den (sic)” he adds, ‘in
the months of July and August I have seen the dark, or nearly black,
house or barn mouse; the little red-backed, white-bellied, short-bodied
haryest-mouse ; the large, thick-coated, bull-headed, short-tailed grass-
mouse; and the long, sandy, red-backed, white-bellied, long-eared, long-
tailed, out-door field, or garden-mouse. Which of these four varieties of
mice are the greatest rogues or enemies to mankind, it is not easy to say.”
After giving instances of the damage done in fields, gardens, and planta-
tions, cucumber and melon pits, &c. by these destructive little rodents,
he proceeds :—‘ The depredations of the Hanoverian rat are pretty well
known. I never saw in an Owl’s den a rat larger than about half-
grown, but I have seen many from that size down to broods that have
just run or started from their brood-nest. I never once saw any kind of
bird, rabbit, leveret, or otnrer animal, besides rats, moles, and mice. Neither
did I ever see a shrew-mouse, dormouse, or sleep-mouse.” He one day
wished to inspect a Barn-Owl’s nest ‘in the hollow of an immensely
large ivy-clad elm-tree that stood on the lawn at no great distance from
the mansion. ‘This tree, being within sight of the mansion windows, I
did not visit so often. I never can, and I believe I never shall forget,

how terribly I was once taken Ae on a visit to this nest, one evening
in the month of September. I was crossing the lawn when there arose
a heavy thunderstorm. JI ran under the leeward side of this tree for
shelter. Hearing, while standing there, the young Owlets hissing and
snapping their beaks, at once suggested to me to run up and have a look
at them. I knew they were pretty large and strong. The entrance to
their den was about eighteen or twenty feet from the ground, and the
tree, as stated, was clothed with large, strong ivy. Up I clambered, and
no sooner had I arrived, and was about having a peep, when, to my great
surprise, I found both old birds at home, or hard by; for, in an instant,
I was furiously and most desperately attacked by both. Oh! what a
battering with their wings—-pecks with their beaks—scratches and
pinches with their claws—lI did receive from those two desperate beauties !
I was in no small danger of losing my eyes, or of getting battered down
from the tree. I slunk down the best way I could, keeping my face as
well sheltered and as near the tree as possible; unfortunately my cap
was torn or battered off, and fell to the ground in the early part of the
battle, and my poor head received a terrible combing, battering, scratch-

ing, aud henpecking. When I arrived on the ground I was still attacked,
and my cap, lying at a little distance, was not easy to get at. I made a
desperate effort to pick it up. ‘They continued to fly, dart, and bang at
me. Iran with all speed to a large Portugal laurel-tree, hard by. Mine
enemies were still whirling round, and watching me. I took ont a knife,
and cut off a branch, trimming off the side branches, and leaving the
leaves on the summit. I then sallied forth, with pretty good assurance,

in defence, followed by mine enemies for a considerable distance. The

branch | kept whirling about, and kept them at bay, till they were tired

128 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

of my company. I assure you I was very glad to get quit of their com-
pany, and to get to some water to wash off the blood and dirt I had got in
this funny, unexpected scrimmage, and I resolved in the future to be
better on my guard, and more careful how I approached an Owl’s den on
a rainy evening, late in the season, stored with four or five strong Owlets,
and both old birds at home”*.

We can remember when, in North Devon, every linhay and every cob-
built barn possessed its tutelary Barn-Owl. A small hole, left in the
wall just under the eaves for the purpose, admitted the Owl into the
barns to pay his useful domiciliary visits, and in some corner between the
wall-plate and the rafter, squeezing himself as far away as possible from
the unwelcome daylight, he would sleep through the day. Here a little
search would find him, in an attitude suggestive of a perpetual back-ache,
dozing away until the shades of evening once more invited him forth to
hunt the ‘small deer” on which he feeds. Sometimes the Barn-Owl
issues forth early of a dim November afternoon, when he may be seen
beating the hedgerows as regularly as a setter, every now and then
suddenly pausing and dropping down on a mouse which has failed to
detect his approach on his noiseless wings. We have kept Barn-Owls
as pets, and have had them tame enough to fly and settle on our head
or shoulders on our approach. One we had was very fond of fish, and
would make his meal contentedly off smali trout, invariably swallowed
whole, tail first. The postures a Barn-Owl indulges in on the approach of
strangers are very ludicrous. He will retreat backwards into the furthest
corner, and there will throw himself upon his back claws upwards in a
posture of defence, and with these sharp claws he is capable of inflicting
an unpleasant scratch. Young Barn-Owls make a peculiar snoring and
hissing noise, which often betrays the position of the nest They also
make a continual snapping with their beaks, a sound sometimes expres-
sive of alarm, sometimes of a desire for food, and sometimes, when it
came from our tame pets, we used to think, of welcome. They are
rather delicate to rear from their nestling-stage of balls of whitish fluffy
down, being somewhat subject to cramp. Barn-Owls, when seen on their
perch in the daytime, give one the impression of being extremely thin ;
indeed, of the very many we have handled, we never felt one which had
much flesh upon it. They sit drawn up to their full height, presenting a
wedge-shaped appearance, the thick end of the wedge being formed by the
head.

These Owls are subject to a considerable variation in their plumage.
In a long row of these birds we were once grieved to see lying on the
counter in a bird-stuffer’s shop we could not find any two exactly corre-

* Mr. Barnes ascribes this attack to Barn-Owls, and we have, therefore, included
it in our account of that species ; but the whole time we were transcribing his amusing
account we felt strongly convinced that it was a nest of the Hooter, or Brown Owl, he
ventured to investigate, as the conduct of the old birds was exactly what might be
expected from the valiant Hooter; and we think he confused the two birds in his
mind. We haye never heard of the inoffensive Barn-Owl attacking people who came
near its nest.

ASIONID.E. (129

sponding. The normal colouring of an adult male is pure white on the
underparts, with a pale buff back, the buff being mottled and streaked with
black. But varieties are frequently met with having dark reddish fawn-
coloured backs, thickly spotted with black ; while others are very pale buff,
with large patches of white upon the wings, giving the birds a pied ap-
pearance. Females have the breast and flanks flecked with a few small
spots of black, and varieties are sometimes met with in which all the
underparts are fawn-colour. We have seen a specimen with a pure white
tail, without any markings: it was killed near Exeter Jan. 22nd, 1877.

In the summer-time we have noticed that Barn-Owls are often found
quartering the newly-mown hay-fields in the evening, short-tailed field-mice
being then numerous there and easily seen. During the long-continued
snow and frost of the severe winter of 1890-91 many Barn-Owls perished.
Several attempted to come into houses for warmth and shelter in our
village, but were driven out by the inhospitable people, some of whom were
frightened at them, and their frozen 4nd famished bodies were found stiff
upon the snow in the courtyards. We ourselves picked up several lying
dead in the fields.

The economy of the Owl’s nest is well-known, how the birds lay and sit,
and how, when the first Owlets are hatched, they go on laying further eggs,
the warmth of the Owlets’ bodies assisting in incubating them, so that an
Owl’s nest will be found to contain Owlets in various stages, fresh eggs,
and the addled egg which we have found to be the invariable tenant of
every Owl’s abode.

There is probably an immigration of Barn-Owls in the autumn and
winter. They appear to have been especially numerous in 1859 at
Plymouth.

On September 22nd, 1871, a female Kestrel and a young Barn-Owl
were brought to us; they were taken on board a vessel a few miles off
the south coast, as it was coming up the English Channel. The Kestrel
was seen chasing the Owl for several miles, and both alighted on the
vessel for rest.

Family ASIONIDZ.

Long-eared Owl. Asio otus (Linn.).

A winter visitor, being met with in the autumn and winter months of
almost every year in some part of the county ; but itis rarely numerous, and
very seldom remains to breed. The Rev. Thos. Johnes says he found this
Species only in the autumn and winter in the neighbourhood of the moors
(Bray’s ‘Tamar and avy,’ i. p. 347). Many occurred in the winter of
1573-74, and from September to December 1879 there seems to have been
a very large flight in the south-western part of the county.

A pair were shot at Buckland Abbey in April 1846 (E. M., Rowe’s
Peramb, Dartmoor, p. 233). One occurred at Plymouth, April 7th, 1800,

K

130 THE BIRDS OF DEVON,

and another May 31st, 1877 (B., MS. Notes; and J. G., Zool. 1877, p. 283).
Mr. Boughton Kyngdon informed us that he found a nest with eggs on
Haldon, May 13th, 1863.

Twenty occurred near Kingsbridge in December 1879. They were
mostly from the neighbourhood of Halwell Woods, near the Estuary
(R. P. N., MS. Notes). This species was extremely numerous in other
parts of England about that time. In January 1586 seven or eight were
seen flying out of a plantation near Kingsbridge (KE. A. 8. E., MS. Notes).

At Ply ‘mouth many occurred in December 1873; in October and
December 1876 ; from September to December 1879 ; and in January and —
November 1881; but this Owl is not usually numerous there (J. G., Zool.
1874, p. 3910; 1877, pp. 44, 47; 1879, p. 48; 1880, p. 47; 1881,
p- 197; 1882, p. 65). One was shot on Derriford Estate, Egg Buckland,
February 1st, 1861 (T. R.A.B.). Itis scarce near Exeter, but specimens
were shot in that neighbourhood November 1868, December 1870, October
1873, and November 1879. At Torquay it is a rare visitor. A pair
were obtained there December 17th, 1873 (A. von H., Zool. 1874, p. 3907).

It is not mentioned in the lists of birds of Lundy Island.

This pretty species of Owl is such a recluse, hiding itself in thick fir-
plantations, where it chooses its roost on some branch close to the bole of
the tree, and its plumage corresponds so closely in its tints with those of
the bark, that it may be easily overlooked, and may be more numerous in
a district than it is supposed to be. It is also strictly nocturnal, coming
abroad only at dusk to feed on mice and small finches. We have seen
the young perched side by side upon a branch, and so inconspicuous were
they that they might easily have escaped notice. Only once were we
fortunate enough to detect a Long-eared Owl’s nest in North Devon, and
this was close to our house. A keeper at Heanton, near Barnstaple,
observing one of these Owls on a bank fired at it, and found on going
forward that he had killed five; the Owls must have been squatting
very close together. We have two of the five in our collection. Not
many specimens of the Long-eared Owl are brought to the Barnstaple
bird-stuffer, and we do not think it is at all a numerous species in the
northern division of the county. It is chiefly a winter visitor to the
South-western Counties, but is stated to be a resident in Dorset, Somerset,
and Cornwall. This makes it all the more strange that it is not a
resident in Devonshire.

Short-eared Owl. Asio brachyotus (Forster).
| Woodeock-Owl. |

A winter visitor of frequent occurrence and sometimes numerous. It
is met with every autumn and winter in the south of the county, some-
times arriving as early as September (R. P. N., MS. Notes). It was
abundant throughout Devonshire in 1875, 1876, and 1878. It has been
occasionally obtained in spring. One was shot on Exmoor, March 13th,
1829 (E. M., Trans. Plym. Inst. 1830, p. 298). One occurred in May

ASIONID.E. at

1850 near Exeter (R. C.); some in March 1876 near Plymouth (J. G.,
Zool. 1876, p. 4902); and one was shown to us in the flesh by the late
Rev. John Hellins that was killed at Budleigh Salterton in March 1881.

This species was unusually plentiful in the autumn of 1876 at Plymouth,
where six occurred in November (J. G.); and near Kingsbridge, where
twelve were flushed from one small patch of furze (H. N., Zool. 1876,
p- 5180). A small flock occurred near Ilfracombe, February 3rd, 1876
(M. A. M., Zool. 1876, p. 4718). It is a winter visitor to Lundy Island
(Trans. Devon. Assoc. vill. p. 308).

The Short-eared Owl is a well-known winter visitor to the South,
arriving about the middle of October, and leaving again towards the end
of March. It chiefly frequents moory ground, where it squats close
during the day among coarse grass and rushes, and is often to be met with
in considerable numbers. In the late autumn the sportsman also comes
across it in turnip-fields, where the setters will draw on its scent and
stand it. It is then not a little ridiculous, on going up with the expecta-
tion of a covey, to sce several of these Owls rise heavily off the ground,
when they will fly round one, looking like cherubims as depicted on
tombstones in village churchyards, before scattering in different directions
in search of another quiet roost. One day when sniping on Braunton
Burrows atter some heavy rains we had to splash for some distance
through flooded ground, until at last we gained a sandy hillock covered
with rushes, which rose like an island out of the water. Here we flushed
at least twenty Short-eared Owls, which sailed solemnly round us and
then settled on adjoining mounds. Sometimes the Snipe-shooter finds
these Owls even more numerous than the Longbills on the bogs, and will
come across Owls of all shades, apparently ; some so light in colour as to
appear white when they are making off, and these light-coloured birds
being much more wary and difficult to approach than the dark olive ones
suggest that they are cautious old cock birds, which they reallyare. We,
however, put up one of these light birds one day on a bog and, instead of
consulting his safety by flying off (not that we should ever be guilty of
lifting our gun against an Owl), he swept round us close at hand uttering a
curious cry, until another Owl, evidently his mate, also rose, and then the
pair flew off a short distance, settling again on the bog, the lighter bird
perching on the top of a withered furze bush, from which he watched us
until we moved off. On Lundy Island the Short-eared Owl is considered
the precursor of the Woodcock, and at a time of severe frost we found
both Cocks and Owls plentiful on the island—the Owls very much in the
way, as the setters would draw on them, mark them down when they
were flushed, and then draw on them again and again. ‘his species is
not exclusively nocturnal, for we have flushed it off a recently killed Peewit
in the middle of the day, the head of which it had, after the manner of
Hawks and Owls, but just devoured as its first bite. We do not ourselves
imagine that the Short-eared Owl kills many Snipe. He may devour a
wounded bird which comes in his way, but his chief food consists of
mice and beetles. On some extensive marshes intersected by stone walls
we have seen Short-eared Owls when started from their cover on the

K 2

152 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

ground fly and perch on the top of a wall, and as one approached fly
on again to the next wall, taking care to dip down and put the wall each
time between the pursuer and themselves.

Colonel Montagu remarked that the short tufts on this Owl’s head are
only erected when the bird is in a quiescent state, and are instantly
depressed when it is disturbed ; whereas the longer tufts of the preceding
species have been noticed by an excellent observer to be pricked up when
the bird is watching for, or suspecting, an intruder on its privacy (J.
F. Brockholes, Zool. 1859, p. 6752). These tufts of feathers, however,
are in no way connected with the ears of these Owls, or assist their sense
of sound.

We have seen a Short-eared Owl mount right up into the bright sun-
shine until lost to sight; and keepers of lighthouses have recorded that
this species is able to bear without inconvenience the full glare of their
lanterns, flying into the blaze of light in order to capture the small birds
fluttering and beating against the glass, and even availing themselves of
the artificial light to pursue and capture Thrushes on the wing. “Con-
stantly one hears their dying cries,” says Mr. Giitke, writing from Heligo-
Jand, *‘ when clutched by the nude talons of an Owl that had just flitted,
like a phantom, noiselessly past the light.”

The Short-eared Owl appears to be scarce on Dartmoor. In ten years’
Snipe-shooting over the northern and eastern portions of the Forest we
never came across a single example. We are not aware that the nest of
the Short-eared Owl has been obtained anywhere in the South-western
Counties, although the bird might occasionally be expected to nest on some
of the West-Country moors. We have known its nest to be taken on
Skomer Island, off the 8.W. coast of Pembrokeshire, no great distance away
from North Devon.

Tawny Owl. Syrniwm aluco (Linn.).

Resident, generally distributed in wooded districts throughout the
county, but not so plentifully as formerly. Breeds.

There are two varieties: one larger, with greyish plumage (grey phase),
much longer and stronger claws, and said to be much fiercer and more
destructive, preying even on rabbits; the other smaller, with reddish
plumage (red or erythrismal phase).

The well-known Hooter is a common frequenter of woods and planta-
tions, living in the dark shelter of spruces and firs especially, throughout
the county; and glad should we be if more mercy and protection were
meted out to this very useful bird, whose benefits to the agriculturist in
the destruction of rats and of the mischievous long-tailed field-mouse call
for some better consideration in return. We would also bespeak the
indulgence of game-preservers, whose keepers too generally in ignorance
destroy this harmless Owl. As we have ourselves had both Pheasants
and Brown Owls existing side by side in the same covers, and have never
known any of the former to have suffered from the Owls, we can make

ASIONID-E. 133

this appeal with all confidence. If people would only remember that Owls
do not come abroad to seek their prey until dusk, by which time ali young
Pheasants are safely hovered under their mothers or in their coops, they
would see that any accusations brought against them of carrying off young
Pheasants can have no foundation. We have had Brown Owls living
around our house in a semi-domesticated state, sometimes nesting side by
side with Jackdaws in disused pigeon-boxes, sometimes availing themselves
of old Crows’ nests in the trees, and often during the day we have seen
them perched asleep by the side ot the chimney-pots on the roof of the
house. On warm,sunny mornings they would sometimes present themselves
on some bare branch, basking in the sun, and knowing their favourite
roosts in the various trees we could at all times of the day find them if we
wanted to show them to any visitors. We have kept them as pets, and
have noticed that, like all other species of Owl we have had from time to
time in our possession, they require no water, either for drinking or for
bathing. One we had was very fond of roosting in our poultry-house,
where we have found him with a pullet on either side. Ho founda mate,
and the pair occupied a hollow tree in our grounds, where year after year
they brought up a family of Owlets. Going out some still moonlight night,
and imitating their hooting cry, we have soon had answers trom the
various Hooters within hearing, and have drawn them close up to us,
having them perched all round on the roof of the house, and also on the
stables and outbuildings and on the surrounding walls. A friend who a
short time since amused himself in this manner assured us that he counted
twenty-six Owls hooting back to him from the woods on either side of a
beautiful valley. Any one rambling through a woodland country must
have heard the chattering of Jays, the harsh scolding of Mistle-
Thrushes, and the shrill notes of smaller birds engaged in mobbing and
teasing a Brown Owl discovered by them ou his roost. This is a joke of
the woods which never grows stale. In the Great Exhibition in Hyde
Park in 1851 there was a very clever case of stuffed birds illustrating this
common sylvan episode, from the hands of Mr. G. Gordon, Curator of the
Dover Museum, a very skilful taxidermist. Nor must we omit to mention
two very beautiful specimens of bird-stuffing which were for some time
deposited in the A. M. M. at Exeter, the work of Mr. W. Brodrick, entitled
* Night ” and ** Morning.” In “ Night” a Brown Owl was mounted in a
very lively attitude, his eyes staring forwards into the dark, his ears
strained to catch the rustle of the mouse, in the very act of making his
pounce; while “‘ Morning” reveals him fast asleep in the chink of a big
bole, with an inquisitive Great Spotted Woodpecker climbing up and
peeping round at him, ‘These were life-like studies; most cleverly exe-
cuted, and true works of art.

Alas! how often have we been present when some Brown Owl has been
disturbed from his roost in a fir-plantation by a shooting-party. (reat
is the excitement; beaters, keepers, and guns are all eager for his
destruction ; he is foolishly regarded as a dangerous poacher; and, if
the chance offers, is as relentlessly potted as any prowling cat or weasel.
With loud shouts of * Owl, sir! Owl, sir!’ he has sometimes fortunately
flown up to our gun and has passed away in safety.

134 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

Brown Owls are courageous parents, and very impatient of strangers
coming near their nest when the Owlets are hatched. One of the
approaches to a friend’s residence was virtually closed for a time, owing
to a pair of brown Owls, whose nest was placed in a fine elm by the
entrance gate. People passing through had to run the gauntlet of the
Owls, who came forth to attack and butfet them, so that they were afraid
to use this road. And we know of a case where a youth had taken an
Owlet from the nest, and was showing it to his father in a farmyard,
when one of the old Owls suddenly attacked them both, scratching the
farmer severely about the face, and actually tearing out one of the eyes of
his son, so that he had to enter as patient in the local infirmary.

One afternoon in the summer we watched a pair of Brown Owls making
numerous pounces from the lower branches of a fine elm into the rank
grass beneath ; they were evidently catching insects—tipule, we fancied—
with which they flew up into the tree, dropping again the next instant to
capture others, They made two or three descents a minute, and con-
tinued this amusement some little time.

Mr. Barnes, whose adventure with the Barn-Owls we have already
recorded, considered that the Tawny Owls furnished him a forecast of the
weather, and wrote :—‘*I have for years observed that when the Owl is
merry at early dawn we are pretty sure of a fine day. Also, if he is
merry at early evening, we are pretty sure of a fine quiet night. While,
if the Owl breaks out with ‘ Hoo-hoo-hoo-Too-vit’ by day, and takes a
flight, stormy weather is sure to pretty soon follow. These are sure and
invariable indications which I have observed for years.”

Snowy Owl. Nyctea scandiaca (Linn.).

An accidental visitor from the extreme North, of very rare occurrence.

It can be only by an accident that this grand circumpolar Owl is ever
driven to this country, especially so far south as Devonshire. The Rev. W.
S. Hore had a fine specimen which was captured by St. John’s Lake,
Hamoaze, Plymouth, in December 1838, and brought in by a boatman to
the shop of Pincombe, the Plymouth bird-stutfer, while Mr. Hore happened
to be in his shop. Mr. Hore subsequently purchased the bird, and told us
that at the time this Owl was met with the weather was exceptionally
stormy, so much so that the Earl of Durham, on his return from Canada,
was detained for three days in the Sound in consequence of the gale.
This specimen is mentioned by Dr. Moore as having been shot on Mill-
brooke Lake, and is probably the same as the one said to have been
knocked down with a stick by a boatman on the bank of the River Tamar
near St. Germans, in Cornwall, in Dec. 1838 (E. M., Rowe’s Peramb.
Dartmoor, p. 233; J. C. B., Nat. Hist. 8. Devon, p. 200; R. A. J., ‘ Natu-
ralist,’ p. 45). Dr. Couch recorded this bird as having been picked up dead
near Plymouth (Cornish Fauna, part ii. p. 69, Appendix).

A few days before the occurrence of Mr. Hore’s specimen at Plymouth,
Mr. Thompson has recorded that a flock of Snowy Owls accompanied a

ASIONID. 135

ship halfway across the Atlantic, from the coast of Labrador to the north
of Ireland. This was in November 1838, and Mr. Hore’s Snowy Owl may
have reached our coasts through an assisted passage on the rigging of the
ship.

A long interval had to pass before the Snowy Owl was again observed
in this county, and it was not until 1876 that another could be recorded.
On March 13th in that year, the weather being very cold and snowy, one
appeared at Ditsworthy Rabbit-warren in 8. Devon, not far from Plymouth,
aud was actually shot by a little boy of eight years of age, the grandson of
the warrener. This little fellow had seen the Owl pounce upon and
instantly kill a rabbit, and with a single-barrelled gun fired at the bird as
it flew over him, and brought it down. It was sent into Plymouth for
preservation, where Mr. Gatcombe examined it, and judged it to be a
male, and, from its very white colour, an old bird. “ From its com-
paratively small size, and the general whiteness of its plumage, I feel
certain of its being a male, and an old bird too.” Mr. Gatcombe adds
that when the Owl was first seen it was being chased by some Hawks
(J. G., Zool. 1876, p. 4921; 1877, p. 163).

About ten days later another Snowy Owl was trapped on Exmoor,
probably the companion bird. A shepherd had observed it in a very
short time strike at and kill two hares, and ran off to inform Sir F. W.
Knight's keeper that a large bird was making short work with the game
in the forest; and in the afternoon of the same day this fine Owl was
trapped in a gin baited with part of one of the hares it had previously
lailled. (The Swedish name of the Snowy Owl is Harfang, the Hure-
catcher.) We went to Barnstaple on purpose to see it, as it was sent to
the bird-stuffer in that town for preservation. It was a very large female,
and of about the same age, judging from the amount of dark bars across
the plumage, as the one obtained at Plymouth. It was very well set up
by Frayne, and was seen and admired by many persons, before it was sent
to Exmoor, where we believe it may still be seen in Sir F. W. Knight’s
house. (M, A. M., Zool. 1876, p. 4900.)

The report of Snowy Owls having been seen on Dartmoor in the spring
of 1876, which appeared in the ‘ Western Times’ of April 3rd, 1876, no
doubt refers to the one killed at Ditsworthy, and to its companion, shortly
afterwards trapped on Exmoor, If more than two were seen, it is some
comfort to believe that not all these splendid birds met with slaughter, and
that there were some that escaped.

The Snowy Owl hunts for its prey in the daytime, belonging to the
diurnal Owls, and is one of the chief ornaments of the Polar avifauna,
It becomes very docile in confinement. Some few years since, Mr. Sways-
land, the well-known Brighton bird-stuffer, had a collection of live Owls
which was exhibited in a small gallery underneath the seaward end of the
West Pier, which we often visited, and used to stroke the breast of a fine
Snowy Owl, which always appeared gratified with the attention. The
fate of these Owls was a sad one, as they were all swept out to sea and
drowned by a terrific gale which almost wrecked the West Pier.

There is a specimen of the Snowy Owl in the A, M. M. from the col-

136 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

lection of the late Mr. F. W. L. Ross, which he stated to have been taken
at Exmouth. It appears to have been kept in captivity for some time, as
the tail-feathers are soiled and worn; but this may have been done sub-
sequently to its capture. The date of its occurrence was not recorded, but
it must have been previous to 1851, as we first saw the specimen in
Mr. Ross’s possession in that year.

A tarso-metatarsal bone of this Ow] was obtained from Kent’s Cavern,
Torquay, and is preserved in the British Museum (Lydekker, Ibis, 1891,
p-. 33d).

Hawk-Owl. Surnia funerea (Linn.).

Capt. J. N. Still, of Slades, Knoyle, Wilts, wrote to inform us that he
had followed and watched for some time a Hawk-Owl as it was circling
round and round in the air, making a noise like the cry of a Hawk in the
middle of the day, near Musbury, in E. Devon. In his letter, dated
Sept. 27, 1876, he says: ‘‘I have great pleasure in forwarding to you the
following account of the Hawk-Owl. lt was seen by my father and self
near Musbury, either the very end of August or the beginning of Septem-
ber, 1869, about three o’clock in the afternoon. We were first attracted
to it by its Hawk-like cries. It kept circling round and round about
torty yards high, and frequently came close to us. We watched it for
half an hour or so, when it gradually kept circling away towards the west.
The day was a fine hot summer one. I had no gun with me when we saw
it, and although I searched for it on the following days I never found it.
I daresay some gamekeeper killed it, little knowing what bird it was.
My father and I have frequently since talked about the bird, hence the
reason for my knowing the date.”

The first-recorded british specimen of the Hawk-Owl was captured
alive on board a collier at no great distance from the Cornish coast in
March 1830, and was taken to Waterford, where it lived for a few weeks,
and then passed into the hands of Dr. birkett of that town, who subse-
quently presented it to the Museum of Trinity College, Dublin. A second
occurrence of this Owl in the West of England is reported by Mr. E. T.
Higgins in the ‘ Zoologist’ for 1851 (p. 3029) as having taken place on
Backwell Hill *, in Somerset, near the Yatton Station of the Bristol and
Exeter Railway. This bird was shot while it was flying about in the
bright sunshine at two o ‘clock in the afternoon of August 25th, 1847. It
afterwards passed into the collection of Mr. Borrer, the author of the
‘ Birds of Sussex,’

The Hawk-Owl, as its name implies, partly resembles a Hawk and partly
an Owl. In its seeking its prey by day, in its long tail, and in its ery, it
approximates to the Hawks, while its facial disks (considerably modified,
however), its nest in a hollow tree containing white eggs, and its feeding

* This district in Somerset has been peculiarly rich in rare birds. At no great dis-
tance from the spot where the Hawk-Owl was procured, examples of Tengmaim’s Owl
and of White’s Thrush haye been met with.

ASIONID.E. Lisyi

chiefly on mice, proclaim its close relationship to the Owls. Hawk-Owls
inhabit the northern parts both of Europe and America. The American
form, which is darker in its plumage, has been distinguished by some orni-
thologists from the European Hawk-Owl. Most of the examples that have
been obtained in England belong to this darker race, but an undoubted
specimen of the lighter North-Kuropean bird was shot at Amesbury, in
Wilts. As the bird seen by Captain Still was not obtained, we cannot
say to which race it belonged.

[Eagle Owl. Bubo ignavus, Forst.

The only authority for the occurrence of this species in this county is
Dr. Edward Moore, who says *‘ I have seen one specimen near Honiton in
1820” (Trans. Plym. Inst. 1830, p. 298); and “I have only seen one
specimen in Devonshire, and that in a living state near Honiton in 1820”
(Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837). ‘These are but meagre particulars, as we are not
intormed whether the bird had been captured in a wild state; or if there
Were any reasons to conclude that it had not escaped from an aviary.
It is only with the greatest diffidence that we mention this fine bird in
our book at all.

In the MS. Notes of birds sent to him for preservation, Mr. Bolitho of
Plymouth records, under date May 10th, 1860, a “ Great-eared Owl received
from Wm. Chichester, Esq., Grenofen, Tavistock, which weighed 4? lbs,
Extent of wing 5 ft. 11 inches.” Mr. J. Gatcombe informed us that
this specimen was understood at the time to have died in captivity. It
was purchased at Bolitho’s sale by the late Mr. Marsh-Dunn, and we saw
it in 1883 in his fine collection at Teignmouth.

Eagle-Owls have attained to a great age in aviaries in this country;
Lord Lilford possessed one which was considered to be at least seventy
years old.

Why this fine Owl, the Buho grande of Spain, should have been so
grossly slandered by Mr. T. Forster in his ‘ Synoptical Catalogue of British
Birds,’ 1817, as to have “ iynavus” bestowed upon it as its specific name,
we are at a loss to imagine, and would prefer to see Bubo maximus adopted,
a name which was given to it by Fleming in his ‘ British Animals,’ 1823,
and has been used by most writers on British Ornithology. Lord Lilford,
who had many opportunities of observing it in Spain, Corfu, Wc., speaks
highly of it as a courageous and noble bird, and Mr. Dresser calls it ‘ one
of the boldest of the European birds of prey,” and adds, “no game-bird,
not even the Capercaille, is too large for him,” |

Little Owl. Arthene noctua (Scopoli).

An accidental visitor of very rare and somewhat doubtful occurrence in
a really wild condition, being often imported and kept in captivity.

A specimen is mentioned in the Supplement to Montagu’s * Ornitholo-
gical Dictionary,’ on the authority of Mr. Comyns, as having been seen and

138 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

shot at in North Devonin 1808. Dr. Edward Moore says a specimen pro-
cured at Plymouth was sent to Mr. Drew for preservation, and that
“another was shot by Mr. Comyns a few years since near Dawlish” (Trans.
Plym. Inst. 1830, p. 299). There is, perhaps, some error in the latter
statement, and probably the specimen alluded to was the same as that
mentioned by Col. Montagu. Oue occurred near Ashburton in 1809 (A.
G. C. T.). Bellamy says it has been shot not far from Yealmpton (Nat.
Hist. 8. Devon, p. 200). One was sent from Downes, near Crediton, the
seat of the Bullers, in October 1851, to James Truscott (the Exeter bird-
stuffer) for preservation (R. C.). A specimen in the Torquay Museum
was taken at Pilsmore, Torquay, about September 189u (W. E.). These
two last specimens were most probably imported birds.

The Little Owl, the emblematic bird of ancient Athens, sacred to
Pallas Athene, is almost annually brought over to this country and kept
in aviaries as an amusing pet, so that no confidence can be put in any of
the reported occurrences of it in a wild state. These we consider to bave
been all escapes. Some of the so-called Little Owls were probably exam-
ples of the North-European Tengmalm’s Owl. One shot at large in the year
1859, at Winscombe, in Somerset-—the locality which also produced an
example of the Hawk-Owl, which was in the possession of Mr. C.
Edwards, of the Grove, Wrington, who showed it to us—was certainly
Nyctala tengmalmi. Some tame Little Owls in our possession are ex-
tremely fond of cockroaches. Whenever a stranger approaches them
their contortions are most amusing. They bow repeatedly, jerking their
bodies up and down in a telescopic fashion—all symptoms of nervous
alarm, as they never perform any of these antics when we go near them
to feed them. Our late friend, Mr. W. Brodrick, kept some in a roomy
chamber built for them in an old wall at his house, Little Hill, Chudleigh ;
they seemed quite at home in their comfortable quarters, and were in
beautiful plumage.

Little Owls have been imported into this country, and turned loose, in
some numbers. Certain of these birds, in a case well known to us,
survived the winter; and there were three or four instances in which
they not only nested, but successfully reared their young in the following
summer in what was, virtually, a wild state.

[ Observation.—We avail ourselves of a vacant space on this pige of our book to
allude to two examples of the Egyptian Vulture, Neophron percnopterus (Linn.),
which were seen near Kilve, in Somersetshire, on the shores of Bridgwater Bay, in
October 1825. One of them was shot and proved to be in immature plumage. It
had ygorged itself by feeding on the carcass of a dead sheep. Only one other example
of this species has occurred in the British Islands, and that was killed on September
28th, 1860, at Peldon in Essex. This Vulture, in the adult plumage, is white with
black primaries; the fore part of the head and neck yellow and bare of feathers,
whilst the immature birds are dark brown with greyish head and neck. It is
generally seen in pairs, and inhabits the South of Europe, Madeira and other Atlantic
Islands, and North Africa, in winter occasion lly visiting the Cape Colony, where we
ourselves have seen it, and where it is known as the ‘ Witte Kraai,’ or White Crow.
It is also found in Asia Minor and Persia, and has reached as far north as Norway.
The Griffon Vulture, Gyps fudvus, Gm., has been obtained once in Ireland.|

FALCONID.E. 139

Order ACCIPITRES.

Family FALCONIDA.
THE HARRIERS.

The Harriers and the Buzzards form a connecting-link
between the Owls and the true Falcons. The Harriers
are birds of slender bodies, long legs, tails, and wings,
possessing a buoyant, Gull-like flight, generally low over
the surface of the ground. ‘Their possession of facial disks
would indicate that they are partly crepuscular, and that
they prey to some extent upon the small rodents which
come forth to feed at dusk. But they are bold and power-
ful birds, and the Marsh-Harrier, in particular, flies at
larger game. It would be necessary to go back quite to
the beginning of the present century to find a time when
the three British species of Harrier were at all numerous
in Devonshire. Our book is unfortunately, in several
instances, only the obituary of interesting species, among
which must be included the Harriers—one of them, the
Marsh-Harrier, quite exterminated as a resident in the
county, while the other two, the Hen-Harrier and the
pretty Montagn’s Harrier, are fast becoming so and are
to-day very rarely seen. In the time of Col. Montagu the
fine Marsh-Harrier was common on most of the estuaries
on the look-out for wild-fowl, while its visits to rabbit-
warrens were dreaded by the warreners.

The Hen-Harrier then nested among the furze on almost
every moor and common, where it was sometimes joined by
the slighter species, now known to be only a summer mi-
grant, and first discriminated by Col. Montagu, and gaining
from that circumstance its specific name. ‘The Harriers are

140 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

easily trapped, and their nests, placed upon the ground,
are not difficult to detect, and when discovered are gene-
rally destroyed. Foolish birds, often blundering up to the
gun, it was not likely they would long survive the new
condition of things brought in by percussion-guns, breech-
loaders, and stringent game-preserving. But for a long
time after persecution had banished them from all the
central and southern districts of the county, the wild hill-
region bordering on Exmoor, as well as the great Forest
itself, continued to afford a fastness to two of the species,
from whence, as from a reservoir, they were poured forth
in the autumn and winter to hunt over the salt-marshes
and Snipe-grounds of the lower coast-districts of Devon.
Mr. James Turner, of Staplegrove, ‘Taunton, who was for
some time Secretary to the Devon and Somerset Stag-
hounds, and was continually riding over the Forest, in-
formed us (in October 1876) that not a day passed when
he was on the moor without his seeing a Harrier or two,
and that, to his knowledge, the shepherds made a practice
of destroying every nest they found. He told us that he
believed he had identified Montagu’s Harrier, as well as
the Hen-Harrier, on the Forest. We have ourselves,
while fishing on the Barle in the summer time, seen a pair
of that species some short distance above Lanacre Bridge ;
and it may still be expected to be met with nesting occa-
sionally within the limits of the county.

Marsh-Harvrier. Circus wruginosus (Linn.).
{ Moor-Buzzard. |

A casual visitor, of very rare occurrence.

Marsh-Harriers were not uncommon about the rabbit-warrens on Dart-
moor up to 1844, and committed great depredations among the young rabbits
(E. M., Trans, Plym. Inst. 1830, p. 297). Indeed, they seem to have
been formerly more abundant than any of the other large Hawks (J.C. B.,
Nat. Hist. 8. Devon, 1839, p. 199). About August, Marsh-Harriers were

FALCONID.E. 141

frequently found hawking over cultivated lands and near farm-houses
(L. J., Bray’s ‘Tamar and Tavy,’ 1st ed. 1836, 1. p. 345). This species is
marked as breeding on Dartmoor (E. M., Rowe’s Peramb. Dartmoor,
Ist ed. 1848, p. 229). About 1843, during a severe winter, many speci-
mens were obtained (J. B. R., Trans. Plym. Inst. 1863). The Rev. R. A.
Julian stated that, while Snipe-shooting on Dartmoor, in December 1849,
he saw two of these birds, and a warrener then informed him that many
years ago, in a yery severe winter, he destroyed eight of them in one week
(* Naturalist,’ 1851, p. 58). A male in the second year’s plumage was
shot by a keeper at Slapton Ley, November Ist, 1875, whilst in the act of
taking a Coot (R. P. N., Zool. 1876, p. 4761). This specimen is in the
possession of Sir Lydstone Newman, Bart.

The Marsh-Harrier is said to be an occasional visitor to Lundy Island
(Trans. Devon. Assoc. vill. p. 309). An adult male was killed on Braun-
ton Marshes, November 3rd, 189U (H. A. Evans, Zool. —- 62), and is
now in the Museum of Westward Ho! College.

The Marsh-Harrier, once very common, is now by far the scarcest of
the three British Harriers in Devonshire. On Dartmoor, where it formerly
nested, we never encountered a single example in the course of many
years’ Snipe-shooting. One frequented the Barnstaple river about 1857,
and on a hot August afternoon, we believe in that year, we saw it fishing
in some shallow pools left by the tide on the wide flat opposite Heanton
Court. It plunged rather awkwardly into the water several times,
but the distance was too great for us to see if it captured any fish. This
bird, which was a fine adult male, frequented the sides of the river for a
considerable time, and we do not think was shot. So rare is this Harrier
in North Devon, that we cannot remember a single example being brought
to the Barnstaple bird-stuffer during a long period of years. Capt. Still, of
the Royal Wilts Militia, writing to us on September 27, 1876, says :—‘* We
have a pair of Marsh-Harriers in the valley near Musbury at the present
time ; they have been there since last winter, and are supposed to have
bred. They seem to lead the wild Ducks a nice dance. They never leave
one particular spot, a belt of white poplars close to the river, except when
in search of food.”

The Marsh-Harrier is now equally as rare in Cornwall and Somerset as
in Devon, but in Dorset it still frequents the salt-marshes between Ware-
ham and Arne (Mansel-Pleydell, ‘ Birds of Dorset’).

Besides feeding on small mammals and birds, the Marsh-Harrier is, as
Lord Lilford informs us, a terrible stealer and devourer of eggs.

Hen-Harrier. Circus cyaneus (Linn.).
[Blue Hawk, Furze-Kite, Vuzz Kitt: Dev.]

Still perhaps a resident; but now for the most part only a casual
visitor, principally in autumn, and of rare occurrence. Adult males are
very seldom met with.

The Furze-Kite, or Blue Furze-Hawk, as it is called in the West, used

142 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

to be a common species on wild rough moorlands in many parts of the
county. It is now so reduced in numbers as to be only occasionally seen,
although we think it still nests on Exmoor and in some of the wilder parts
of North Devon. We have frequently met the Hen-Harrier on Dartmoor ;
and in North Devon it used not to be uncommon on the Braunton Bur-
rows and about the Barnstaple river, but young birds of the year were
more often seen than adults. In the severe winter of 1860-61, an old
male Hen-Harrier, on Lundy Island, appeared to be supporting himself
entirely on the starving Fieldfares. We possess specimens of this Harrier
in all plumages obtained in North Devon. The old male, with his blue hack
and pure white underparts, is a handsome bird, and it is a pretty sight to
see him quartering the ground, like a setter, om the search for his food,
which consists of mice, moles, lizards, and small birds. The Hen-Harrier
is not a powerful bird on wing. One day,as we got over a fence, we came
upon one squatting on the ground immediately beneath; it was very
windy, and the Harrier went off with the wind, rolling and tossing about
in the air in the most uncouth style. On another occasion we saw a
Peregrine, in wantonness, fly at an old male Hen-Harrier, and were then
astonished to see the Harrier make a yery good flight indeed, avoiding
several stoops of his antagonist and eventually shaking him off. The
female Hen-Harrier, as is the case with many raptorial birds, is larger
than the male and is of a brown plumage. One of the many ornitho-
logical problems soived by Col. Montagu was the true relation of the so-
called ‘* Ring-tail” to the Hen-Harrier. By rearing a brood from the
nest, and observing the changes in plumage, the Colonel satisfactorily
proved that the Ring-tail, which was regarded by many of the naturalists
of his day as a distinct species, was only the female bird.

The Hen-Harrier formerly bred in the neighbourhood of Dartmoor. A nest con-
taining three young birds and an addled egg was found by a servant of the Rev. Kerr
Vaughan, at the end of June 1805. ‘Two of the young being reared enabled Montagu
to confirm the specific identity of the Ring-tail and Hen-Harrier (Trans. Linn. Soe. ix.
p. 182; and Orn. Dict., Suppl.). The nest and eggs are said to have been found near
Bovey Tracey (W. W. B. v.v.).

The Hen-Harrier is very scarce near Plymouth. Bolitho received only three speci-
mens in twenty years, viz.:—a female April 1851; a male June 1851 (probably the
same as the one shot at Ashburton in that month and year); and one November 6th,
1855 (MS. Notes). A female was killed there September 20th, 1873 (J. G., Zool. 1873,

3785 ; see also Zool. 1874, p. 5912, for correction of previous note).

An adult male was seen near Kingsbridge, September 27th, 1877, and another there
September llth, 1878 (E. A. 8S. E., MS. Notes). ‘A mature male bird was some
years ago shot on Kernborough Moor, Stokenham, by Mr. Perrot. It passed into the
collection of Mr. Roe, of Gnaton Hall. I have also met with one female” (H. N., MS.
Notes).

puree male was killed at Ashburton, June 12th, 1851 (R. A. J., ‘ Naturalist,’
1851, p. 269). A female was trapped at Haccombe, May Sth, 1871 (J. H. G, Zool.
1871, p. 2679). A pair were shot at Chagford, in 1871 (Pidsley’s B. of Devonshire,
p- 71). Ayoung bird was shot near Taw Head, Dartmoor, Oct. 10, 1877, by Mr. E. G.
Langley. A female occurred at Torquay in 1851 (E. B., Zool. 1851, p. 8234), and
another, which was obtained at Dawlish the same year, is in the Torquay Museum.

There are several specimens of this bird in the A. M. M. killed near Exeter. A nearly
adult male was shot on the coast near Exmouth in September 1841 (F. W. L. R., Ms.

a pc _— ee
TR

ils an

vr
- ib,

Pl

MONTAGU’S HARRIER.

Adele Male avid Black

ty.

vartle

ed

FALCONIDA. 143

Journ. iii. p.18). A young female was killed near Exeter in December 1875, and one on
Black Hill near Exmouth in January 1888.

An adult male occurred at Barnstaple in April 1866. Another was seen on
Braunton Marshes in November 1874, pursued by a Peregrine; and another male
was obtained there, January 7th, 1875; two other specimens occurred there, November
15th, 1875 (M. A. M., Zool. 1875, p. 4297; 1876, p. 4759). One was obtained at
Heanton, near Barnstaple, in December 1889 (J. G. H., Zool. 1890, p. 108).

We are informed by Lord Lilford that he saw an adult female Hen-Harrier nailed
up to a “keeper’s tree” at Tetcott, in North Devon, in November 1869, which had
been killed some ten days before. He also, at various times, saw several birds of this
species, one an old male, on wing in the same neighbourhood, always in November or
December.

_ Dr. Edward Moore says:—“ Mr. Drew has a specimen which appears to be a variety
of the male; it is similar in size and shape; but the whole of the plumage is of the
‘pitch or brownish black’ of Syme’s nomenclature of colour. The bird was shot by a
gamekeeper of G. Leach, Esq., who declared that the female which he afterwards kilied
on the nest with two young ones was of the same colour” (Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837)
Perhaps these birds belonged to the melanic race of the next species.

Montagu’s Harrier. Circus cineraceus (Mont.).
[The Ash-coloured Falcon of Montagu. |

A casual visitor, occurring not unfrequently, especially on the south-
western part of Dartmoor and in its neighbourhood. It is usually seen in
spring and summer, and has been known to breed on several occasious.
It does not appear to have been met with in this county later in the year
than October.

This is, without doubt, the commonest of the three species of Harrier in
the West Country, and is more numerous the nearer one approaches the
Land’s End district. Mr. Rodd called it ‘‘a common species in Cornwall,”
and Mr. Cecil Smith considered it to be more common in Somerset than
the Hen-Harrier. It was not rare in North Devon from 1856-60, the
period when we were constantly on the Barnstaple river on the look-out
for wildfowl. In September we have seen four or five in one day in the
salt-marshes adjoining the Taw, and many immature specimens in the red
plumage were at times brought to the Barnstaple bird-stuffer.

We one day came across the dead body of a male in a keeper’s trap in
a small cover near Barnstaple. The poor bird was drenched with rain,
and had so beaten its feathers in its efforts to escape, that it was beyond
making into a skin. We have scen a pair of this Harrier on Exmoor in
May. Mr. M. F. Bisset, who was for so long a time the popular master
of the Devon and Somerset Staghounds, had a nest of this Harrier with
the young and two old birds preserved at Bagborough House. They had
been taken by his keeper at Pixton Park, Dulverton, when he resided
there. A nest with young was taken on the Blackdown Hills, near
Taunton, and the young birds were presented to the Zoological Gardens
in London, where, however, they received scant honour, for a gentleman
who was interested in their welfare, on visiting the Gardens a month or
two after they had been received, found the last survivor minus a tail ina
Blackbird’s cage in a remote part of the grounds, where only rubbish was

144 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

kept. One would have supposed that indigenous specimens of a very
interesting bird deserved better treatment. In the Natural History
Museum at South Kensington there is a nest and a pair of old birds of
this Harrier from Dorsetshire, and Mr. Mansel-Pleyde]l has recorded a
nest which was discovered in a clover-field at Winterbourne Kingston, on
24th June, 1887, in which were four eggs, of a bluish-white elo with
a few indistinct red spots and streaks (‘ Zoologist,’ 1887, p. 465).

An old keeper, with whom we formerly shot Snipe at Shapwick, on the
Mid-Somerset turf-moors, in describing to us the different birds he came
across in his early days, made us feel certain that Montagu’s Harrier used
to occur, and probably nested, in that strange district.

Although presenting a superficial resemblance to the preceding species,
this Harrier is somewhat smaller, and may at once be known by its longer
wings, reaching, when closed, almost to the extremity of the tail; whereas
in the Hen-Harrier the wings do not extend within some two inches of the
end of the tail when folded. The flight of Montagu’s Harrier is in con-
sequence more buoyant, so much so that it almost resembles a large Tern
when on wing. The adult male may also be readily distinguished by the
pretty chestnut bar which extends across the underside of the wings,
which in the Hen-Harrier are pure white beneath,

Black varieties of the various Harriers are sometimes met with. There
is one of this Harrier in the Exeter Museum from Lyme Regis, in Dor-
setshire. Mr. Elliot, of Tresillian, Kingsbridge, had another in his fine
collection of birds which was shot by a farmer in his neighbourhood. This
black example furnishes an instance of the narrow escapes often sustained
by valuable specimens of rare birds. Mr. Edmund Elliot has informed us
that after it was shot (in September 1846) it was thrown away, and some
time after the farmer, coming into Kingsbridge, told Mr. Nicholls, the bird-
preserver, that he had shot a “‘ black Hawk.” On surprise being expressed
at his account of the bird, and a reward being offered for its discovery , it
was searched for, but it was not until a fortnight later it was pidked ‘up
among the cliffs near Prawle Point and brought i in, when it was with great
difficulty preserved and made into a presentable specimen.

Montagu’s Harrier feeds on moles, mice, lizards, slow-worms, insects,
birds’ eggs, &c. A viper appears to be a favourite dainty, for Mr. E. H.
Rodd has related that, when every other bait failed, a trap on which was
placed a viper proved fatal to one of these harmless and interesting
birds.

A few years since we were informed by Mr. H. Nicholls, of Kings-
bridge, that Montagu’s Harrier nested annually on the coast between Bolt
Head and Bolt Tail. In June 1876 he had occasion to visit the downs
between those two headlands in search of a scarce and local blue butter-
fly (Lycena arion), and twice observed a pair of Montagu’s Harrier
quartering the ground, and since then a female has been shot at this very
locality.

Montagu discriminated this species in 1802, from a male killed in
winter in Wiltshire, and named it the Ash-coloured Falcon (Trans. Linn.
Soc, ix. p. 188), and in the following year he examined a specimen recently

FALCONID.E. | 145

shot near Kingsbridge on the 10th August. This Harrier was first found
breeding in 1808 by the gamekeeper of Mr. Templer, of Stover, who shot
both sexes from the nest, and took three young ones at the same time.
A nest was also found in a furze-brake by Dr. Tucker, of Ashburton, in
July 1808, which contained three young ones and an addled egg. In the
following year that gentleman found another nest amongst furze on a
hill near Ashburton, and two young ones were taken from it, and the
female shot. On the 23rd May, 1808, Montagu himself saw a pair in
South Devon (Orn. Dict., Szppl.). A pair are supposed to have bred in
1868 near Barnstaple, and several of the young and the old birds were
shot (G. F. M., Zool. 1868, p. 1460).

Mr. Gatcombe says that the young are not unfrequently seen on the moors near
Plymouth, but that adults are rare. An adult male killed at Trowlesworthy, Dart-
moor, on April 13, 1872, had fourteen lizards of two species in its crop (Zool. 1872,
pp- 3100, 3273). An adult female shot at Kingsbridge, 14th May, 1847, had one
entire egg of the Sky-Lark, and shells of other small birds’ eggs in its stomach (H. N.,
Zool. 1847. p. 1805). Montagu’s Harrier has frequently occurred on the coast between
the Bolt Head and Bolt Tail, and probably stiil breeds on the Downs there (H. N.).
A pair were trapped at Brushworthy Rabbit-warren, Dartmoor, in October 1830

R. A. J., ‘ Naturalist,’ 1851, p. 58); one was obtained at Plymouth, May 24th, 1861
(J. B. R., Trans. Plym. Inst. 1862-63). An adult ma'e was trapped at Killerton, near
Exeter, in May 1866. One occurred at Netherton Hall, near Honiton, in June 1566
(J. B. R., MS. Notes). Two were shot on Bovey Heath, in the summer of 1866 (E. P.,
Trans. Devon. Assoe. viii. p. 260); they are in the possession of Mr. Hole at Bovey,
and the male is melanistiv. A pair trapped at North Tawton, at end of July 1867,
were seen by us in the flesh. An adult male, shot at Christow, in May 1870, is in the
A.M.M. A female was obtained at Plymouth, May 1871, and an adult male at
Trowlesworthy, Dartmoor, April 13, 1872 (J. G., Zool. 1871, p. 2638; 1872, p. 3100).
Another female at Kingsbridge, 1876 (H. M., Zool. 1876, p. 5179). Au adult male, in
Mr. Henry Nicholis’s collection, was shot on Horsewell Ley, Thurlestone. A female
was trapped at Stoke Wood, near Exeter (R. C.). Two males occurred at Chudleigh
in the autumn of 1879(W.B.). A fine male, in full adult plumage, in the Museum
of Westward Ho! College, wasshot near Barnstaple, as recently as the summer of IS9L.
Montagu’s Harrier oceasionally visits Lundy Island (Trans. Devon. Assoc. viii. p. 3)").

The black variety of this species has occurred several times in Devon. A black inale
was shot on the cliffs at Prawle Point in September 1846. It passed into the collection
of the late Mr. J. Elliot, of Tresillian House, Kingsbridge (H. N., ‘ Zoologist,’ 1847,
p. 1807, and MS. Notes). An adult pair of this melanie race were obtained in North
Devon early in May 1870 (J. H. G., Zool. 1870, p. 2260) ; and the late Mr. W. Brodrick
informed us that two specimens obtained at Lustleigh are in the possession of an inn-
keeper there. A specimen supposed to be a female, and said to Hate been killed with
several others of the same variety near Lyme Regis, is in the A. M. M.

On account of its close connection with Col. Montagu, we have chosen this [Harrier
as the subject of one of our Plates, and have given an illustration of an Adult Male
and also of the Melanic Variety.

Buzzard. Buteo vulgaris, Leach.
(Kit, Kitt, Keet, Kite, Black Kite (I. D.), Eagle: Dev.]

Resident, and not uncommon about the clitfs of the sea-coast, in wild
uncultivated localities, and in wooded districts throughout the county. It
is, however, most plentiful in autumn and spring, when there is an

L

146 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

immigration from other countries, small parties of from three to five being
often seen in the neighbourhood of Dartmoor and Exmoor.

Although in constantly diminishing numbers, this fine bird still main-
tains a residence in the county, being still frequently met with on the

north coast and on the skirts of Exmoor. Mr. James Turner informed us
that, in his staghunting days, he used to see numbers of Common Buzzards
in the Forest, where it was, with the exception of the Kestrel, the com-
monest of all the Hawks. One day in September 1876, he saw four
perched together in an oak tree in Horner Wood, near Porlock. Common
Buzzards used to be plentiful in the neighbourhood of Lynton, where we
have seen five or six in the air at one time in the Valley of Rocks, and
have found a nest in the Castle Rock. Trapping has greatly reduced their
numbers since then ; many have found their way to the Barnstaple bird-
stuffer, who, in some seasons, must have had to deal with at least a score
of specimens. Recently, at Lfracombe, in the bird-stuffer’s shop, we saw
several Buzzards mounted as screens, and were told that they were still
pretty common and could be procured when wanted. The Braunton
Burrows have witnessed the destruction of numerous Buzzards, or *“ Black
Kites,’’ as the warrener and his men used to call them. Coming to the
warren after the young rabbits, the birds were easily trapped. We used
to see a few Buzzards on the skirts of Dartmoor, and twenty years ago
there was a nest annually in the wooded defile of the Teign, near Fingle
Bridge, and another in the romantic glen of the North Teign, in Gidleigh
Park, a little to the west of Chagford.

As a rule, the Buzzard is rarely seen in cultivated parts of the country,
being a lover of wild moors, the cliffs, and woodlands. There is no bird
which varies more in its plumage, and we have seen them in all stages of
from pure albino to almost black. A very beautiful example, almost per-
fectly white all over, was one summer sent in from the neighbourhood of
Lynton alive, and very slightly injured, having been caught in a trap by one
of its toes. We made a good offer for it, wishing to have it as a pet—
the Common Buzzard is extremely docile in confinement—but, alas! its
doom was “to be killed and stuffed,’ and a few weeks later we saw it
mounted, and a sad caricature of its former gracefulself. Mr. W. Brodrick
had a large collection of varieties—some ginger, some pied, brown and
white, and one aremarkably dark one, almost black. Buzzards are fond
of soaring in large circles at a great elevation, and, when migrating in
flocks, do so at so great a height that they can only be known by their
cries us they pass over. Col, Montagu thought that the soaring of the
Buzzard was restricted to the nesting-season ; at other times it is sluggish
on wing, and rarely takes a long flight.

“The Common Buzzard,” writes Mr. J. Turner, “ next to the Kestrel,
which is very common, is really the Hawk oftener seen than any other on
Exmoor, It seems to be about always in couples, and, go to what part of
the moor you like, a pair can always be seen, though the woody sides of the
Barle Valley seem to afford them the most suitable locality. The Horner
coverts have a pair or two. I saw two pairs sitting in one oak tree in

FALCONID.E. 147

that fine old covert whilst riding quietly through this autumn ” (¢n litt.
Oct. 16, 1876).

The Buzzard preys chiefly on young hares and rabbits and feathered
game ; also on carrion, worms, and beetles, and Mr. Cecil Smith found a
quantity of earwigs in the stomach of one which he dissected. An egg of
the Common Buzzard was once presented to us by a Raven. As we
turned the corner of a cliff, we came close upon a Raven with an egg in
its beak, which it left as it made off, and which we found to be a fresh-
laid Buzzard’s egg.

The Buzzard breeds on precipices of the sea-cliffs and on trees in woods ;
on the sea-cliffs near Plymouth (R. A. J., ‘ Naturalist,’ 1853, p. 118) ;
also on the Bolt Head (R. P. N.). There was a nest at Dartmouth in
1857 ; and the bird has also bred in Halwell Wood, near Kingsbridge
(E. A. 8. E.). A pair were killed close to their nest near Plymouth in
May 1874; and a pair are said to nest in the woods of Kelly, on the banks
of the Tamar (J. G., Zool. 1874, p. 4227; 1878, p. 483). A pair bred at
Lustleigh in 1871 (J. H. G., Zool. 1871, p. 2764). There was also.a
nest at Stackhole Bay, near Bolt Head, in May 1881; but a keeper shot
the male, and destroyed the nest and three young (E. A. 8. E.). The
Common Buzzard breeds occasionally on Lundy Island (Trans. Devon.
Assoc, Vill. p. 309).

Lord Lilford informs us that he assisted, with the late Rev. Courtenay
Bulteel, at the taking of a young bird and an egg of the Common Buzzard
from a cliff on the coast near Wembury in 1855. He frequently saw
single birds, or pairs, near Ilfracombe in 1861, and in the neighbourhood
of Dartmouth in 1873, 1876, 1880, 1881, 1882, and 1883.

Rough-legged Buzzard. <Archibuteo lagopus (Gmel.).

A casual visitor during the winter months, of rare occurrence.

The Rough-legged Buzzard is only a winter visitor at very uncertain
intervals to the 8.W. counties, but a sufficient number of instances have
occurred to remove it from the category of our greatest rarities. Indeed,
whenever an unusually large migration of this bird visits the north-eastern
and eastern coasts of the island, a few out of the number contrive to
wander on across the breadth of the kingdom ; and this is found to be the
case with respect to other migrants which are usually confined to the
Eastern Counties. When but a few examples are obtained in these last,
the West will not be favoured with a single visitant; but should it be a
great season in Norfolk for Rough-legged Buzzards, Waxwings, &e., then
the eyes of West-Country ornithologists are gladdened by the sight of one
or two stragglers of these seldom-seen rarities. When he resided at
Ilfracombe, Mr. W. Brodrick received a Rough-legged Buzzard which had
been trapped on the Braunton Burrows. ‘This was in December 1855,
He kept the bird alive until the following June, when he set it at liberty.
Shortly afterwards he heard from a friend in South Wales that a Rough-
legged Buzzard had been shot in his neighbourheod, which was probably

LZ

148 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

this very bird. In the winter of 1875 quite a flight of Rough-legged
Buzzards visited this county, and two were obtained on the skirts of
Exmoor. About Christmas in that year a very dark example was trapped
in North Devon, which is in our possession. At first we regarded it as
an example of the North-American subspecies, Archibuieo sancti-johannis,
which is often obtained in an almost black plumage ; but the late Mr. J. H.
Gurney, who examined the bird, informed us that it was a remarkably
fine melanism of the European Archibuteo lagopus, and was much interested
in it, subsequently describing it in the ‘ Ibis’ (see ‘ Ibis’ for 1876, p. 374).
According to this excellent authority, melanistic varieties of the Rough-
legged Buzzard are extremely rare, and, this being the case, we have
selected this bird for illustration, especially as Mr. Gurney wrote to us,
‘Your Buzzard is a splendid specimen, and I believe very nearly, if not
quite, unique.” As in other dark examples of the Buzzard, the almost
black feathers are “strongly tinged with purplish reflections,” to quote
from Mr. J. H. Gurney’s description.

Rough-legged Buzzards were again numerous in England in the winter
of 1876-77, and two were recorded from Devonshire, one in the north, and
the other in the south of the county. Lord Lilford believes that the
abundance or scarcity of the Rough-legged Buzzard in the West of Europe
depends entirely upon the Lemmings. This present year (1891) has been
a great season for these little animals in Scandinavia, and during the
antumn Lord Lilford received two live Rough-legged Buzzards from
Holland ; another was offered to him, which had been caught alive in his
own county (Northants), and he had heard of the occurrence of several in
the Eastern Counties, as well as of one in his own immediate neighbour-
hood (Lord L., in litt.. November 26th, 1891).

There was a specimen of this Buzzard at Pincomhe’s, and another, shot in November
1836 at Egg Buckland, near Plymouth, was in Drew’s collection (E. M., Mag. Nat.
Hist. 1857, p. 113; and Rowe’s Peramb. Dartmoor, p. 252). Two are said to have
been obtained on Dartmoor, one of them about 1848. Two were obtained on Exmoor,
in October or November, 1875; and another in the winter of 1876-77 (M. A. M., Zool.
1875, p. 4720; 1876, pp. 4814, 4870: 1877, p. 104; and J. H. G., Zool. 1876, p. 4901).
One was shot, and another seen, at Ditsworthy warren, Dartmoor, January 31, 1877
(J. G., Zool. 1877, p. 163). A female trapped on Dartmoor, near Lustleigh, March 28,
1883, is in the possession of Mr. W. Vicary, of Newton Abbot (‘ Field’ for April 28th,
1883; Trans. Devon. Assoc. 1884, p. 71).

A few examples of this Buzzard have been procured in Somerset and Dorset, but it
is apparently extremely rare in Cornwall, which is beyond the limit of its western
range.

THE EAGLES.
However great our ambition might be to claim the larger
birds of prey as residents in Devonshire in by-gone years,
if not in the present, we are compelled to own that no-

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FALCONID.E. 149

where in the South-west are there to be found precipices
of sufficient ruggedness and grandeur to be worthy of the
Mountain Eagle’s eyrie. Dartmoor and Exmoor are downs
with rounded ridges, which run in succession like the heads
of billows, only here and there crowned on the former with
some fantastic blocks of granite, hardly offering space
enough to support the massive structure of the Eagle’s nest.
Along the coast there were, no doubt, a few eyries of the
Erne, especially on spots frequented by Razorbills, Her-
ring-Gulls, and other cliff-nesting birds which provided its
daily meals. ‘Tradition claims for the Dewerstone Rock,
near Plymouth, and also for Lundy Island, with much
probability, that they were formerly each of them occupied
by a pair of White-tailed Eagles. In spite cf their size
and splendid flight, the position awarded to Eagles by
the .poets would hardly be acknowledged by the falconer,
who looks upon them only as large Buzzards, not to be
compared in courage and dash with his favourite Falcons,
nor by the modern man of science, who regards other
characters as of more importance in classification than
strength and ferocity.

[Spotted Eagle. Aguila clanga, Pallas.

The Eagle whose plumage has obtained for it the above name is the
young of one which, 1n its adult stage, is like a Golden Eagle in miniature,
and has been described by ornithologists who have observed it in Central
Europe as having many of the habits of the Common Buzzard. In the
winter of 1858, Mr. Spencer Heaven, of Lundy Island, in turning a corner
of the cliffs, came suddenly on an Eagle engaged in devouring a rabbit, and
having a gun with him fired at it, when the bird, in its death-struggles,
rolled over the edge of the cliff, and, falling into the sea below, could not
be recovered. From some feathers which were picked up it was con-
cluded that this bird was a Spotted Hagle in the same stage of plumage as
two very fine examples soon alter obtained in Cornwall, which also
occurred in the winter—the first on 4th Dec., 1860, shot in the east of
Cornwall, not very far from the Devonshire boundary, at Hawk’s Wood,
the property of Francis Rodd, Ksq., of Trebartha. ‘This beautiful bird was
presented to the collection of his uncle, the late Mr. E. H. Rodd, of Pen-

150 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

zance, and on the death of that gentleman came, with the rest of his
birds, back to Trebartha, where it is still preserved. The month of
November, in the following year, produced the second example of this
Kagle, which was shot in the Parish of St. Mawgan, near St. Columb, and
was gorged with horse-flesh when killed. It is now in the Truro Museum,
where we have seen it, and is as fine a specimen as the first. |

[Golden Eagle. Aquila chrysaétus (Linn.).

A casual visitor, of very doubtful occurrence. Dr. Edward Moore writes
of this species in his “ List of Dartmoor Birds,” in the Appendix to Rowe’s
‘ Perambulation of Dartmoor’ (1st ed. p. 232), as follows :—‘* The Golden
Hagle has been associated traditionally with Dartmoor, and Mr. Gosling,
of Leigham, who was well acquainted with the subject, informed me that
there was an old-standing report that its nest was formerly known on the
Dewerstone.” Prof. Newton, however, considers that the Eagles seen there
were of the White-tailed species (Yarrell’s B. Birds, 4th ed.i. p. 27). The
Golden Eagle is included amongst occasional visitors to Lundy Island, but
probably in error (Trans. Devon. Assoc. iv. p. 605; viii. p. 308). ]

White-tailed Eagle. aliaétus albicilla (Linn.).

A casual visitor, of occasional occurrence.

This noble bird is now only a straggler to our county, where it once
used to nest. Most of the examples met with at the present day occur in
the autumn and winter, and are young birds of the year on their passage
south. In our youth we often visited a tame White-tailed Eagle which
was kept chained in a small garden in Barnstaple, which had been
captured in the neighbourhood. Several have been seen at different times
on the north coast of Devon, near Ilfracombe, and Mr. G. Mathias, of that
town, on more than one oceasion, when out shooting in the winter of
1860, got close to one which, for a month or two, frequented the ad-
jacent coast, and, greatly to his credit, refrained from killing it. In the
collection of Dr. Woodforde, of Taunton, there was an example of a young
White-tailed Eagle, which was caught alive at Holsworthy, and then
carried about the country for exhibition. It died at Taunton, where the
Doctor purchased it from its possessor.

We have a photograph of a very fine example which was shot near
Tiverton in 1887. We have seen four or five specimens of the White-
tailed Eagle which had been shot at various dates on the coast between
Minehead and Bridgwater. One cf these was a very fine adult, and was
purchased for £10 by an American gentleman residing in Taunton, who
kept it in a handsome case at the foot of his bed, saying it was “his
national bird ;” while the star-spangled banner waved from the wall above
his head! White-tailed Eagles are occasionally seen on Exmoor, Two
years ago a pair frequented the Quantocks in West Somerset, at the
beginning of the year, and frightened the farmers by carrying off their

FALCONID.A. Pot

lambs. These birds were seen by some friends of ours when out with
the hounds, on several occasions, and appear to have gone off uninjured.

Specimens of the White-tailed Eagle are very often recorded as Golden
Eagles, and we have ourselves detected them as incorrectly labelled with
the name of that bird, which only through stress or accident wanders away
from its mountain fastness. Col. Montagu wrote :—‘t We have had two
or three specimens of Ossifraga {the name he gave to the immature Sea-
Eagle} sent to us for the Chrysaetos.” The points of distinction between
the two species are so great that it is surprising any confusion can arise
between them, and that this mistake should so continually recur. The
best and simplest of these differences are the feathered tarsi of the Golden
Hagle, and the bare tarsi of the Sea-Eagle. Ifyou have an Eagle with
feet feathered like a Grouse, then you may be positive that your bird is
not a Sea-Eagle, and may, probably, be a Golden Eagle.

The Sea-Eagle was, in all likelihood, the species which bred at the
Dewerstone Rock on the Plym, near Plymouth, as already mentioned
under the Golden Eagle. Polwhele, in his ‘ History of Devonshire’ (vol. i.
chap. vi. p. 101), mentions a “ black Eagle” as formerly having a nest in
the woods of Eggesford (a corruption of Eaglesford ?)*, and states it to
have been frequently seen on the Moor. Probably it was the present
species, or, more likely still, a Common Buzzard, in old days often called
*the Eagle” in Devonshire, though Polwhele speaks of its having the basal
part of the tail white, as in the young of the Golden Eagle, apparently
not from his own observation, but following Pennant.

Dr. E. Moore records “a specimen caught near the Eddystone, which
was kept alive some years by the late Addis Archer, Esy., at Leigham,
near Plymouth. In the summer of 1832 one was frequently seen by the
gentlemen of the hunt, hovering over Dartmoor, and in October of that
year a fine specimen, probably the same, was shot near Kingsbridge by
W. Elliot, Esq., in whose possession it still remains” (Mag. Nat. Hist.
1837). Mr. Edmund A. §$. Elliot informs us that amongst the birds
of prey collected by his late father, Mr. J. Elliot of Kingsbridge, is a bird
of this species, which was obtained by him in the flesh from a man who
shot it in Halwell Wood. This was in the year 1832, and the specimen
is, without doubt, the same as that mentioned by Dr. Moore as above.

One shot in 1834, near Bridestowe, was in Drew's collection (KE. M.,
op. cit.). A specimen was captured alive at Holsworthy, North Devon,
its feet having become entangled in a furze bush, and was brought alive to
Exeter, where it was exhibited for some time by its captors. We saw
this bird in January 1856, and recorded its occurrence in the ‘ Zoologist ’
for May 1856, p. 5096. One, in immature plumage, was killed by

* Lord Portsmouth suggests that, possibly, Eggesford may be derived from ece/esia,
owing to some ancient church or chapel being situated at that place, and instances
Heclescliffe, on the borders of Yorkshire and Durham, now called Eaglescliffe. Mr. FP.
Edmunds, in ‘ Traces of History in the names of Places,’ says: ‘‘ Eggesford (Devon),
the ford of Egga, the owner's name” In a Saxon document relating to Crediton in
the British Museum, Cotton Roll 11. 11, the name of Ethelgar, Bishop of Crediton, 1s
written Edger and Eyger.

152 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

Mr. Snow, of Oare, on the borders of Devon, a few years before 1874, and
was recorded in ‘ Science Gossip ’ (1872, pp. 115, 116 ; 1874, pp. 214, 283)
as a Golden Eagle (C. 8., Zool. 1875, p. 4334). Two were shot near
Tiverton in 1887, the last of them on 27th December ; it weighed 10 lbs.
(Trans. Devon. Assoc. vol. xx. p. 40, 1888). An Eagle, probably of this
species, was seen on Dartmoor in May and June, 1891, and an immature
female was trapped at Dartmouth in the autumn of that year (J. B. R.).
The White-tailed Eagle is included amongst occasional visitors to
Lundy Island, and is said to have formerly bred there (Trans. Devon.
Assoc, iv. p. 695, and viii. p. 308; Harting’s Handbook of B. Birds, p. 3).
The White-tailed Eagle, according to Mr. E. H. Rodd, has been met
with but very rarely of recent years in Cornwall, and all the specimens
reported] were in immature plumage. One was killed at Carnekey, in the
parish of Kilkhampton, on the north coast, close to Devonshire, Novem-
ber 9th, 1844. It has occurred a few times in recent years in Dorset.

[Gos-Hawk. Astur palumbarius (Linn.).

The occurrence of this bird in Deyon is very doubtful. It appears to
have been admitted into the Devonshire Fauna on the authority of Dr.
Tucker, of Ashburton, who includes it in a ** List of some rare Land-Birds
which have been discovered in the neighbourhood of Ashburton,” in Jones’s
‘Guide to the Scenery,’ 1823, and of his sons, who enumerate it in a
“ List of Dartmoor Birds” in ‘Carrirgton’s Dartmoor,’ 1826, p. Ixxix.
Dr. Edward Moore, in his “ List of Birds of Devonshire,” in Mag. Nat.
Hist. n.s. vol. i. March 1837, observes :—‘‘ Found on Dartmoor, vide
Carrington’s Poem ‘ Dartmoor.’ A nest was seen by Bolitho of Devonport
at South Tawton, and one of the old birds was wounded, but escaped.” But
in his “ List of the Birds of Dartmoor,” in the appendix to Rowe's ‘ Peram-
bulation,’ 1st ed. 1848, p. 229, he says, ‘seen on the Moor. A specimen
at Bolitho’s was shot on the nest near South Tawton in 1830.”

The Gos-Hawk very rarely indeed, if ever, visits the South-western
Counties, and we do not know any collection which possesses a specimen,
However, it will not do to pass the bird over without notice, since Dr.
Edward Moore has related, as quoted above, that a Gos-Hawk’s nest existed
at South Tawton on the borders of the Forest in 1830, and that one of
the birds was shot upon the nest. This bird was taken to Bolitho, the
bird-preserver of Plymouth, and was sold by him to a Col. Burton. When
interrogated by Mr. J. Gatcombe, Bolitho insisted that he had had a
Gos-Hawk to stuff many years ago, and that he saw another hanging up
in a gamekeeper’s “larder” a few years since, which was too far decayed
to do anything with. In his Nat. Hist. of 8. Devon, Bellamy has re-
corded the occurrence of a young Gos-Hawk near Falmouth, in August
1858, and says ‘‘ it probably breeds on the coast” (!).

Now we are pretty confident that no dependence is to be placed on theso
stories, ard that the Gos-Hawk’s nest mentioned above was, perhaps, that of
a Sparrow-Hawk, the female having been mistaken for the larger and rarer
species. Mr. Gatcombe suggests that this Devonshire Gos-Hawk may have

FALCONIDA. 153

been a female Peregrine with a strongly barred breast. But we are
inclined to assent to an explanation which has been offered by Lord Lilford,
who has little doubt that a confusion has arisen between the ‘ Gorse-
Hawk,” one of the provincial names of the Hen-Harrier, and Gos-Hawk ;
and that this confusion has occasioned the mistake.

In old days no hawking establishment was complete without one or two
trained Gos-Hawks, which were used to fly at ground-game, thus varying
the sport to be enjoyed with the Peregrines and Merlins, whose quarry
was always killed in the air. ‘he Gos-Hawks thus made themselves of
use in capturing the food-supply of the other, nobler Hawks, which they
were expected to maintain, and, on this account, were commonly termed
*‘ the Cooks,” as we have been informed by the Rev. W. Willimott, who
is a great admirer of the Gos-Hawk. In the present revival of hawking
a good many Gos-Hawks are kept for taking rabbits; the trained bird
follows the started rabbit swiftly over the ground and, coming up with it,
seizes it by the head and throat with its powerful talons, and holds it
until the attendant comes up. The Gos-Hawks employed are captured in
Germany for the purpose. |

Sparrow-Hawk. Accipiter nisus (Linn.).

Resident, generally distributed in wooded districts, and tolerably
numerous, although much persecuted. Breeds. The Sparrow-Hawk
seems formerly to have been the most abundant species of Hawk in
Levonshire. Hooker (16th cent.) says, when enumerating the principal
birds of Devon :—‘* likewise for Hawkes of all kinds great store and
abundance ; which the Sparrow Hawke in this county is the chiefest”
(Portledge MS. p. 6).

Ovid gave an apt description of the life of a Sparrow-Hawk in a few
words, when he wrote of it “ semper vivit in arms.’ There is no Hawk
on our British list which is more fierce, or more untamable. than this
feathered Ishmaelite. The old Greek poet, in some magnificent lines,
declared that all living things might be subdued by human influence, but
the Sparrow-Hawk is nearly the exception. Although there have been
falconers who, with infinite patience, have brought Sparrow-Hawks into
some degree of training, and have actually had flights with them, yet the
majority of men would svon give over so Weary a task as that of attempting
to tame the untamable. The Sparrow-Hawk is ready to fly at anything ;
but a Blackbird is, perhaps, his favourite quarry, although any small bird
will serve him for a meal. It is of the cock we are now speaking. ‘The
hen Sparrow-Hawk is a far more formidable bird, and there is none more
to be dreaded by the game-preserver, as she is more deadly than the
Peregrine, and has the strength to carry off Partridges, young Pheasants,
and tame Pigeons; and when she has once tasted the last, she will return
again and again “ to flutter the dove-cots.” Mr. Cecil Smith even relates an
instance where a hen Sparrow-Hawk was seen to knock a cock Pheasant
off his roost, and was proceeding to make short work with him when the

154 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

keeper shot her. But it is a curious fact that this dangerous bird is
seldom seen, even in districts where Sparrow-Hawks are still comparatively
plentiful. A dozen male Sparrow-Hawks may be met with to one female.
These stronger and larger birds, decidedly the better halves of the Sparrow-
Hawk family, for they are fully one third as large again as their mates,
have a way of keeping out of sight, and very often some other large
Hawk (a Peregrine, a Buzzard, or a Harrier) is charged with the damage of
which a female Sparrow-Hawk, keeping close in some thick fir-plantation,
is the real author. Captain Shelley and Mr. Cavendish Taylor have
noticed in Egypt the same fact of the preponderance of males in the case
of the Merlin, sometimes counting thirty male birds to one female. The
Sparrow-Hawk takes its prey by swooping low above the ground,
skimming, like a Grouse, over every rise and fall, that it may come upon
its victim unawares; so that one of Sam Weller’s immortal mots, ‘ V'll be
with you in a minute, as the Sparrow-Hawk said when he heard the
Robin singing round the corner,” is very true to life.

One day, when shooting on the Braunton Burrows, we stooped down to
whistle some Golden Plovers passing over, when a cock Sparrow-Hawk,
deceived by our voice, skimmed suddenly over the ridge of sand just above
and, on discovering his mistake, made off in great haste and alarm. We
have had these bold birds carry off our dead 7'ringe right under our nose,
after we had fired a shot on the sands. The male Sparrow-Hawk, in his
pursuit of the Blackbird, follows it in headlong flight through the bushes
in which the quarry vainly seeks refuge. One seuson we were annoyed
by a Sparrow-Hawk’s persistently working a small marsh below our house,
and striking down every Teal and Snipe as the birds dropped in, carrying
the Snipe always to a small stile in one of the covers to eat them at leisure,
where we were disgusted to find the ground beneath littered with Snipe-
feathers. Sparrow-Hawks sometimes devote themselves for a time ex-
clusively to Wood-Pigeons, striking them off their perches on the trees ;
and will continue to do this until they have destroyed every bird coming
to a plantation to roost. A young male Sparrow-Hawk, one out of a
brood we were vainly attempting to train, one day nearly murdered one of
Mr. W. Brodrick’s favourite Falcons, of which we had the temporary
charge, as she was sitting on our gloved hand to cat her dinner. We
chanced to be standing sufficiently near the bow-perch, on which the young
Hawks were seated, to be within distance of the leash of one of them, which,
to our astonishment, suddenly flew up, and caught the Falcon round the
throat with the tight grip of his long feet and claws, and we had some
difficulty in saving the Falcon from being throttled.

In spite of the constant war carried on against it by gamekeepers, the
Sparrow-Hawk is still fairly common in the county, as there are numerous
wild districts, where keepers are few, in which it is able to recruit its
numbers. Its favourite nesting-place is a fir-plantation, where it chooses
some old Crow’s or Magpie’s nest. ‘The plaintive wailing of the young
often betrays the position to the destroyer.

The Sparrow-Hawk sometimes receives considerable accessions to its
numbers in autumn in Western Devon, as in September 1873, and Sep-

FALCONID.£. 155

tember and November 1874 (J. G., Zool. 1873, p. 3783; 1874, p. 4253 ;
1875, p. 4371). SBolitho, the Plymouth bird-stuffer, received tifty-nine
specimens in twenty years between 1852-72. It was most numerous in
1861. An albino killed at Castle Hill, North Devon, June 28th, 1849,
from Mr. R. Cumming’s collection, is now in the A. M. M. An old male
shot November 21st, 1891, between Modbury and Ivybridge, was white
washed over with smoky or dusky colour, especially on the head and
upper wing-coverts near the carpal joint. ‘There were indistinct marks
across the breast and on the under wing-coverts (Rh. P. N.).

Kite. Milvus ictinus, Savigny.
[Fork-tailed Kite. |

A casual visitor, of rare occurrence at the present day. It is said to
have been common in the neighbourhood of Dartmoor at the end of the last
century (T.J., Bray’s ‘ Tamar and Tavy,’ vol. i. p. 346; and E. M., Trans.
Plym. Inst. 1830). Montagu, however, in the Supplement to his ‘ Orni-
thological Dictionary’ (1813), says :—“ In twelve years’ residence in Devon-
shire we never observed but one in the southern district of that county ;”
and in a MS. Note-book for 1798, kindly lent us by the late Rev. John
Hellins, he observes that he had met with “ the Kite rarely” in Devon.
Ju the Church Wardens’ Books of the Parish of Littleham are a few
notices of rewards paid for killing “ Kitts,” which, however, may have
been only Buzzards. ‘1658. Paid for eight Kitts killing ... 1s. 4d.
1664, Paid Ser John Rolle man for killing of Keete. . . 1s. 1674. Paid
John Drake tor killing of Keets . . . 6d.” (Rev. W. Webb, ‘ Memorials of
Exmouth,’ pp. 121, 122, 123). Country people in Devonshire usually call
Buzzards aid, indeed, all large Hawks, ‘* Kitts ”’ or ‘* Keets,” and we believe
that, if the genuine * Fork-tailed Kite” was ever plentiful in this county,
it must haye been a very long time ago. Mr. E. H. Rodd, however, speaks
of it as breeding in King’s Wood, near Holne Chase, on the eastern borders
of Dartmoor, and says no Hawk was better known in the large woodland
districts of the central part of Devon when he was a schoolboy at Buck-
fastleigh (B. of Cornwall, pp. 11, 200; Zool. 1870, p. 1980). If this
was a fact, and not a confusion of memory, it is remarkable that Montagu
should have known nothing about it, though in constant correspondence
with Dr. A. G. Tucker, of Ashburton. which is close to Buckfastleigh and
Holne Chase. ‘Turton and Kingston (183U) say it was “found in the
more wooded parts of the district; rather a scarce bird; makes a nest
with sticks, which it lines with wool.” We suspect this latter piece of
information was copied from Montagu.

But we do not believe that the Kite was at any time as common in
Devonshire, or any of the South-western Counties, as it was formerly in the
Home Counties and in other parts of England. Only one example came
under Col, Montagu’s notice during his residence of twelve years in South
Devon, although, from the manner in which he writes, the Kite was

156 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

evidently no rarity in his time in many districts in the kingdom. We have
only once seen a Kite in North Devon, and this was many years ago, near
Bratton Fleming. “‘The wheeling Kite’s wild solitary cry ” * is now unheard
throughout the South of England. Although Mr. Rodd could remember
its breeding annually in some large woods in Cornwall, it is now as rarely
seen in that county as it isin Devon. Mr. Rodd’s own collection possessed
a fine female shot at Trebartha in 1867, and we have seen a pair of Kites
in the Truro Museum, whick were obtained near Mevagissy, and were
presented to the Museum by Mr. Tremayne, M.P. The Kite is equally
rare in Somerset: we know of one which was trapped at Bagborough,
on the Quantock Hills, and of another, the most recent occurrence in
Somerset of which we have information, in West Coker Wood, near
Yeovil, shot in the spring of 1875, which is now in the Taunton Castle
Museum. A pair of Kites frequented the neighbourhood of Dorchester
in the early summer of 1888, and would probably have nested if one of
the birds had not unfortunately been killed through eating some poisoned
carrion laid down for foxes, when the other bird disappeared (Mansel-
Pleydell, Zool. 1888, p. 267).

‘lhe rapid and almost complete extermination of the Kite in the British
Islands since the introduction of percussion guns and of more general
game-preserving, while many others of the Hawk family, although equally
persecuted, still contrive to hold their own in more or less numbers, seems
to indicate that the Kite is a foolish, blundering bird, less capable of taking
care of itself and of avoiding its enemies ; and by its frequent forays upon
the poultry-yard it more often came in the way of danger. There are
one or two places where the Kite still nests in Wales and Scotland, and it
would be a matter of rejoicing to English ornithologists if this interesting
old English bird, protected in these, its last sanctuaries, might be permitted
once more to extend itself throughout the country.

According to Dr. E. Moore there was a specimen of the Kite caught at Trowles-
worthy Warren, Dartmoor, in 1831, in Capt. Morshead’s collection at Widey ; another
at Saltram; and another in the collection of Mr. Sydenham, a dyer at Plymouth,
which was shot in 1835. Drew and Bolitho each had examples, but at the time Dr.
Moore wrote the Kite was annually becoming more rare (Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837, p. 113;
Rowe’s Peramb. Dartmoor, Ist ed. 1848, p. 229). An adult female was trapped near
Trowlesworthy Rabbit-warren, on Shaugh Moor, near Plymouth, Sept. 17th, 1851, a
pair having been seen there on June 18th previously (R. A. J., ‘ Naturalist,’ 1852, p. 7).
This female was probably the specimen which was in the collection of Rey. C. Bulteel,
and passed into the possession of Mr. Richard Andrew, of Modbury. One occurred at
Dartmouth, Dee. 1852. An old male was shot at Weeke, in the parish of Loddiswell,
on the bank of the Avon, whilst feeding on a dead sheep, Sunday, Oct. 13th, 1862, by
Mr. Adams, who was on his way to church, but returned home for his gun, This
bird was in the collection of the late Mr. John Elliot, of Tresillian House, Kings-
bridge (H. N., Zool. 1863, p, 8325; J. B. R., Trans. Plym. Inst. 1862-63, p. 53;
E. A.S. E., in litt.). A male shot on the cliffs adjoining the sea at Coulton, Kingswear,
by Mr. Bastard in March 1864, is in the collection of Mr. Henry Nicholls, at, Kings-
bridge (H. N., MS. Notes; Zool. 1864, p. 9039). One was seen by Mr. E. A.S. Elliot,
between Bolbury and Hope, near Kingsbridge, March 19th, 1888.

A pair shut in Yarner Wood are now in the possession of Mr. Watts of Forde House,

* Keble, ‘ Christian Year,’ XXth S. after Trinity.

FALCONID.E. 157

Newton Abbot (W. R. H. J., Trans. Devon. Assoc. 1874, p. 709). Kites are said to
have been seen in December 1830 at Newton Abbot, and near Chagford in May 1890
(R. M. J. Teil, ‘ Field’ Dec. 11th, 1850, and May 24th, 1890).

A female was shot on Haldon, near Exeter, about 1864, and having been first in
Mr. Byne’s collection, passed into the hands of the late Mr. Marsh-Dunn, of
Teignmouth.

An adult was trapped by one of the keepers of Mr. Halliday, of Glenthorne, at
Countesbury, near Lynton, N. Devon, May 1861 (M. A. M., Zool. 1861, p. 7544). A
very fine old male, shot at West Down, near Ilfracombe, in October 1886, is in our own
collection (M. A. M.).

Honey-Buzzard. Pernis apivorus (Linn.).

A casual visitor, of very rare occurrence, during the summer months.

This singular bird is very rare indeed in Devonshire, perhaps because
the beech, its favourite tree, is comparatively scarce in our parks and
woodlands. It is, moreover, extremely local, there being a few places in
the kingdom, some well known, and others whose secret is properly
guarded, in which it appears with some regularity. We never saw one
in North Devon, nor have we ever handled a Devonshire specimen, whereas
in a very limited district near, Taunton, on the Quantock Hills, four
examples came within our experience. ‘Two of these were obtained in
Cothelstone Park, another was trapped on the adjoining property of Bag-
borough, and we ourselves saw the companion bird of one of these victims
when we were taking a walk on Cothelstone Hill.

Two immigrations of the Honey Buzzard visit this country each year— ~
one in the spring, of old birds anxious to find nesting-quarters, and too
generally doomed to slaughter, and another, and this chiefly on the Eastern
coast, of young birds of the year, in the autumn.

The Honey-Buzzard obtains its name from its partiality to the grubs of
bees and wasps. to procure which it eagerly seeks for the nests of those
insects, and many have been lured to destruction by traps baited with
honey-comb. It also feeds on birds’ eggs, young rabbits, small birds, &c.,
but its feeble feet and small talons indicate that it cannot be formidable
to game. In its plumage it varies more than any other species of Buzzard,
and passes through numerous stages between the dark chocolate-brown of
the young birds of the year, and the full adult plumage, which, in the male,is
marked by a grey cap and pure white underparts, in which dress our friend
Mr. W. Brodrick believed it had never been met with in the British Isles.
The Honey-Buzzard nests commonly before it attains its full plumage; a
pair in our collection, which, we grieve to say, were shot off their nest in
the New Forest, are still in an immature stage.

A Honey-Buzzard is believed to have been seen hawking for dragonflies, and skimming
over the water, at Slapton Ley, by Rey. Mr. Holdsworth some years before 1813 (Mon-
tagu’s Orn. Dict., Suppl.); and Bellamy says that it has been taken in that loc ality (N.
Hist. 8. Devon, p. 199). One shot near Woodleigh, about 1830 or 1840, passed’ first
into the hands of the Rev. Edward Luscombe, and afterwards into the ‘collection of
the late Mr. J. Elliot (H. N. ond BH. A.S8. E., MS. Notes). One was trapped on
Dartmcoor in 1848, and a very fine male bird was caught in a gin in July 1850 on Lord
Morley’s property, near Plymouth (R.A. J., ‘ Naturalist,’ 1851, p. 58). This last bird

158 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

was found by the keeper sitting on a pheasant’s nest, and had been feeding on the eggs;
for one was broken, and of another nothing but the shell was left, and the keeper
thought it had been sucked. One was shot near Flete, and formerly belonged to the
collection of the late Rev. Courtenay Bulteel. but is now, with the rest of that gentleman’s
birds, the property of Mr. Andrews, of Modbury (H. N.). A female was obtained in
North Devon in May 1866 (Zool. 1866, p. 308). An immature specimen was shot
Oct. 12th, 1881, at Spriddlestowe, near Plymouth (Zool. 1882, p. 64). This bird and
the two killed in 1848 and 1850 were examined by Mr. J. Gatcombe. That shot
in 1848 had the stomach filled with ‘‘ iong whitish caterpillars,” and that obtained in
1881 with white feathers, apparently its own.

The Honey-Buzzard has occasionally been noted in Cornwall, and there
is a strong presumption that it has, once at least, nested in the county, as
*‘q very young male, with its primaries not full-grown, and which, there-
fore, could not long have left the nest, was sent to Dr. Leach from Cornwall,
and is now in the National Collection.” (Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837, p. 339).

Though Mr. Cecil Smith does not include the Honey-Buzzard in his
‘ Birds of Somerset,’ we know of seven or eight instances of its occurrence
in his county, of which no less than five were in his own immediate
neighbourhood !

THE FALCONS.

We have now reached the true Falcons *, birds of great
courage and docility, swift and powerful on wing, greatly
valued throughout the world for the assistance which,
when trained, they can render to sport, and distinguished
by the projecting tooth on the cutting-edge of their upper
mandible, by their flight-feathers—the first and third being
equal in length, while the second is the longest,—and
by their strong feet and sharp, curved talons; and some of
them, like the Peregrine, Hobby, and Merlin, have a
characteristic line of black feathers extending downwards
on either side from the gape, termed by falconers the
moustache.

Greenland Falcon. ierofaico candicans (Gmel.).

An accidental visitor, of extremely rare occurrence.
First on our list is placed a beautiful and rare Falcon, whose home lies
to the far north, where it is the companion, in the bleak countries round

* The Falcons take their name from their powerful curved beak (falx, a cutting-
hook) ; and Gyr or Jer Falcon would mean the Falcon pre-eminent in size. Jer, Gyr,
Geer, = a Vulture or Kite.

FALCONID&. 159

the pole, of the Snowy Owl, and is only by some accident, when following
the autumnal migrations of waterfowl, ever driven so far south as to reach
our shores. The Greenland Falcon is the whitest of the three subspecies
of Gyr Falcon now distinguished by ornithologists, and extends its range
further to the north than either the Iceland or the Norway Falcons,
Only two examples of it are known to us as having been obtained in
Devonshire, and two in Cornwall, the first of which, according to Mr, Hill’s
* Catalogue of the Birds of the Lizard district,’ was shot at Gwavas Farm,
in Grade, in the year 1830. For our knowledge of the second Cornish
specimen we are indebted to the Rev. W. Willimott, who writes: “‘ There
is in the collection at Scorrier House, Redruth, the seat of the late George
Williams, Esq., a Greenland Gyr Tiercel, shot a few years ago on his
property, the Goonhilly Downs, in the Lizard district. It is a very
beautiful specimen, nearly snow-white, with very few dark spots, the
whitest I ever saw living or dead ; it was shot on a Pigeon, which it was
seen to knock down.’ From the description given us of a Gyr Falcon
which was shot on Lundy Island many years ago, in the month of
November, by Mr. Philip Wathen while Woodcock-shooting, which
was a very white bird, we have no doubt that it was also a Greenland
Falcon, This is one of the two Devonshire specimens, and is still pre-
served in Bristol; the other, which occurred at Plymouth, we have secn
in the fine collection of the late Mr. E. H. Rodd at Penzance, and is also
a remarkably white bird. Greenland and Iceland Falcons are sometimes
brought to this country in whaling-ships returning from the Polar Regions,
and command a high price from falconers, and it is not unlikely that
some of these may have escaped and furnished collectors with ‘ British ”
specimens of these rare Falcons. ‘Thus, in January 1870, a fine young
female Iceland Falcon, curiously caught among some sedges in the parish
of St. Merryn, near Padstow, and recorded at the time by Mr. E. H. Rodd
(Zool. 1870, pp. 2017 and 2060), was, without doubt, as that gentleman
was informed by the well-known falconer, Major Fisher, of The Castle,
Stroud, an escaped bird from Cardiff, where a number of Iceland Falcons,
recently imported from Iceland, were at that time kept and flown.

Dr. Edward Moore records the capture of a ‘ Gyr Falcon’ on the Lynher
River, near Plymouth, Feb. 7th, 1834. It was wounded in one wing,
and was kept alive by Pincombe, the bird-stuffer, for some time (Mag. Nat,
Hist. 1837). This is the same specimen as the one said to have been taken
at Port Eliot, St. Germans, Cornwall, which was in the collection of the late
Mr. E. H. Rodd, of Penzance (Newton, Yarrell’s B. Birds, 4th ed. i. p. 42).
It is also probably the same as that mentioned by Bellamy under the nama
of * Falco islandicus,” which he says was taken fromthe Morwell rocks on
the Tamar, Feb. 7th, 1834 (Nat. Hist. 8. Devon, p. 199). It remained in
Pincombe’s possession up to June 1863, when it was purchased by Mr,
Rodd (Zool. 1863, p. 8678). An“ Iceland Falcon ” in Mr, F. C. Hingston’s
collection is said to have been shot near Plymouth (KE. A. 8. E.).

A specimen of the “ Gyr Falcon” was shot on the top of Bullock Hill,
near Balsdean, Sussex, Sept. 26th, 1882, and was sent to Mr, Swaysland,
taxidermist, of Queen’s Road, Brighton, It was determined to be an

160 THE BIRDS OF DEVON,

adult Greenland Falcon by Mr. J. H. Gurney (Zool. 1883, p. 80). By a
curious coincidence it is not at all unlikely that this same Falcon was seen
by Mr. Henry Swaysland, Jnr., in the previous June, near Rousdon,
Lyme Regis, the seat of Sir Henry Peek, Bart., M.P. Mr. Swaysland
saw a White Falcon sitting on the cliffs, and approached it within a distance
of thirty yards. It had been observed about Rousdon for some two
months previously (Zool. 1883, p. 34).

“ The Gyr-Faleon, Mweo Islandicus,” is mentioned amongst “ occasional
visitors ” in a list of Lundy Island Birds (Trans. Dev. Assoc. viii. p. 308).
Probably the Greenland Falcon shot by Mr. Wathen, when Woodcock-
shooting there, was the foundation for this statement.

This bird, it is now known, occurs not unfrequently on the east coast of
Treland, and is therefore not at all unlikely to visit Lundy Island and the
Devonshire coast occasionally.

[ Observation. —There is a fine example of the Greenland Falcon in the National Col-
lection at South Kensington, which was shot many years ago in one of Lord Cawdor’s
covers at Stackpole, in Pembrokeshire (‘Zoologist,’ 1840, p. 2639). It had been observed
by one of the keepers for eight or ten days before he succeeded in shooting it, and each
day had killed and partly devoured a cock Pheasant. It was very shy, always perching
on some rocky eminence, so that it was diffienlt to get at, and was finally surprised and
shot as it was rising from a freshly killed Pheasant. This is the bird figured in
Yarrell.|

Peregrine Falcon. ulco peregrinus, Tunstall.
[Cliff-Hawk, Blue Hawk.]

Resident, and not unfrequently met with throughout the county, espe-
cially on the sea-coast. We have found notices of more than fifty specimens
which have been obtained in the county since 1853, and many others have
been killed which have not been recorded, The Peregrine Falcon breeds
in several places on the cliffs of both the north and south coasts, and on
Lundy Island.

A pair have bred for many years on the cliffs at Wembury, near Plymouth
(R. A. J., ‘ Naturalist,’ 1852, p. 117; J. G., Zool. 1877, p. 280; 1885,
p- 22); others have bred at Watcombe, near Torquay, and at the Start
Point (A. von H., Zool. 1869, p. 1846). Peregrine Falcons are believed
to breed about the Bolt Head (R. P. N., MS. Notes); as well as at
Sidmouth and Rousdon (Zool. 1884, p. 35).

We have examined many specimens of this bird, and have almost
invariably found them much infested by the parasitical worm, Filaria
attenuata, deeply imbedded, and twisted up in the membranes, between the
ribs and the liver, and even penetrating the substance of the liver itself,
A fine female shot near Exeter, April 3rd, 1883, thus infested, was fat,
and weighed 3 |b. 13 oz.

The Peregrine Falcon, the noblest of our English raptorial birds, is
peculiarly a denizen of the coast, and is rarely found far inland. For this
reason it is sometimes called the Cliff-Hawk. It is not uncommon along
the whole seaboard of the South-western Counties, and the Peregrines of

FALCONIDE. tot

the West Country are a fine, white-chested race; those of Lundy Island,
in particular, being famed for their courage. A cast of Hawks from this
picturesque island was in old days highly valued by falconers, and the
estimation in which the Lundy Peregrines were anciently held still
continues.

Major Fisher, of The Castle, Stroud, informs us that, after an experience
of Peregrines from every part of the United Kingdom, extending over
thirty-three years, he has found the Lundy Peregrines by far the best for
falconers’ use, and recently described in the ‘ Field’ the good work of a
Falcon received as an eyas from the island.

It is a matter of surprise that the Peregrine should still be able to maintain
itselfin a few eyries on the northern and southern coasts of Devon, for (we
deeply regret to say) this fine bird is subjected to ceaseless persecution.
We have known cases of the young birds having been cruelly shot upon the
nest, of many and many an old bird having been trapped and shot, and even
on Lundy Island, the ancestral stronghold of the Peregrines of the West, the
birds were driven away for a time by constant harrying of their nests; but
we are glad to be able to state that they have returned, and our information
from the island enables us to mention two eyries having been occupied there
this last spring (1891). The Peregrine is, moreover, so fearless a bird that
often, in curiosity, or through an interest in sport, it flies close up to the
shooter and does not always escape. When gorged after a meal we have
known it perch in a lethargic state upon a bank or rail, and suffer Blackbird-
shooting school-boys to approach and to do it to death. A splendid pair,
in our possession, were slain in this unworthy manner on the banks of the
Barnstaple river. Instauces have been known of the Peregrine nesting in
an old Raven’s nest. Mr. W. Brodrick obtained some young Hawks from
a Raven’s nest near Ilfracombe. But the usual site of the eyrie is on a
cliff, often immediately beneath some overhanging rock, so that it becomes
a dangerous task for the cragsman who seeks to rob it, and the nest is
sometimes, like that of the Raven and Chough, placed in a spot which it
is impossible to reach. The Peregrine likes society *, and chooses the
cliffs which are frequented by Herring-Gulls, Choughs, Jackdaws, and
Guillemots, who, as we have often noticed, seem quite indifferent to
their dangerous neighbour, showing that the Peregrine’s quarry is sought
for at some distance from its nest. It is a pretty sight to look down from
the top upon the silver Herring-Gulls, their nests on almost every ledge,
some with the birds sitting upon them, others uncovered and revealing the
eggs in their speckled beauty, while Jackdaws are flying incessantly into
the crevices where their nastlings are secreted, and every now and then
fussy little parties of Guillemots descend from the lower ledges of the cliffs
towards the water, along the surface of which they skim fora ‘Tittle distance,
and then alight to pursue their fishing in its green depths. Soaring above
the edge of the cliff will be, probably, a pair of Kestrels, and suddenly a

* Baggy Point, the eastward boundary of Barnstaple Bay, and Wembury Cliff, near
Plymouth, are two of the places where Peregrines breed annually in the midst of a
colony of Herring-Gulls,

M

162 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

Peregrine will shoot out from his station beneath, impatient at the intrusion
of a stranger upon his domain, and with an angry bark * will sweep out
over the sea, returning landwards again and circling watchfully overhead
When we were Woodcock-shooting on Lundy Island, hardly a couple of shots
were fired before the party of guns were joined by a Peregrine, and soon
after by a second, and the Hawks kept in close attendance, in the technical
phrase of falconry ‘ waiting on” above the sportsmen and their dogs;
and when a cock or snipe was flushed, if it was missed, it had next to run
the gauntlet of the two birds, who, between them, generally secured it.
Sometimes a wounded cock was pounced upon, and carried off right in front
of the shooters, to whose guns the Peregrines were sacred, and they seemed
to be aware of their immunity. There are many instances on record of
other raptorial birds, besides the Peregrine, accompanying shooting-parties.
Their hunting instincts lead them to take an interest in the sport, and they
play the part of criticizing and sympathizing spectators, or they draw near
in the hopes of sharing in the spoil. Col. Montagu tells us that twice, when
he was shooting in the Highlands, a Golden Eagle suddenly put in an
appearance and carried off a wounded Grouse, descending from an adjacent
lofty cliff, where it had been curiously observing the actions of the sports-
men. Mr.J.H. Gurney, Jnr., while shooting Quails in Egypt, was attended
by a Short-toed Eagle, which took great interest in his proceedings, until,
approaching too near, it was itself brought to bag with a wire-cartridge.
Some Lanners, also, were attracted by his shooting. In Ireland the
plucky little Merlin will often keep company with the Snipe-shooter on
the bogs, to take advantage of the quarry sprung for him. We have
already related the audacity of a male Sparrow-Hawk in carrying off our
wounded Z'rznye on the sands under our very nose; and Lord Lilford has
recorded in ‘The Ibis’ for 1860, p. 8, that a Gos-Hawk stooped at
a Woodcock which he had wounded. And, to add yet one more example
to a list which might readily be increased, Richardson has related that, in
the Fur Countries of N. America, he has seen a Snowy Owl watching
(;rouse-shooters from a high tree and that when a bird was shot the Owl
skimmed down and carried it off before the sportsmen could come up.
Mr. W. Brodrick, one of the authors of ‘ Falconry in the British Isles,’
at the time he resided at Ilfracombe, kept several trained Peregrines,
flying them at Pigeons, and occasionally at Rooks, Herring-Gulls, and
Snipe, on the high grounds above the town. In spite of their bells and
dangling jesses, on more than one oceasion they were shot by ignorant
people, who flattered themselves they had performed a meritorious act in
butchering a Hawk, so that the science of falconry had to be practised
under many trials and drawbacks. More Peregrines are seen in the autumn
than at any other time of the year, as the young birds are then on passage
going south. In a short walk along the north coast of Devon in September
1875 we counted no less than five Peregrines on wing. These young
‘“* Passage Hawks ” were considered by falconers, when caught and trained,

* Mr. J. Gateombe well wrote :—“ The ery of the Peregrine at the breeding-seascn
is the most angry and menacing of any bird I know.”

FALCONID.E. 168

to make better birds for flights at the Heron than young birds (* eyases’’)
which had been reared and trained from the nest, and had never had the
advantage of developing the muscles of their wings in the free air. The
Peregrine, both in its wild and trained states, will make flights in sheer
wantonness at almost every other bird; Lord Lilford, in Albania, saw one
actually fly at and “hustle” such a powerful bird as the Eagle-Owl.
“Comet,” a great favourite and a very docile Tiercel* belonging to
Mr. Brodrick, once made a dash at a Great Northern Diver which chanced,
with a hoarse cry, to pass overhead. We have witnessed a Tiercel flying
at three Herons which came blundering awkwardly, with loud complaints
and great alarm, down a valley, and it was evident all the time that the
Tiercel was only in fun and teasing the birds,

Falcons of the year are liable to very great variety in plumage. One of
the most beautiful Falcons we ever saw was one which was shot in the
parish of Stogursey, in W. Somerset, in November, and was brought to the
Taunton bird-stuffer for preservation. This bird was of large size, and had
so much straw-yellow both on the poll of the head and the back of the
neck as to resemble a Lanner, Larlier in the year, young birds are of a
dark chocolate-brown, marked on the underparts with longitudinal streaks
of a darker colour.

The Peregrine will strike down and devour almost any bird. Jackdaws
are, perhaps, its favourite dainty; but we have seen a Peregrine drop
like a thunderbolt into a little flock of Wild Duck or Wigeon, and kill and
carry one off. Sometimes the Peregrine will condescend to make a meal
off the Ring-Ployers and Purres upon the coast. Pigeons are often struck
down and devoured. We have startled a Peregrine from a freshly-killed
rabbit, but we do not think this bird bestows much attention upon ground-
game,

Mr. Brodrick had a young Falcon, very white on the throat and breast,
which had not quite passed through her first moult, showing that this
whiteness is not the result of age. “She is a most powerfully built bird,
as wide, I think, in the chest as was a Norway Gyrfalcon I stuffed a short
time back” (W. B., in litt.). We conclude that the white-chested birds
belong to a very fine race of Peregrines.

Wherever a pair of Peregrines and a pair of Ravens occupy the same
cliffs, a constant warfare is waged between them, each finding the other
powerful adversaries; and we have never known the Peregrines succeed
in driving away the Ravens, or the Ravens the Peregrines.

Hobby. ualco subbuteo, Linn.

A summer migrant, but rather scarce. Breeds occasionally in the woods
on the borders of Dartmoor.

This beautiful little Falcon, whose name, Mr. Howard Saunders informed
us, is taken from Haut-bois, the high woods which it frequents, is a summer

* In the language of Falconry the male Peregrine is called a‘ Tiercel,” and the female
Peregrine a “ Falcon,”

mM 2

164 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

visitor in small numbers to this country, and by some is believed to restrict
itself almost to the same area as that chosen by the Nightingale. It is
certainly extremely rare as far west as Cornwall; but in Devonshire, where
the Nightingale is scarce, and in the southern part of the county especially,
it frequently occurs, and may still nest occasionally in the large woods
skirting the southern edges of Dartmoor. In North Devon we have known
various examples brought to the Barnstaple bird-stuffer from time to time,
and it has occurred on Lundy Island in the spring. For several summers
in succession Hobbies nested in the romantic woods of Gidleigh Park, on
the North Teign, where we often saw them flying above the trees, looking
more like large Swallows than Hawks. The keeper was prevailed upon
to spare them for some time on being assured that they were harmless to
the game ; but one unfortunate morning, happening to espy the three young
birds seated together on a granite-boulder in the Park, he could not resist
the temptation, and shot them all. We skinned these victims, which were
remarkably large birds. This was at the beginning of August 1869. The
following year we found the decaying remains of an old male Hobby
hanging up in the keeper’s ‘larder.’ To this senseless persecution
by gamekeepers is due the diminishing numbers of this little Falcon,

An old Crow’s nest is usually appropriated by the Hobby, and it is rather
late in the season in rearing its young. Dragonflies, beetles, cockchafers,
moths, bats, and small birds, especially Sky-Larks and Swallows, which are
their favourite quarry, form their food, and they are slightly crepuscular,
chasing insects late in the evening. Mr.J.Gatcombe wrote to Mr. Dresser:—
“When out with my gun in the autumn, I observed a Hawk flying in
circles, followed by a host of small birds. Suddenly it turned round,
dashed out its foot, and caught one of them, still continuing, but widening
its circle. I rushed forward and fired, when down came an adult female
Hobby, dropping the little bird from its claws as it fell.”

Col. Montagu writes :—“ We have frequently witnessed the flight of this
species in pursuit of a Sky-Lark, which appears to be its favourite game ;
and it is astonishing to observe how dexterously the little bird avoids the
fatal stroke until it becomes fatigued. A Hobby, in pursuit of a Lark,
was joined by a Hen-Harrier, who, not being so rapid on wing, was usually
behind, and ready to avail himself of the sudden turns the unfortunate
Lark was compelled to make to avoid the talons of the Hobby ; however,
after numberless evolutions, the Hen- Harrier relinquished, being unequal to
the chase, and left the deadly stroke to one better adapted for rapid and
durable flight and aerial evolutions. The country was open, and as far as
the eye could discern the chase continued, but doubtless without a chance
of the Lark’s escaping the fatal blow.”

od

In a manuscript notebook of 1798, which belonged to Col. Montagu, and to which
we have before referred, it is stated that the Hobby had a nest near his house at
Kingsbridge. Dr. E. Moore mentions Lydford Woods as a breeding-place on the
authority of Mr. Newton, and Chebiton Wood on that of Mr. G. Leach (Rowe's
Peramb. Dartmoor, Ist ed. p. 229), and Warleigh Woods, on the Tamar (Mag. Nat.
Hist. 1887). There is a female Hobby in the A. M. M. which was killed on her nest
at Brimpts, Dartmeet, July 12th, 1849 (R. C.). A pair nested in Gidleigh Park, near

FALCONID.E. 165

Chagford, in the summer of 1869 (M. A. M., Zool. 1870, p. 2304). A nest and three
young were obtained at Woodtown, near Horrabridge, in 1871 (J. B. R., Ms. Notes).
The Rev. T. Johnes, writing in 1832, speaks of the Hobby as not common, but states
that it built in the tops of high trees in the woods near Bradstone (Bray’s ‘ Tamar and
Lavy,’ i. p. 346).

At Plymouth, the Hobby has been observed as early as March (J. B. R., Trans. Plym.
Inst. 1862-63, p. 51); and young birds have been seen in Bickleigh Vale up to the
beginning of October (R. A. J., ‘ Naturalist,’ 1851, p. 88). Mr. Bolitho had only two
specimens brought to him in twenty years (1852-72). These occurred in May 1860
and July 1865, the last at Leigham. An adult was killed with a stone near Plymouth,
August 30th, 1873; and a young bird was killed near there, October 1st, 1873 (Zool.
1873, p. 8720; 1874, p. 3829).

At Kingsbridge, Mr. Henry Nicholls had several specimens brought to him before
1865, but his brother, Mr. R. P. Nicholls, has not had oneforalongtume. Mr. W. Toll
has killed examples near Strete, and it has been shot near Dartmouth (E. A. 8. E.).
We observed one near Stoke Fleming, July 2nd, 1891 (W. D’U.).

An old male killed*near Torquay in 1850 is in the Museum of that town (A. von H.
Zool. 1873, p. 3908). An immature male was shot Sept. Ist, 1874, at Yarner Wood
about two miles from Bovey Tracey (Trans. Devon. Assoe. vill. p. 257).

Several specimens haye been killed near Exeter, but none recently. A young female
September oth, 1831 (R.8.); a male in 1346 (W. R.S., Zool. p. 2383); anda male taken
in a net near the Double Locks on the Exeter Canal (R. C.); all these are in the
A.M.M. Mr. W. Brodrick saw a Hobby on Dawlish Warren in the act of eating
a Sky-Lark.

A male and female, in fine adult plumage, said to have been obtained in Devon,
were in Mr. Byne’s collection. The Hobby occasionally visits Lundy Island (Trans.
Devon. Assoe. viii. p. 308).

The Hobby has occurred in the immediate neighbourhood of Taunton,
and has nested in Stoke Wood; also on the Blagdon Hills, whence

Mr. Cecil Smith received a young bird in the down in the summer of
1874, and kept it for a long time in his aviary, where it became a great

pet.
In Dorsetshire, according to the Rey. O. Pickard-Cambridge, the Hobby
used to nest regularly every year. In Cornwall it is not common.

Merlin. Julco esalon, Tunstall.
[Little Blue Hawk. ]

An autumn and winter visitor, but not of very frequent occurrence.
Arrives generally about the middle of September, remaining sometimes as
late as March.

Polwhele says that Mr. Elford saw several young taken from a nest on
Roborough Down; but Dr. Leach thought the nest must have been that
of a Hobby (K. M., Rowe’s Peramb. Dartmoor, p. 252). The Merlin is
said to have bred in Hound Tor Vale, near Manaton (W. W. B.).

This courageous little Falcon, a Peregrine in miniature, is, for the most
part, only a winter visitor to the South of England, arriving about the time
the Hobby is thinking of leaving us. It is by no means numerous in
Devonshire, and occasionally a whole winter will pass without one being
seen. Mr. W. Brodrick has observed Merlins on Exmoor in June, and there
is a presumption that they may sometimes nest on the Forest; but if they

166 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

do, they all leave it before the stag-hunting begins there in the autumn,
for Mr. James Turner has informed us that, in the many years he has
followed the hounds across Exmoor, he has only once seen a Merlin. We
were sitting on the Capstan Hill at Ilfracombe, early in August 1875,
when a young Merlin flew close to us; it was too early for the northern
birds to have arrived, and we thought that this young bird may have
been reared on the high grounds at no great distance. We have seen
Merlins in the winter-time, both in North Devon and in the close adjoining
districts of West Somerset, and have admired their pluck and daring. One
day we noticed a little cock Merlin in full pursuit of a Ring-Dove, which
attempted to shelter in a big elm tree; but its pursuer dashed in after it,
and rattled it out again, as readily as a cock Sparrow-Hawk plunges into a
tangled brake after a blackbird.

In the old days of falconry the Merlin was trained chiefly for the use of
ladies, and afforded pretty flights at Snipe, following them very cleverly
through all their zigzag twistings. On the Irish bogs Merlins sometimes
attend on the Snipe-shooters for the sake of getting a chance at the birds
they may flush; and Lord Lilford has stated that, when shooting near the
mouth of the Butrinto river, in Albania, he has seen as many as five
wounded Snipe carried off in a single hour by these little Hawks.

In pursuing small birds Merlins fly low over the ground, and may
be noticed, like Sparrow-Hawks, trying the sides of the hedges in search of
their prey.

The Merlin places its nest upon the ground, and is common on the
moors in the north of England, Scotland, and Ireland.

At Plymouth Bolitho had eight Merlins sent to him in twenty years (1853-73).
They occurred at the following dates:—A male, November 2nd, 1852; October 13th,
1853; December 23rd, 1854; September 27th and November 22nd, 1855; January
22nd, 1858; November 2nd, 1860; October 17th, 1866. Mr. Gatcombe records one at
Plymouth, February 5rd, 1873; two December 1878; one on Dartmoor, November
1879; a male at Plymouth, March 1884 (Zool. 1873, p. 3466; 1879, p. 115; 1880,
p. 47; 1881, p. 57; 1885, p. 22).

The Merlin has often occurred in the Kingsbridge district. A pair in January 1852
(C. P., Zool. 1852, p. 3474). An adult male, killed by flying against the telegraph-wires,
October Ist, 1875 (R. P. N.). Two, December 1879, at Bolt Head (‘ Field) Jan. 3rd,
1880). An immature male was shot when in pursuit of a Wheatear, September 18th,
1880, near Thurlestone. Two adult males at Gerston Copse, November 7th, 1885; a
male December 2nd, 1886; and a female December 7th, 1886 (KH. A. 8. E.). Other
specimens have been brought to Mr. R. P. Nicholls.

An immature bird shot at Paignton, and one at Bishop’s Stowe, near Torquay,
November 1872, are in the Torquay Museum, ‘Two were seen, and one shot, at Chud-
leigh, about October 1875 (I. A. 8. E.).

A female was taken in a net at Barley, near Exeter, September 6th, 1848 (R.C.). One
at Exeter December 1849 (‘ Exeter Gazette’). One seen at Exmouth, and on Dawlish
Warren, at the beginning of October 1873, was shot near Exeter on the 22nd of that
month. A female shot at Newton St. Cyres, November 18th, 1880, is in A. M. M.

One was seen at Sidmouth in September 1866 (J. C, Tyrwhitt-Drake).

The Merlin is an o@zcasional winter visitor to North Devon and Lundy Island.

In Cornwall it occurs about as frequently as it does in Devon. In
Dorset it is only occasionally met with.

FALCONID.&. 167

Red-footed Falcon. Zinnunculus vespertinus (Linn.).

An accidental visitor, of extremely rare occurrence.

The adult male of this small species presents a singular contrast of
colours, the whole of the head, breast, back, and wings being of a blue-
black ; while the lower part of the body and the under tail-coverts are a
rich chestnut-red, as are also the feathers covering the thighs, and the legs
also are a rich red, giving the bird its English name. ‘The female, too, 1s
prettily marked, having the head and the whole of the neck and breast of
a yellowish rufous, with an ash-grey back ; and the young male resembles
her for the first year. ‘hus, the birds in all stages of plumage are so
distinct, that there is little likelihood of their being confounded with any
of our smaller English Hawks. Besides, as this little Falcon is only a
summer visitor to South aud South-eastern Europe from Africa, it is not
likely to be often met with in this kingdom, and its reported occurrences in
Devonshire are not without suspicion. In the countries which it visits for
nesting-purposes it is said sometimes to breed in small communities, and to
be remarkably tame and fearless. It is almost exclusively insectivorous.
When they first arrive at their summer-quarters, aud again in October,
before leaving for the south, these little Falcons are said to soar high in
the air, numbers together, when they wheel round and round like Swifts,
and, ‘‘ fixing an imaginary point in the air, they will fly straight towards
it, then return, and follow continually nearly the same route, never passing
certain limits in their flight to and fro.” ‘These aerial performances are
commenced in the afternoon and are continued through the night. (Dresser,
‘ Birds of Murope,’ vol. vi. p. 98.)

Dr. E. Moore says “a fresh specimen was brought to Pincombe (a bird-stuffer at
Devonport) by a sailor, and might have been caught in the Channel” (Mag. Nat, Hist.,
March 1837). This specimen is probably the one referred to by Bellamy (Nat. Hist.
8. Devon, p. 199) as having been obtained in the Channel. Mr. J. Brooking Rowe
says:—‘‘ There is a fine old male in Mr. Pincombe’s collection, said to have bren
kilied near Wembury ; the female was observed, but not killed” (‘Trans. Plym. Inst.
1862-65, p. 51). Mr. E. H. Rodd states that, ‘* when visiting Devonport in June 1863,
I saw an adult male bird of this species in the hands of Mr. Pincombe, naturalist, of
that town, which had been shot some time previously at Wembury Cliff, which is
situated on the Devonshire side of Plymouth Sound... . This is the specimen referred
to by Yarrell as having been in a museum at Devonport, and killed not far off. It is
now in my collection” (Zool. 1863, p. 8678; ‘ Birds of Cornwall, p. 9). It is more
likely that Yarrell referred to the first of the birds mentioned above than to that killed at
Weibury. These two males are probably those stated by Rev. F, O. Morris, on the
authority of Rey. R. A. Julian, to have been procured near Plymouth (‘ British Birds,
i. p. 108). A female recorded as having been killed near Kingsbridge between L840
and 1547 by Mr. H. Nicholls (Zool. 1847, p. 1695) was a Hobby! (R. P.N., in (itt.). One
of these Falcons said to have been killed in Devon was in Mr. Byne’s collection, which
passed into the hands of Mr. Marsh-Dunn, of Teignmouth, where we saw it in 1883.

Curiously enough, some of the examples of this species which have been
chtained in this country have occurred in the winter.

Two recorded by Dr. Bullmore as having been met with in W. Cornwall
were shot, one of them on February 6th, 1851, and the other in the autumn

168 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

of 1867. Another we know of was shot at Fordingbridge, in the New
Forest, in January 1877.

We know of no instance of the Red-footed Falcon in either Somerset or
Dorset, but we have notes of three occurrences on the opposite side of the
bristol Channel, in Pembrokeshire.

Kestrel. Zinnunculus alaudarius (Gm.).
[Windfanner, Windhover, Criss Hawk, Crasset Hawk: Dev. |

tesident ; generally distributed, and tolerably common. Its numbers
are sometimes greatly increased in autumn, as in September 1873 (J. G.,
Zool. 1873, p. 378). It breeds on the cliffs in suitable places all along
the sea-coasts of the county and in the sides of quarries. Some very small
examples have come under the notice of Mr. Henry Nicholls at Kingsbridge
(HK. A. 8. E.).

This beautiful little Falcon is the commonest of the Hawk family in our
Western Counties. He may be seen everywhere. On the coast there is
hardly a cliff withont him. Inland he is equally numerous, and in any
country walk or drive he may be met with, poised in the air and scanning
the ground beneath him for a meal. Beetles of various kinds, especially
the common dor-beetle, and mice, with an occasional small bird, form his
usual diet, and we have seen him searching the dry grass, and plunging
into it, after tipule, the ‘daddy long-legs.” At the nesting-time the
requirements of a small family make him more rapacious, and a Kestrel’s
nest then becomes a source of peril to any Pheasants’ coops which may be
near. Nearly all the young Pheasauts at Gidleigh Park were carried off
one season by Kestrels, which used to swoop so suddenly upon the coops
that they would get away with their prey before the keeper, who was
waiting in ambush, had achance of ashot. But we believe that this is the
only time of the year that Kestrels do any injury to the game-preserver.
In hard weather we have seen Kestrels attack and kill Starlings, and, no
doubt, at a season when their ordinary insect-food is scarce, they are driven
to feed more largely on small birds. But in many that we have dissected,
even in the winter-time, we have only found the elytra of dor-beetles in
their gizzards. Mr. Gatcombe mentions that a slow-worm was found in the
stomach of a Kestrel (Zool. 1887, p. 1376). The Kestrel is a very dociie
and entertaining pet in confinement. One we had for a long time was
brought up in his infancy with a kitten for playmate, and many a game at
hide-and-seek did they have together on our lawn, pouncing out on one
another from behind the geraniums in the flower-beds. When wearied with
their sport they would generally be found sleeping side by side*. When

* Their favourite resting-place was provided by the ladder going up into the hay-
loft; on one of the steps would be the Hawk, and the cat would be found on the step
either immediately above or below. One morning we observed an old tom cat of the
establishment occupying an upper step; just under him sat the Kestrel; beneath again
was the cat who was his special friend and playmate ; and with his hind legs resting
on the ground, and his fore feet placed on the same rung en which this last cat
was asleep, was ‘‘ Toby,” the pet terrier, who regarded the Kestrel and the cats with a
devoted friendship.

FALCONID.E. 169

the Kestrel had obtained his full powers of flight he would fly across our
neadow from a tall elm directly we appeared in the morning, settling on our
shoulder, and always had a lot to scream about. Whenever he saw the
plants in the conservatory being watered he would fly in at one of the
windows, and alighting on the pavement, and fluttering his wings, would
beg to be drenched, and delighted in the shower-bath given him. Some-
times a strange Kestrel visited our tame bird, and the two would fly off
together ; but our pet always returned.

Mr. Gatcombe has recorded the nesting of a pair of Kestrels which were
kept in a very small cage at Plymouth, only 4 ft. long and 4 ft. high by
2tt. broad; tive young ones were duly hatched, not all at once, but every
alternate day; and as each new chick appeared, the hen Kestrel imme-
diately killed and devoured the one hatched before it, until the whole brood
was destroyed.

The nest of the Kestrel is placed in a tree, an old Crow’s nest being often
occupied ; the crannies on the cliffs offer a favourite site; ruins and lime-
kilns are not unfrequently selected as breeding-places; and Mr. James
Turner, of Staplegrove, Taunton, told us of a pair of Kestrels which nested
for several years in an old barrel which he had placed in an elm for Jack-
daws to build in: the barrel was divided into two partitions ; one of them
was tenanted by the Kestrels, and the other by a pair of Jackdaws.

In September 1871 a vessel was coming up the English Channel, and
the crew saw a female Kestrel chasing a young Barn-Owl for several miles
out at sea. At length, becoming tired, both birds alighted on the vessel
and were captured. They were afterwards brought to a bird-stuffer in
Exeter, by whom they were shown to us.

Obs.—The Lesser Kestrel (Falco cenchris, Naum.), a much smaller bird than our
Kestrel, and a native of the extreme south of Europe, has probably been once obtained
in Cornwall, as Mr. E. H. Rodd examined a remarkably sinall female Kestrel, which
was shot in the western part of his county, and sent a description of it at the time to
the ‘ Zoologist’ (1876, p. 5178) ; and only this last winter (1890) two examples have
been obtained in Ireland, and another occurred va the Scilly Isles in March of this
present year (1891).

Osprey. Pandion haliaétus (Linn.).

A casual visitor, formerly of occasional occurrence in the estuaries of
the larger rivers of the county, at all seasons of the year, but principally
in spring and autumn. Polwhele says that about forty years before he
wrote (1797) a single pair of Ospreys bred on a pinnacle of the cliffs at
Beer every year, arriving in April avd leaving in August. ‘The Osprey
was called in that neighbourhood a “ Herriot,” and the rock this pair
built on was known as ‘* Herriot Hill.” He also speaks of this bird as
breeding on the cliffs of North Devon (Hist. Devon, vol. i. chap. 6),
Less than fifty years ago Ospreys were still nesting, or attempting to
nest, in several places in the §.W. counties, but were shot down, sharing
in the common fate ruthlessly apportioned to many of our most interesting
birds. Mr. W. D, Crotch informed Mr, A. G. More, who drew up a most

170 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

useful paper for the ‘ Ibis’ on the distribution of our British Birds during
the nesting-season (cf. Ibis, 1865, p. 9), that as recently, comparatively,
as 1847, a pair of Ospreys attempted to nest at Monksilver, in West
Somerset, but that the keeper shot these unfortunate birds while making
their nest! Then we have been informed by the Rev. H. G. Heaven, of
Lundy Island, that since his father bought the island in 1835, the Osprey
has had an eyrie there at Gannet’s Combe. The birds last bred there in

1838. In that year the male was killed by one of the Channel pilots,
who from time to time have dealt great havoc to the Lundy birds, and
the female never returned, probably having been shot elsewhere, or she
would certainly have found another mate, and would have appeared again
on the familiar cliff. The Osprey, in its autumn migrations, used to
favour Devonshire more than any other part of the kingdom. ‘There is
not an estuary on which numerous examples have not been procured. It is
not met with on the upper parts of the Bristol Channel, where the waters
are still opaque, but has been noticed wherever the tideway is clear enough
for it to pursue its fishing. It sometimes occurs inland where there
are sheets of ornamental water, such as the fine lakes in Sandhill Park
and Cothelestone Park in our old parish of Bishop's Lydeard, under the
beautiful Quantock* Hills in W. Somerset. On the North Devon rivers,
although there are many instances of its occurrence, the Osprey was
never, we think, so plentiful as it used to be at the mouth of the Exe,
and on other estuaries in the south of the county. Although generally
confined in its appearances to the autumn months, we have known cases
in which the Osprey has been met with in the summer. ‘Thus, the keeper
at Lord Deyon’s beautiful seat, Powderham Castle, in June 1869, noticing
that a large Hawk was carrying off his young pheasants, set a trap and
caught a fine Osprey. W hen the bird was in the gin the valiant keeper
was afraid to approach it until he had first well-nigh blown it to pieces
with his gun. Our friend Mr. W. Brodrick, then residing at Chudleigh,
was only able to preserve the head and feet, which he kept as memorials.
The finest specimen of the Osprey we have ever seen is one which was shot
at Slapton Ley by Mr. Michelmore, on October 27th, 1863, It is a very
beautiful adult, and was admirably set up by Mr. H. Nicholls, of Kings-
bridge, and we considered it quite the gem of his very interesting collection
of birds.

The indefatigable Mr. J. Wolley (cf. Professor Newton’s ‘ Ootheca Wol-
leyana’) has given a good account of the singular nest constructed by the
Ospr ey, whic h he s: ys In its shape not a little resembles the great nests
of the wood-ant, or, as we may venture to suggest, the nest of the
Flamingo. The favourite site is a pointed rock, ruin, or tall fir, on an
island in a loch. The nest, he writes, ‘‘is usually in the form of a cone
cut off at the top; the sticks project very slightly beyond the sides, and

* Tt may be worth while to state that a friend who is a great Welsh scholar has
assured us that Quantock means “ full of Owls,” being derived from the Welsh ‘‘ Cuan,”
“an Owl,” and the termination *‘og”=* full of.” No doubt Owls were once very
numerous in the thick woods which covered the sides of these hills.

FALCONID.®. ala

are built up with turf and other compact materials; the summit is of
moss, very flat and even; and the cavity occupies a comparatively small
part of it. I know no other nest at all like it.” The eggs of the Osprey
are greatly prized by collectors, as they are among the most beautiful, and
most varied in their markings, of all the eggs produced by the Falconide.

The cry of the Osprey is said to be very musical. It flies with slow
and heavy beats, occasionally sailing along with motionless wings like a
Kite. ‘* Ospreys are very constant, year after year, in returning to their
old stations ; and even after one or both birds have been killed in the
previous season, I have frequently seen individuals flying near the now
deserted eyrie” (‘ Ootheca Wolleyana’, p. 58).

Col. Montagu states that an Osprey was seen to swoop down and carry
off a young wild Duck on Slapton Ley. ‘The Duck, by struggling, fell
from the talons of the Eagle, but was again recovered before it reached
the water.” The Osprey poises itself, like the Kestrel, while examining
a place below for food, as Col. Montagu has described. ‘+ As we were
crossing the bridge over the river Avon, at Aveton Gifford, on 9th April,
1811, we observed an Osprey hawking for fish. At last its attention was
arrested, and, like the Kestrel in search of mice, it became stationary, as
if examining what had attracted its attention. After a pause of some
time it descended to within about fifty yards of the surface of the water,
and there continued hovering for another short interval, and then pre-
cipitated itself into the water with such great celerity as to be nearly
immersed, In three or four seconds the bird rose without any apparent
difficulty, and carried off a trout of moderate size, and instead of alighting
to regale upon its prey, it svared to a prodigious height, and did not
descend within our view.”

Montagu considered the Osprey to be more common in Devonshire than in any
other part of the kingdom, and in an annotated copy of his ‘ Ornithological Dic-
tionary,’ now in the Library of the Linnean Society, he has recorded the following
instances of its occurrence :—‘* Male Osprey killed at Aveton Gifford, 18th July, 1805;
another 4th November, 1806, at same place; another at the mouth of the Teign,
September 1808, and several others seen. One seen to carry off a half-grown wild
Duck at Slapton Ley. One at Slapton J1th October, 1809, fed plentifully on perch.”
The same excellent ornithologist observed one hawking for fish on the river Avon
from Aveton Gifford Bridge, 9th April, 1811, and gives an interesting description of its
habits (Mont. Orn. Dict., Suppl.). Dr. E. Moore mentions specimens obtained at
Hstover in May 1831 (two); another in September 1851; two on the Avon (Rowe's
Peramb. Dartmoor, p. 229). He had accounts of others haying been killed or seen
in April, May, July, September, October, and November (Mag. Nat. Hist. 1537).

Twenty at least occurred in the county between 1840 and 1874, as recorded in
the ‘ Zoologist’ and other periodicals. Bolitho, of Plymouth, does not appear, how-
ever, to have received any to mount. Quite a flight seems to have visited Devonshire
in the autumn of 1875, when Ospreys were killed on the Teign, Dart, Avon, ‘Tamar,
and Taw (J. G., Zool. 1875, p. 4718). Since that year none have occurred in the
county within our knowledge.

In 1841 a female was shot by Mr. Davis, of Halwell, on the Kingsbridge estuary.
Another female was shot by the gamekeeper of the Rey. Kerr Vaughan on September
srd, 1544, between the old and new Loddiswell Bridges. Its weight was 3 lb. 10 02. ;
extent of wing 5ft. Gin., and its stomach contained the remains of a fine trout.
This bird is now in the collection of the late Mr. J. Elliot, at Kingsbridge (1. N.,
MS. Notes). One was seen on the Erme for a fortnight in October 1851 (* Naturalist,’

Iss THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

1852, p.7). One was observed fishing for perch and roach at Slapton Ley for several
days, and was at last shot by Mr. J. Michelmore, who left it where it dropped. It
was eventually picked up by Mr. Jobn Goodwin, from whom it was obtained by Mr.
Henry Nicholls, in whose collection it now remains (H. N., Zool. 1864, p. 9039; and
MS. Notes). In 1875 one frequented the Avon, and three were seen at Millbrook, just
opposite Devonport, and one was shot (J. G., Zool. 1875, p. 4710). One was seen
on the Dart, December 7th, L874 (G. F. M., Zool. 1875, p. 4529); and one was
killed there September 1875 (E. P., Trans. Devon. Assoc. vol. viii. p. 207). One was
obtained on the Teign in 1875 (T. Jacobs and C. S., v. v.).

The Osprey was frequently seen on the Exe, and one was observed for a month
in September 1845 (F. W. L. R., Zool. 1845, p. 1190). Dr. W. R. Scott remarks
that this bird was uot a very uncommon visitor, as almost every winter one or two
were shot in the neighbourhood of Exeter. One was shot on the Exe, December 1847 |
(Zool. 1849, p. 2384). The specimen in Mr. Byne’s collection was shot on the Exe
estuary October 4th, 1865, and was seen by us on the previous day, perched on a
beacon-pole stuck in the mud between Topsham and Turf (W. S. M. D’U., Zool.
1865, p. 9847). One was wounded on Dawlish Warren in October 1866. One was
trapped at Powderham, on the Exe estuary, in June 1869, having been feeding on
young Pheasants. Another was shot on Dawlish Warren, April 27th, 1871.

One occurred on Braunton Marshes, September 1868 (G. F. M., Zool. 1868, p. 1460).
Mr. Cecil Smith mentions one from North Deyon, about September 1869 (B. of
Sonierset, p. 4, note). Two were observed, and one killed, in the neighbourhood of
Barnstaple in September 1875 (M. A. M., Zool. 1875, p. 4720). The Osprey is an
occasional visitor to Lundy Island (Trans. D. Assoc. iv. and viii. ).

The Osprey used to be met with very frequently on the Cornish
estuaries, but, alas! both in Cornwall and Devon, at the present time, it
is very rarely seen. On the coast of Dorset it was not unfrequent up to
1881.

Order STEGANOPODES.
Family PELECANIDZ.

THE CORMORANTS.

The next family of birds we have to consider may be
termed Aquatic Birds of Prey, being as eminently fitted
for the pursuit of fishes under water as the Accipitres are
for the capture of birds in the air, or small animals on
the surface of the land. Some of them rival the Eagles
and Falcons in power of flight (the Frigate Birds of tropical
oceans even surpassing chains and the splendid dash of
the Gannet on its finny prey reminds one of the Osprey;
but whereas the latter seizes a fish with its powerful
talons, the Gannet, being web-footed, can only do so with

PELECANIDZ. Lis

its bill. The Steganopodes, or totipalmate birds, include,
besides the Gannets and Cormorants (of which we have
representatives in our Ornis), the Pelicans, the Frigate
and Tropic Birds, and the curious slender-necked Darters,
and in all these the whole of the toes, including the hind
one, are webbed, a structure not met with elsewhere
amongst birds, so that they form, on this account, a well-
marked and natural order.

The Cormorant and the Shag must be well-known birds
to people residing on or visiting the sea-coast, where
strings of their dark-looking and long-necked forms will
be often noticed speeding with rapid flight over the
surface of the sea not far from the cliffs, and, occasionally
alighting, commencing to dive for fish beneath the waves.
But when hidden from view they are chasing their finny
prey with their wings, and are flying as much below
the water, and almost with the same degree of swift-
ness, as when threading their path through the air. It
is owing to this power which they possess that they
are so expert in capturing fish; the Cormorant, in par-
ticular, is greatly to be dreaded when it ascends the
streams after freshwater fish, as nothing can escape it, as
it flies under water in pursuit faster than the trout can
swim, and follows them into their hovers. As is well
known, Cormorants are commonly trained so as to make
them serviceable in catching fish ; they become singularly
docile, returning always to their masters with their cap-
tures, and a ring fitted round their throat prevents them
from appropriating their spoil should they feel inclined
to do so. The Gannet, another expert fisherman, and a
powerful and singular-looking bird, captures his fish after
another fashion. Poising himself in the air above any
school of fish his keen eyes may have detected, suddenly
his gleaming white form may be seen to descend with great

174 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

velocity into the water, which splashes up round the mo-
mentarily submerged bird, and the next second he will
reappear flying up with his captured prey. This may
be often witnessed off our Devonshire coast, especially
on ‘Torbay, where Gannets are sometimes very numerous.
The upright figures of Cormorants or Shags, sitting on
the rocks at the base of the cliffs, are a common and
characteristic sight upon the coast. Sometimes long lines
of these birds may be seen standing motionless, facing
the wind, on the banks of sand laid bare at low-water, each
bird having its wings raised as though to admit the air to
the feathers on the sides and to dry their plumage. We
have seen Turkey-Buzzards sitting on the branches of dead
Evergreen or “ Live” Oaks in California on foggy mornings
in exactly the same attitude.

Cormorant. Fhalacrocorax carbo (Linn.).
[Shag, Isle-of-Wight Parson (Eve). ]

Resident and numerous on all our coasts, and in the estuaries of all
our large rivers.

Cormorants ascend the valley of the Exe considerably above Exeter,
and follow the course of streams inland in pursuit of eels and other
freshwater fishes. They breed on the cliffs along the sea-coast both in
North and South Devon, but some of their breeding-places, having
become too accessible to egg-collectors, have been abandoned. The
Cormorant is not a bird beloved by the angler, who often sees this
poacher, either singly or in small parties, flying up the course of a stream
to take toll of the trout. When there are two or three of them, one will
generally be found on the top of a tall tree near the water acting as
sentinel, while the others are fishing. We have sometimes come upon a
Cormorant so gorged with trout as to be unable to fy. The bird will
then make some diabolical noises, and ejecting his fish, will rise heavily
on wing. We surprised three Cormorants one day fishing in a pool left
by the tide on the Barnstaple river, where they had been feasting ‘“ not
wisely, but too well,” on grey mullet, the consequence being that on our
approach they could only dive into the water, and became our easy prey.
Not knowing what to do with the three heavy birds, when we had them
on the sand, we went up to a labourer, who was working in a field at no
creat distance, and offered to present them to him. He at once accepted

PELECANID.£. fea)

them with grext delight, assuring us that after they had been buried a
little time in the earth they would be as good as Turkeys!

Like most sea-fowl, if skinned and soaked for a night in milk-and-
water, a Cormorant is by no means bad eating, and we have known
an old lady to much appreciate a ‘Black Goose” as she called it. A
younger lady, accustomed to game, who partook of one, declared it tasted
so like Grouse that she would not have known the difference but for its size.
When any of the sailors on the North Devon coast shoot Cormorants or
Shags, they carry them from house to house endeavouring to sell them as
** Muscovy Ducks”!

The Cormorant is a common bird on the northern and southern coasts
of Devon, and there are a few stations where the birds may be seen in
considerable numbers. One such station is on a high cliff in Ladram Bay
between the mouth of the Otter and Sidmouth, which we visited one day,
and, lying down on the top and looking over, beheld a great assemblage
of Cormorants on the ledges close below. Some were preening their
feathers, some were quarrelling, some were asleep. After watching them
for some time a friend with us fired a rifle, when great was the com-
motion and rustling of wings as the birds, a hundred or more, left their
ledges and flew out over the sea. We have seen eighteen sitting together
on the top of the Clerk Rock between Dawlish and Teignmouth. ‘The
strong smell arising from a nesting-station of Cormorants is perceptible
at some distance. Cormorants are often caught in the fishermen’s nets,
especially the young birds, which are white-breasted, and these are
believed by the fishermen to be a different species, and specimens have
been forwarded to us as great rarities. Although, as a rule, nesting on
the cliffs, Cormorants not unfrequently place their great nests on trees.
We know of an instance in Pembrokeshire, where a number nest annually
in a wood at Slebech, the seat of Baron de Riitzen. Cormorants have
been seen perched on the spire of a church in Barnstaple.

On the 15th June, 1883, when in company with Messrs. J. Gatcombe
and J. Brooking Rowe, at Wembury, near Plymouth, we saw a Cor-
morant with a conspicuous white collar around the neck (Zool. 1883
p. 422). We watched it for some time through a powerful field-glass.
Mr. Gatcombe mentions that in April 1877 he saw on the rocks at
Wembury “a Cormorant in rather peculiar plumage; the whole of the
lower parts, from the chin downwards, was almost white, and the back
and wings apparently silvery grey.” It is remarkable that Mr. Clogg
had seen a similar bird on the Cornish coast a few months previously,
and Mr. J. C. Mansel-Pleydell observed one like it in Swanage Bay on
the 25rd June following. It would seem that this peculiarly marked
bird had been making a tour round the coast.

176 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

Shag. Phalacrocorax graculus (Linn.).
(Green Cormorant ; Crested Cormorant; Shoalster (V.D.).]

Resident: on the coasts, and breeds.

The Shag or Crested Cormorant is a common bird on the Devonshire
coasts, and is, we believe, more numerous than the Cormorant in some
parts. It does not visit the inland streams like that bird, although it
will ascend tidal rivers as far as the tide runs, being often seen as high
up as Barnstaple, which is some six miles above the mouth of the Taw.
It nests on the cliffs of the north and south-west coasts. The adult bird in
its dark green plumage in the early spring, and with its conspicuous
crest, 1s very handsome, although, to our eye, there is something
“uncanny” in the appearance both of the Shag and the Cormorant, as

Milton doubtless thought when he selected the Cormorant as the bird
whose form he represents the great Enemy of mankind as assuming. The
Shag is an extremely wary bird, and does not often become the spoil of
the gunner, and its compact feathers are almost like a coat of mail. An
Tnstow boatman, who in by-gone years was our companion when we
went after Duck, had many marvellous tales to tell of this invulnerable
bird. One day he got near one as it was sitting asleep and drying its
feathers in the sun, after the manner of Shags, on a sandbank. He shot
it, picked it up, and tossed it into his boat, and a short time afterwards
landed to crawl over the mud with his long duck-gun after a flock of
Wigeon. When he was some distance away he turned round and looked
towards his boat, and there, he declared, was his supposed dead Shag
seated on the gunwale, shaking the shot out of its feathers, so that he
could hear them rattling on the water, and the next thing he saw was
the Shag flying cheerfully away! We have seen great numbers of Shags
on Torbay in October: one of the rocky islands a little distance from the
shore is a great roosting-place ; this a friend of ours once rowed out to
in the dark, and, firing at random towards the rock, slaughtered a great
many of the birds.

On the south coast the Shag is not so numerous as the Cormorant to the east of
Torbay ; but to the west it is even more abundant, and appears to have increased in
numbers near Plymouth, where it was extraordinarily numerous in January 1873
(J. G., Zool. 1872, p. 2985; 1873, p. 38397; 1879, p. 205). It is not seen in the
harbours near that place before the feoenite of the usual November gales (J.G., Zool.
1874, p. 4254). Shags breed in large numbers about the Bolt Head and Hope early
in May, and Mr. E. A. 8. Elliot found many sitting on their nests, and their mates
around them, on the rocks between the Bolt Head and Bolt Tail in May 1889, but
they had then lost their crests. The males are considerably heavier than the females
(R. P. N. and E. A. 8. E., MS. Notes), Shags are sometimes numerous after gales at
Teignmouth (H.8., Zool. p. 6794), and are occasionally driven inland by stormy
weather. They rarely ascend the estuary of the Exe, but we saw one in January
1871 which had been killed near Woodbury. One was killed on the Kingsbridge
estuary in full breeding-plumage in February 1875 (J. G., Zool. 1875, p. 4450).
Many breed on the north coast and on Lundy Island.

=I
|

PELECANID.E. at

Gannet. Sula bassana (Linn.).
[Solan Goose ; Channel Goose (NV. D.). |

Resident, being always to be found off some part of the coasts, at a
longer or shorter distance from land.

Lundy Island is the only breeding-station of the Gannet off the S.W.
coasts, and the modern history of this interesting bird in this its ancient
hauut is a sad tale of persecution. Formerly the birds occupied a rocky
island at a short distance from the northern end of Lundy, which goes by
the name of the Gannet Rock; but here they were so constantly harried
by the Channel pilots that they shifted their quarters to another station
on Lundy itself, where unfortunately the cliffs are not sufficiently preci-
p-tous to prevent their nests being plundered by the egg-stealer. Mr.
Wright, the tenant of Lundy, informs us that he does not think a single
young bird has been reared during the last seven years! The eges are
systematically taken, finding a ready sale at ls. each to tourists and
others. We are told that the number of nests, when they were counted
the season hefore last, was about seventy. But it is very evident that
the birds will not long endure such a cruel and senseless persecution, and
any day we should not be surprised to hear that they have finally left a
spot where they can secure no peace. At the time when they were
driven from the Gannet Rock a few pairs migrated to Grassholm, a small
island off the west coast of Pembrokeshire, and here they flourished greatly
and rapidly increased in numbers, as our friend Mr. Mortimer Propert, of
St. Davids, who visited Grassholm in 1886, calculated there were then at
least 250 nests in four distinct colonies. On this remote island the
Gannets resided in comparative safety until three years ago, when a party
landed one day from a gunboat, and committed a wanton massacre of
many of the old birds, and amused themselves by throwing the eggs into
the sea! We are glad to add that justice reached the perpetrators of
this senseless act, and we trust the Grassholm Gannets will be left alone
for the future. Little parties of Gannets may be seen passing up and
down the Channel off the Ilfracombe coast in the autumn and winter,
and on Torbay we have seen great numbers in October. The boatmen at
Torquay have a custom of capturing them in a cruel way, by fastening a
herring to a deal plank and then placing it on the water, and presently,
the bait being espied by a passing Gannet, the bird plunges itself
downwards with great force, and driving its beak into the soft wood is
held a fast prisoner until the boatmen come up and secure it.

We once had a Gannet brought to us alive in December which had swal-
lowed a baited fish-hook, and it proved a very formidable pet, as it made
vigorous stabs at all who approached with its powerful beak. We know
of no instances of Gannets coming up the tidal rivers, even after the
severest storms, although there are many cases of immature birds having
been picked up dead far inland.

The old Gannets in their full nesting-plumage, when they have their
straw-coloured heads, bright blue patch of skin around the eyes, pure

N

178 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

white backs and underparts, with black tips to their wings and blue
lines down the toes, are very handsome, and do not attain their full dress
until the sixth year. Young birds are grey; and year after year become
gradually whiter. There is a certain stage when they assume a curious
plumage marked upon the mantle in alternate squares of black and white,
like a chess-board. Where they go to when they are in this stage of
plumage we cannot well say, as they are then extremely rare and are
seldom met with, even off such a great metropolis of Gannets as the Bass
Rock at the entrance of the Firth of Forth. In the winter-time old birds
lose a good deal of the straw-yellow upon the head, which is then almost
white. Gannets are common off the Cornish coast during the autumn
and winter, following the pilchards into the bays, but have no nesting-
station on any of the cliffs or on the Scilly Islands.

Two nestling birds in the A. M. M. are said to have been taken from
the cliffs between Exmouth and Budleigh Salterton not later than 1861,
but there is now no breeding-place on the south coast of the county.
Immature birds seem to be generally rare at all seasons on the south
coast (A. von H., Zool. 1874, p. 3906; J. G., Zool. 1878, p. 53, and
1887, p. 377); but the adults are very common, and appear to remain
for the greater portion of the year, viz. from September to May. They,
however, usually keep well out at sea, except when following shoals of
pilchards, herrings, and sprats, then approaching the shore in large
numbers, and may be seen dashing into the water after their finny prey,
Adults are often brought to the bird-stuffers at Exeter and Exmouth in
January and February. An immature bird in its dark grey white-
spotted plumage was killed off Exmouth after the stormy weather in
October 1891; and five or six occurred on the Kingsbridge estuary about
the same time. They were picked up in an exhausted and dying con-
dition. At Plymouth Gannets are frequently brought in by the fishermen
during the early months of the year, being captured either by baited
hooks or by becoming entangled in the herring-nets off that port (J. G.,
Zool. 1879, p. 206).

We remember seeing many years ago amongst the papers of Col.
Montagu, kindly lent to us by our friend the late Rev. J. Hellins, of
Exeter, figures and description of a mite named by him Cvdluluria bassani,
which he discovered living in the air-cells under the skin of the Gannet.

ARDEIDZ. 179

Order HERODIONES.

Family ARDEIDZ.

THE HERONS.

We have eleven representatives of the Heron family on
the British list, but, of the whole number, only two are
to be considered as indigenous birds—the Common Heron,
still numerous in suitable localities, and the Common
Bittern, once a resident, but now ouly seen in severe
Winters as a frozen-out migrant. All the others are only
accidental stragglers, some of them South-European
species, such as the Purple Heron, the Little Egret, the
Buff-backed and the Squacco Heron, the Little Bittern, and
the Night-Heron; while there are two others which have
reached us from America, coming perhaps vid Northern
Asia and Europe, namely the American Bittern and the
Green Heron, the last having only once been obtained on
the West Cornish coast, its first recorded appearance any-
where in Europe. All these birds are denizens of dense
sedge-covered swamps and morasses, where they nest,
some of them on the ground, others on trees growing
in the bogs; they are all more or less nocturnal in their
habits, feeding on frogs, fish, worms, &c.; some are ex-
tremely beautiful, being adorned with dorsal and breast
plumes and crests; but their appearance in this country
is exceptional, and some of the recorded instances may
either have been escapes of imported birds, or they may
have reached our shores through an assisted passage,
having alighted when weary on the rigging of ships
and so have been carried into our latitudes. With the

N2

180 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

exception of the Green Heron, every British species has
been reported from Devonshire, only one of them being
doubtful.

Heron. Ardea cinerea, Linn.
(Herne, Erne, Crane: Dev.; Heronshaw. ]

Resident, and tolerably numerous, but rather local in its distribution.
Frequents the estuaries of our larger rivers, inland ponds and streams,
and occasionally the bogs on Dartmoor. Breeds in March and April in
the breeding-stations, or heronries (termed ‘‘ craneries” in South Devon,
Herons being often called ‘“Cranes”), in various parts of the county,
of which we append a list. These are seldom very far from the sea-
coast, as the birds instinctively select their home within an easy flight of
localities where their food may be obtained with the greatest ease and
safety.

The favourite quarry of the old falconers, because of the courage with
which it would climb the heavens in a ringing fight—ardea petit ardua
—in its efforts to shake off the pursuing Falcons, and for this reason in
old times a bird for whose preservation the game-laws were strictly
enforced. The Grey Heron, or “ Heronshaw,” as it was anciently termed,
is still fairly numerous in most parts of the county, in spite of the annual
decrease in the area of fen-lands and the removal of that special pro-
tection to which we have referred; nor is it likely ever to become a
rare bird, for it is so wary that it is well able to take care of itself, and
the brooks and sands afford it plenty of food.

On the sands in the estuary of the Teign in South Devon we have counted
as many as thirty at one time feeding at low-water, and the late Mr.
Gatcombe observed a similar number on the mudbanks of the River
Tamar, near Warleigh, on 4th November, 1876. Herons are equally
plentiful along the beautiful banks of the Dart, and on the Kingsbridge
estuary, as also on the sandy reaches of the Taw and Torridge, and are
numerous on the shores of the Bristol Channel from Minehead eastwards.
On the Exe estuary thirteen is the largest number we have seen at one
time.

Often of a summer’s evening the harsh cry of the Heron may be heard
as he passes overhead with heavy beat of wing on his way to some brook,
where, after a long-continued drought, the poaching fellow does con-
siderable mischief among the fish, and, if there be a moon, pursues his
sport all through the night. Besides small fish and eels he eagerly
devours frogs, water-voles, mice, and rats. When fly-fishing we have
sometimes come close upon a Heron napping after a hearty meal of trout
or frogs, and once succeeded in getting our line round the neck of one
extra somnolent, but after a struggle or two, fearing for our top-joint, we
let the bird go free.

Young Herons are by no means to be despised for the table, their

ARDEID.©. 181

brown meat closely resembling that of a hare in flavour. A Heron, when
fishing, is a model of patience. See him, standing in the water, motion-
less as if asleep, remaining in the same attitude until at last some fish
has approached within his reach, when down comes the formidable beak
with lightning rapidity and rarely misses its prey. A wounded Heron
should be approached with caution, as the bird can strike very smartly
and, invariably, if he can, aims at the eye. In severe weather we have
come across frozen-out Herons so weak and starved that they have
allowed us to capture them with the hand. Such we have taken home
and carefully nursed, feeding them with raw meat, &c., but after a few
days we have always found them dead. Before beginning his evening's
fishing a Heron likes to settle on a tree near the water, where he will
remain for some time in meditation, Two small fishponds on our grounds
were much affected by Herons ; one of them was bordered on one side by
old oaks, on which the birds loved to settle, and the other was a favourite
haunt because of the multitude of frogs which inhabited its shallows.
Here of an evening we have counted seven Herons either meditating or
busily engaged in fishing. A few years since, after a severe gule, a Heron
was caugat at Ilfracombe and brought alive to Mr. W. Brodrick, then
residing there. He turned it into a yard which was tenanted by a fine
Gordon setter, between whom and the bird a warm friendship was at once
estublished. ‘The dog allowed the Heron to pick the choicest bits out of
his food-bucket ; and we have scen the bird standing as close as it could
get to its friend, its beak resting affectionately on the dog’s forehead.
Bat one morning the Heron was found choking from a bone which had
lodged in its gullet, and, although tracheotomy was successfully performed,
and the bone removed, the Heron died the next day, to the great grief
ot Chuff, the setter.

West Country Heronries.

Shute Park, near Axminster, the seat of the Poles, established a few years
before 1852 (G. P. R. P., ‘ Naturalist, 1852, p. 35). The birds are
stated to have remoy ed to Stedcombe (id., ‘Book of the Axe,’
p: 770);

Killerton, near Exeter (Sir T. D. Acland, Bart.), on beeches near the house
(Henry Burney, Zool. 1873, p. 3651, and R. C., v.v.).

Powderham Park (Lord Devon), on the estuary of the Exe, on oak trees.

Sharpham, on the Dart, the seat of the Durants, about twenty nests.

Bellever, on Dartmoor (Mr. Templer), on larch trees (W. W. B., in litt...

Totnes, single pairs in the woods (S. Hannaford).

Halwell W ‘ood (Capt. Hallifax), on the Kingsbridge dia More than
thirty nests there in April 1881 (KE. A.S. E.).

Woods opposite Ilton Castle, also on the Kingsbridge estuary, on low
fir trees (id.).

Aunemouth, on the Avon, in small numbers (7d.).

Little Orcherton Wood, at the mouth of the Erme (Rev. G. C. Green,
Pidsley’s B. of Devonshire),

Warleigh, on the Tamar, the seat of the Radcliffe family.

182 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

Kitley, near Yealmpton, the beautiful seat of the Bastards.

Fremington, near Barnstaple, on the Yeo property, in a fir-plantation.

Arlington Court (Miss Chichester), near Barnstaple.

Pixton Park, near Dulverton (Lord Carnarvon), on fir trees. This heronry
was formerly situated at Combe House, an ancient seat of the Syden-
ham family in the Parish of Dulverton; from thence the birds
migrated to some woods on the Exe, on the eastern side of Pixton,
but by successive moves approached nearer to their ancient home.
There were about ten pairs building in fir trees about 1872 (J. E.
Harting, Zool. 1872). This year (1891) we regret to say that the
trees at Pixton have been wholly, or in part, cut down.

There was formerly a colony near Dawlish, but it no longer exists
(Harting, Zool. 1872, p. 3261). There seems also to have been a herony
on the Teign (T. & K., 1830).

There are at least four heronries in Cornwall, and several in Somerset,
besides the one we have mentioned above at Pixton Park, and one at
Knole, not far from Minehead. The latter is one of the most picturesque
heronries we know of. Here there is a cone-shaped wooded hill, on which
almost every tree bears one or more nests ; and when the birds are either
sitting, or are in close attendance upon their yonng, the heronry may be
seen trom a considerable distance, and shines silver-grey in the sunlight
to anyone looking down upon it from the superior heights of Dunkery.
There are only two or three heronries in Dorset.

Mr. E. A. 8. Elliot writes that on April 26th, 1881, having permission
from the owner, Capt. Hallifax, he went to Halwell Wood by him-
self, and soon found the Herons established on the south-west border of
the wood in low, bushy oak trees, no nest being more than forty feet from
the ground. ‘The trees were easily climbed, and he was soon up the
nearest tree with a nest; but was more cautious after his first: experience,
as it contained nearly full-fledged young, which resented his intrusion by
darting their pointed bills at him with startling force and rapidity. The
old birds cleared out, and did not attempt to defend their nests, but the
young ones were very fierce. He went up to quite thirty nests, most of
which contained young in different stages of growth, and took seven eggs
from nests where he guessed the eggs would not be hard-set from the fact
of their containing only two or three. In some nests he found but two
young, and in others four. We have known a case where a lad has had
his hand perforated by the bill of one of the old herons as he was coming
down from a tree after robbing the nest.

Herons are somewhat hard to kill; we once stalked one fishing on the
edge of the mud near Powderham, on the Exe, and having fired at him
from behind a marsh-bank with a heavy duck-gun, knocked him so com-
pletely head-over-heels into the water that he came up facing the opposite
direction to that in which he had been standing. Wishing to secure our
prize we ran down to the water’s edge without stopping to reload, but
just as we reached the Heron, and were about to pick him up, he opened
his broad wings, and rising into the air, sailed away apparently uninjured.

ARDEIDZ. 183

Purple Heron, Ardea purpurea, Linn.
[The African Heron of Montagu. |

An accidental visitor of very rare occurrence.

A more showy looking bird than the Common Heron from its bright
maroon-red breast, which gives it its English name, the Purple Heron is
a bird of Southern Europe, and is only an occasional straggler to the north
of the Continent, and, as such, is no more than a very rare accidental
visitor to the British Islands. Although in appearance closely resembling
the Common Heron, than which it is, however, a trifle smaller, this Heron
in its habits comes nearer to the Bittern. Like that bird it delights in
skulking in deep sedges. and may thus be more easily approached, flushed,
and shot than the Common Heron, which generally feeds on some open
level where it can at any moment descry an approaching enemy. The
Common Heron, as is well known, places its nest in trees, and sometimes
on the ledges of cliffs, whereas the Purple Heron nests upon the ground.
** When resting and dozing during the daytime it sits in a most peculiar
position, in which it may be compared to an cld pointed brown post
sticking in the ground. It sits mainly on its hinder quarters, resting on
these and the hinder part of the tarsus (not on the foot); and the body
and neck are stuck in an almost upright position” (Dresser, ‘ Birds of
Europe, vi. p. 222). The full plumage is not assumed until the bird is
three years old.

Three or four specimens, all in immature plumage, are reported to have
been obtained, and two others seen, in South-western Devon. Three of
them are mentioned by Dr. Edward Moore. One of them was seen on the
Plym in April 1824 by Mr. T. E. Gosling, of Leigham, and another by
several persons near Flete, on the Erme, the residence of the Bulteels, in
December 1836. Itis natural to surmise that both these birds might have
been Common Herons. The third was shot near Aveton Gifford, and was
sold at the Rev. Kerr Vaughan’s sale in March 1847, and is now in the posses-
sionof Mrs, Elliot of Tresillian House, Kingsbridge, having been purchased by
her husband the late Mr. J. Elliot. This specimen was forwarded to
Bewick, and figured by him (EK. M., Trans. Plym. Inst. 1830; Mag. Nat.
Hist. 1837; Rowe’s Peramb. Dartmoor, 1848; E. A.S. E., MS. Notes).
The Rey. Thomas Johnes mentions that in January 1832 a waggoner,
passing over Whitchurch Down, saw a large bird rise from the roadside
close to him. He struck it down with his whip, and it was presented to
Mr. Johnes by Mr. C. Willesford, of Tavistock. The bird proved to belong
to this species, and was evidently exhausted by fatigue and hunger (T. J.,
Bray’s ‘ Tamar and Tavy,’ vol. 1. p. 353),

Mr. Plumtre Methuen informed Mr. Yarrell that he had obtained a speci-
men shot near Plymouth in February 1839 (Yarrell, B. Birds, 2nd ed. ii.

». O15).

The last, and best. authenticated, occurrence is that recorded by Mr.
Gatcombe, who purchased a specimen he saw hanging up in a poulterer’s

184 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

shop in Stonehouse, which had been shot on the Tamar, Oct. 30th, 1851
(Zool. 1859, p. 6376).

The Rev. G. Tugwell mentions this species as a ‘‘ rare visitor” to North
Devon, but he gives no instances of its occurrence, and we have no know-
ledge of any specimen having been obtained in that part of the county.

In Cornwall four specimens of the Purple Heron have been secured,
which were all seen in the flesh by Mr. E. H. Rodd. A very fine example
in perfect summer plumage, which we saw in that gentleman’s rich collec-
tion, was shot in a sedgy grove at Killiow House, near Truro; another
fine adult in beautiful plumage was shot on April 8th, 1850, in the parish
of St. Buryan, within five miles of the Land’s End; another, a female speci-
men, was sent to Vingoe, the Penzance bird-stuffer, from the neighbourhood
of the Lizard, on April 24th, 1867 ; and on Sept. 2nd, 1878, an immature
bird was forwarded to Mr. Rodd from the Scilly Islands. ;

We know of no Somerset Purple Herons ; but two have been obtained
in Dorsetshire, one shot at Hyde, by Mr. Radclyffe, and another in 1848,
from the neighbourhood of Dorchester, is in the collection of Mr. Henning
(Mansel-Pleydell, ‘ Birds of Dorset,’ p. 129).

[Great White Heron. Ardea alba, Linn.

An accidental visitor whose occurrence is doubtful, as no specimen has
been obtained, and only one is supposed to have been seen, in this county,

A Heron, pure white all over, with jet-black legs, would easily be dis-
tinguished at a considerable distance; so that it is not likely that any
examples of this rare straggler from the South of Europe can have visited
this country and have escaped detection. Indeed, there are instances on
record in which it has been seen and not obtained, for it possesses all the
wariness of the Common Heron and is well able to take care of itself. It is
about the same size as our well-known English species, In the Supplement
to his ‘ Ornithological Dictionary’ Col. Montagu announced its first recorded
appearance in the West of England :—‘“ A White Heron made its appear-
ance on the borders of the river Avon, in Devonshire, in the autumn of
the year 1805, where it was frequently observed in company with three or
four of the common species, and sometimes alone. The Rev. Kerr Vaughan,
rector of Aveton Gifford, who had frequent opportunities of observing it,
and used every means to procure it, thinks from its apparently superior
size it must have been Ardea alba, and not a lusus variety of Ardea
major (cinerea) ; but its extreme wariness disappointed the many attempts
to shoot it, although it continued within the range of a few miles for two
months.” In his ‘Cornish Fauna’ Dr, Bullmore reports a Great White
Heron having been seen at Penzance, on Feb. 4, 1866:—* A White
Heron was observedin company with two of the common species under the
cliffs at Penzance. It remained on the coast several days, but was so shy
and wary that it never suffered its pursuers to approach within gunshot.
One morning, however, just at daylight, a friend of mine risked a shot,

ARDEID.E. 185

though at a long distance off ; it was, unfortunately, unsuccessful, and the:
bird at once flew away, and has never since been heard of.”

The South-American allied species, Ardea egretta, is an equally unap-'
proachable bird. We possess the bill of one, as a trophy, which was shot
by Mr. G. F. Mathew, R.N., after a long stalk, on a day when he also
obtained a beautiful pair of tho American Egret, Ardea candidissima,
which we have in our collection.

Mr. E. H. Rodd, of Penzance, received information from his nephew
that the coastguardsmen at Scilly had reported to him that a Great White »
Heron for some time during the autumn of 1870 frequented the Hedge
Rock, a favourite resort of Common Herons; but the bird, being shot on
December 26th, proved to be a Spoonbill (Bb. of Cornwall, pp. 292, 298). ]

Little Egret, Ardea garzetta, Linn.

' An accidental visitor of very rare occurrence.

This beautiful Egret, a native of the Southern and Eastern portions of
the globe, has not been so fortunate as the preceding species, as it has
been secured in the: very few instances in which it has been observed in
our West Country.

The Rey. Robert Holdsworth, of Brixham, informed Mr. Yarrell that’
in 1816 a bird was shot on Flatoars, a shoal in the river Dart, dry at low’
tide, which exactly corresponded with the description of the Egret in
Montagu’s * Ornithological Dictionary’ in its second year’s plumage, being
tinged with grey on the neck and breast. One in the collection of
Mr. Newton, of Millaton Hall, Bridestow, is said by Dr. Moore to have
been obtained near Crediton (Rowe's Peramb. Dartmoor, p, 234). Mr. J.
Brooking Rowe speaks of ‘** one or two on the Tamar” (Trans. Plym. Inst,
1862-63).

An adult shot below Topsham on the Exe, in May 1878, was deposited
at our request in the A. M. M. by the owner, Mr. EK. H. Harbottle, archi-
tect, and it has remained there ever since. Wesaw the bird in the hands
of Mr. Atkins, a bird-stuffer in Exeter, to whom it had been sent for
preservation, soon after it had been received by him (J. G., Zool.
1870, p. 2308; Harting’s ‘ Handbook of B. Birds,’ p. 148; H. Saunders,
‘Yarrell’s B. Birds,’ 4th ed. iv. p. 185, and ‘ Manual of B. Birds,’ p. 361),
All of the published records say it was killed at Countess Weir, but we
believe it was obtained about two miles further down the estuary below
Topsham. Mr. Howard Saunders considers this specimen the only British-
killed example ** about which there can be no doubt.”

Buff-backed Heron. Ardea bubulcus, Audouin.

[The Little White Heron of Montagu was this bird in immature
plumage. |
An accidental visitor of extremely rare occurrence.
The Buff-backed Heron is a native of Southern Murope and of. Africa,-

186 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

which has twice been met with in South Devon, and these are still, we
believe, the only instances of its occurrence in the British Isles. Jn his
‘ Ornithological Dictionary,’ Col. Montagu writes :—‘* We had the honour of
announcing this species for the first time as British in the ‘ Transactions’
of the Linnean Society, a female having been shot near Kingsbridge, the
latter end of October, 1805, which was placed in our collection by a
gentleman to whom we are obliged on many similar occasions, Mr. Nicholas
Luscombe, of that place. ... This elegant little species of Heron had been
seen for several days in the same field attending some cows *, and picking
up insects, which were found in its stomach. It was by no means shy,
but suffered a bungling marksman to fire twice before he could kill it,
The situation where it was shot is the southernmost promontory of Devon,
very near the coast, between the Start and the Prawle.” A great many
years had to pass before the second British specimen was secured. In the
* Zoologist’ for 1851 (p. 3116), Mr. Clevland, of Tapeley Park, Bideford,
states that he had received a very fine specimen of the Little White Heron
(Ardea russata) which had been shot in the south of Devon in the April
of that year. Mr. Yarrell was informed by the Rev. Robert Holdsworth
that Col. Montagu’s specimen was shot by Mr. W. F. Cornish, at South
Allington, inthe parish of Chivelstone. It is still preserved in the gallery
of British Birds in the National Collection at South Kensington, but is now
somewhat grimy from age. Thisspecies is very common in the South of
Spain, where it finds its chief European stronghold. Mr. H. Saunders
(‘Yarrell’s British Birds,’ 4th ed. vol. iv. p. 189) states that thousands may
be seen in the marshes of Andalucia amongst the cattle, often seated on their
backs and picking off ticks, from this practice gaining from the natives
a name which signifies ‘ cattle-cleaners.” A very closely allied species is
common in India, nesting around the tanks, and we have its eggs in our
collection. The adult male of the Buff-backed Heron is a very handsome
bird, snowy white in plumage, with the exception of the crown of the
head and the upper part of the neck in front, which are bright reddish
buff. A beautiful plume of hair-like feathers of buftish red depends from
the breast, and another plume of similar coloured hairy feathers springs
from the lower part of the back and extends beyond the tail.

Squacco Heron. Ardea ralloides, Scop.

An accidental visitor of occasional occurrence.

The Squacco, slightly smaller than the preceding species of Heron, to
which it has some superficial resemblances, is a much more frequent
straggler to the South-west of England, having occurred five times in
Devonshire, at least a dozen times in Cornwall, chiefly in the Land’s
End district, and four times in Dorsetshire. In the county of Somerset

* This species of Heron is very fond of attending upon cattle, as are other members
of the Heron family, and has gained its specific name “ bubulcus,” the herdsman, from
that habit.

ARDEID. 187

Mr. Cecil Smith was informed of one, without any particulars, which was
included in a list of rare birds furnished by Mr. Baker, of Bridgwater, to
the ‘Proceedings’ of the Somersetshire Archzeological Society for 1850. He
also learned from Mrs. Turle, the bird-stuffer of Taunton, that she had
stuffed this bird, which had been sent to her from Bridgwater. The
Squacco generally makes its appearance in this country in the months of
April and May, and there are instances of its having been obtained in
most of the summer months. In the month of May, 1849, “a flight” of
this beautiful little Heron was recorded by Mr. E. H. Rodd as having
appeared in the neighbourhood of Penzance, and three examples of it were
brought to Mr. Vingoe, the bird-stuffer in that town. Writing to the
‘Zoologist’’ on May 7th, 1867 (Zool. 1867, p. 830), Mr. Rodd says: “ We
generally get specimens of this elegant Heron every spring (the italics are
our own) from the Land’s End district, and I believe that every example that
has come under my notice in the last thirty years has occurred at this
season of the year only.” It was the good fortune of Mr. Rodd to examine
more British examples of the Squacco than any other English ornithologist,
some eight or nine having passed through his hands; but none of them
were in perfectly adult plumage, although one or two would have reached
it had they been suffered to live a few weeks longer. When we reflect
upon the sad slaughter of these beautiful birds we cannot help concluding
that had they escaped they might possibly have nested in this country, as
would also some of the numerous Night-Herons and Little Bitterns whose
untimely deaths we have also to record.

One of the Devonshire specimens which is in extremely beautiful plumage
is before us as we write. It was shot by a sailor at Braunton, in North
Deyon, on 10th June, 1878, and was brought to the Barnstaple bird-stuffer
as a Parr ot, or something” ! ! This example possesses a finely-developed
occipital crest, and has the filamentous feathers springing from the lower
part of the back; but the centre of the throat is buffish white, and the
neck has longitudinal streaks on either side of reddish brown, while the
plume from the breast is not yet indicated, showing that our bird has
not fully attained the adult dress, in which state the Squacco has been
very rarely met with in this kingdom. One shot on the Fleet Water,
Wyke Regis, near Weymouth, on Ist July, 1867, and brought in wounded
to that town, is stated to have been in full adult plumage. In the same
year, on |] 5th May, another Dorsetshire example was recorded in the
* Field” which was obtained at Fryers Mayne, near Dorchester.

In this little Heron “the feathers of the back are elongated; the webs
disunited, each filament having the appearance of asingle hair, from which
circumstance the term ‘ comata,’ hairy, has been applied to it ” (H. Saunders,
Yarrell’s B. Birds, 4th ed.iv. p. 194). It seems to have occurred more often
of late years, or else must previously have been overlooked, as we search
for any record of it in vain in the earlier lists of the Devonshire avifauna,
The Syuacco is a common species in Southern Kurope, South-western Asia,
Egy pt, and Nubia, and in North Africa generally. Like the preceding
species it is fond of the society of cattle, and especially of herds of swine.
One captured near Penzance had an entire shrew-mouse and the remains of

188 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

many bectles in its craw. It is said to be entirely a day feeder, hunting
for frogs, worms, fish, shell-fish, &c.

A nearly adult specimen was killed by a gamekeeper of Sir Fred. Rogers
by the side of a large pond close to the house at Blachtord, near Ivybridge,
the seat of Lord Blachford, in June or July 1840 (Yarrell’s b. Birds, 1st
ed. ji. p. 562, 2nd ed. ii. p. 531; R.A. J.,* Naturalist,’ 1851, p. 59; J.G.,
Zool. 1873, p. 363); one or two have been obtained on the ‘lamar (J. B.
R., Trans. Plym. Inst. 1862-3, p. 75). Mr. Marsh-Dunn had a specimen
in his fine collection which he obtained from Bolitho of Plymouth, which
was said to have been obtained at Kingsbridge. The adult male in our
collection was kilied on Braunton Marsh on 10th June, 1878 (M. A. M.,
Zool. 1878, p. 435).

Little Bittern. Ardetta minuta (Linn.).

A casual visitor, usually in spring and autumn.

Hardly a year passes without an example of this tiny Bittern, whose
body, Col. Montagu remarked, is no larger than a Fieldtare’s, being met
with in some parts cf the kingdom, and it has been very frequently ob-
served in Devonshire, more especially in the southern division of the
county. In the north of Devon, as is the rule with birds which are
stragglers from the continent, it is not so often obtained. When the
Little Bitterns first arrive in this country, and this is generally in the
spring months, they often seem to be stupified by the labours of migration,
as they are encountered in strange places for any Heron to be found in, and
have frequently permitted themselves to be caught by the hand while
standing in an attitude peculiar to the Bittern family, the neck resting far
back upon the shoulders, with the head and beak pointed straight upwards,
in which position they not a little resemble a piece of dry wood. There
is little doubt that if they could escape molestation some of these small
Bitterns visiting us in the spring would nest with us, and it is probable that
some have actually done so, and that the young birds of the year, which are
occasionally met with in the autumn, may not be migrants, but birds
which have been reared in some secluded spots. The skulking habits of
the Little Bittern, and the thick cover in marshy places in which it loves
to hide, are allin favour of its avoiding detection. It is numerous in
Holland, where it nests regulariy, and is a summer visitor to that country,
and also to most parts of Southern Europe, retiring to Africa for its
winter-quarters.

Montagu records three specimens from the neighbourhood of Crediton in the sum-
mer of 1808, on the authority of Mr. Comyns. One of them skot in May was a female
and contained forty eggs, some considerably enlarged, and as a male was afterwards
shot, which had been previously observed near the same place, it is prebable a brood
would have been reared had the birds not been shot (Orn. Dict., Suppl.). Dr. E. Moore
also mentions two examples from North Devon (Mag. Nat. Hist. 1537, p. 319; Rowe's
Peramb. Dartmoor, p. 251).

A male and female occurred at Kingsbridge between 1840 and 1846 (H. N., Zool.
1847, p. 1695). ‘Two specimens were killed at Flete near Ermington (C. J. C. Bulteel;

ARDEIDE. 189

Zool. 1849, p. 2528). One at Budleigh Salterton in 1849 (R. C.). A fine male was
captured when apparently asleep at Prawl, April 23rd, 1852 (C. P., Zool. 1852, p. 3474).
A female, near the Start Lighthouse, in March 1864; two near Plymouth, May 7th,
1865, one, a male, being killed (J. B. R.). One at Witheridge Moor, North Devon,
Sept. 1865, is now in the collection of the late Mr. Marsh-Dunn at Teignmouth. One,
the beginning of May 1868, at Braunton, near Barnstaple, shot by Mr. Williams's
keeper (M. A. M., Zool. 1863, p. 1295).

A female flew ashore and alighted on a small boat, where it was captured alive, at
Seaton, May 20th, 1869 (J. G.). A female, near the Start Lighthouse, in May 1869.
One was killed in the allotment-ground close to Axminster Railway-Station about 1872
(Pulman’s ‘ Book of the Axe,’ p. 25). One was killed near Erme Bridge, May 26th, 1873,
having been observed for a fortnight previously (J. G., Zool. 1873, p. 3638). An adult
was taken alive by hand near Plymouth, exhausted by starvation, April 1876 (M. A. M.,
Zool. 1876, p. 5046). A very handsome male bird was shot at South Milton, June 2nd,
1885, and is now in Mr. E. A. 8. Elliot’s collection. Another, a lovely male in full
plumage, shot at Pamflete on his pond there by Mr. John Bulteel, May 14th, 1837, is
now in the collection of Rev. G. C. Green, of Modbury (R. P. N.). Within a year or
two a Little Bittern was blown ashore one stormy night at Teignmouth, and was
captured alive, but soon died (W. R. H. J., 27 /itt.).

The Little Bittern, according to Mr. Rodd, does not appear to be so
often noticed in Cornwall as it isin Devonshire. We know of four or five
Somerset examples, and seven or eight are mentioned by Mr. Mansel-
Pleydell as having occurred in Dorsetshire.

The call-note of the Little Bittern, heard at night, resembles the short
bark of a dog, and quite recently a gentleman writing to ‘ Land and Water’
from Ireland, describing a live Little Bittern which he had in his possession,
added that after he had become familiar with its cry he recognized it as
one he had often heard of evenings in his neighbourhood. Itis thus to
be presumed that this bird may havesuccessfully nested in that part of
Treland, as it is believed to have done occasionally in the county of

Norfolk.

Night-Heron. Wycticorar griseus (Linn.).

A casual visitor in spring and autumn.

The record of the Night-Heron in Devonshire is, indeed, a sad one.
This singular bird has made several efforts to obtain a home by the
banks of our beautiful trout-streams, but has almost invariably fallen a
victim to the gun. Had it been unmolested it would certainly have
reared its young with us, and have returned again each spring to the
same neighbourhood. The flourishing colony of Night-Herons in the
Zoological Gardens in London is a sufficient witness to the suitability of
our climate to this species. It is a shameful reflection upon our hospi-
tality and common sense when we recount the list of harmless, beautiful,
and interesting birds which are wantonly butchered and prevented from
establishing themselves in our midst. Already we have mourned over
the Golden Oriole, the Hoopoe, and Montagu’s Harrier; and now we have
to complain that, like those birds, the Night-Heron has been similarly
disappointed in its attempt to domicile itself in this country. In the
months of May and June, in the year 1849 (we grieve to recount the

190 TIE BIRDS OF DEVON.

story ), no fewer than eight Night-Herons—four pairs of adults—wereshoton
the banks of the Erme, in South Devon, near a spot where sundry unfortu-
nate Little Bitterns were also massacred. We are glad to set against this
dark tale a somewhat better report from the north of the county. Mr,
Edwards, who was then residing close to New Bridge, on the ‘law, in-
formed us that throughout the summer of 1869 he frequently saw several
large grey birds, which looked Jike Gulls, flying over the river in the
evening, and heard them uttering a hoarse cry. A fine adult male, pro-
bably a member of this very family, was shot on 14th May in that year,
perched upon a tree overhanging the water, a little on the Barnstaple side
of New bridge. Many examples of the Night-Heron have been obtained in
Cornwall; among them a very handsome adult male in the possession of
Mr. Hill, of Helston, who kindly sent us a photograph of it, which has
ten occipital plumes. In general the adults have only three snow-white
plumes, but in very old birds the number is supposed to increase. Mr,
Vingoe, at Penzance, had an adult Night-Heron sent to him which had
siv of these plumes. Another Cornish specimen, shot at Gunwalloe, had
eight. It is curious, after this, to state the experience of Mr. J. H,
Gurney, Jnr., who examined a number of Night-Herons in Egypt, and
arrived at the conclusion that the normal number of plumes is only two!

We can find mention of but one example of the Night-Heron in
Somerset, a county which, from its extent of marshy peat-moors, might
be expected to be often visited by this bird, and this was in the collection
of Mr. Straddling, and was obtained near Bridgwater. Of all parts of
England this most interesting county has suffered most from the absence
of local naturalists, and very little is known about its ornis. Mr. Cecil
Smith had few correspondents, and his own experience was limited to but
a small district around Taunton. In Dorsetshire Mr. Mansel-Pleydell
considered the Night-Heron to be rather a rare bird, but knew of several
instances. A Dorsetshire example may now be seen in the Literary
Institution at Frome, having been procured by the late Prebendary
Horner, of Mells Park, from the neighbourhood of Weymouth. On this
gentleman’s death his collection, which contained many rare birds, was
presented to the town of Frome. Unfortunately no information can be
obtained respecting the localities which provided this interesting collec-
tion. There are specimens of the Little Gull, Sabine’s Gull, Dusky
Shearwater, &c., which we have often examined, supposing that in all
probability they might have come from the Devonshire coast.

The Night-Heron is strictly nocturnal, hiding in the daytime among
the thick foliage of a tree or bush, perched often on some large bough
close to the trunk. At dusk it rouses itself and comes forth to feed,
flying with low and heavy beats, and uttering some harsh and disagreeable
notes. The young birds are brown all over, with elongated yellowish-
white spots. In this plumage Col. Montagu described it as a distinet
species under the name of the Gardenian Heron. In their complete
plumage the adult birds are very handsome ; the top and back of the head
are black; from the nape descend some long white plumes, which vary in
number according to age; the back and scapulars are greenish black ;

ARDEID&. 191

wings and wing-coverts ash-grey; and the whole of the underparts
pure white.

It would seem that in certain years there is a small migration of Night-
Herons to this country in search of a breeding-station,

Dr. E. Moore and Bellamy record several Night-Herons shot at Leigham, Aveton
Gifford, and Ashburton.

An adult male was shot on the Avon near Hatch Bridge, in 1844, and is now in the
collection of the late Mr. J. Elliot, of Kingsbridge (H. N., Zool. 1847, p. 1695, and
E. A. S. E., MS. Notes). The Rev. Courtenay Bulteel states that he himself killed
no less than seven, and Mr. R. A. Julian, Jnr., one, in May 1849, at Flete, near Hol-
beton and Erme Bridge, four of them being adult males and four adult feinales
(Zvol. 1849, p. 2528). These are now preserved in the collections of Lord Lilford,
Mr. Andrews, of Modbury, and the late Mr. Marsh-Dunn, of Teignmouth. Mr. J.
Gateombe examined all these birds. A specimen in the plumage of the second year
was shot by a son of Mr. Bulteel on the river Erme, near Ivybridge, on 2nd June,
1873 (Zool. 1875, p. 3631). An adult male was shot on the ‘Taw, two miles above
Barnstaple, in May 1869, by Lieut. W. C. Mathew (Zool. 1869, p. 1803). An
immature spotted specimen was shot by Mr. George Balkwell on the river Avon
January 7th, 1876 (H. N., Zool. 1876, p. 4848; and R. P. N., MS. Notes). Mr. H.
Nicholls has another immature example, shot: at Churchstow by Mr. Edmund Bray,
and procured one almost in nesting-plumage from the same locality in October about
1864. A specimen was also shot by the Rey. W. Wills, of Axminster (Pulman’s
‘Book of the Axe’),

Bittern, Potaurus stellaris (Linn.).

A winter visitor, usually of somewhat rare occurrence in the south of
the county, but still regularly obtained in the north around Barnstaple.
In some years many have been killed. Thus, in one severe winter Mr,
Henry Nicholls, of Kingsbridge, had eleven specimens brought to him.

Some thirty years ago, before the present commodious market-house
had been erected in Barnstaple, the farmers’ wives were wont on the
market-day to set their panniers on either side of the High Street. It
used to be a matter of great interest to us, in those days, especially in the
winter-time, after a severe frost, to walk the whole length of the street
inspecting the various stalls for the sake of discovering if any rare birds
had been brought in amongst the numerous Snipe, Woodcocks, Wild Ducks,
Wood-Pigeons, &c., which would be exposed for sale. In hard weather
we sheuld be certain to meet with three or four Bitterns ; we have known
of a dozen brought into the town in a single week. We can remember
hearing of three having been flushed together out of a small osier-bed
adjoining the Taw, and two of them, which had been shot right and left,
were long in our possession. Litterns were almost equally numerous at
the time we refer to in the neighbourhood of Weston-super-Mare, in
Somerset, where we have examined a great many which were brought into
the local bird-stuffer from the adjacent levels, and both at Barnstaple and
at Weston-super-Mare the old price for a fine Bittern was half-a-crown,.
At the date to which our experience goes back a few Bitterns were met
with every winter, being exceptionally numerous when the winters were
severe, the birds frozen out from their usual haunts amongst the sedge

192 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

then seeking warm drains and orchard-hedges, where they were easily
flushed and shot. One which fell to our gun when we were sniping in
‘mild weather chanced to be only winged, and on our approach threw
itself upon its back upon the ground and made a desperate defence, striking
upwards with its claws and beak, so that it had to be warily handled.
There is a considerable difference in size in specimens of the Common
Bittern, the females being always smaller than the males, and sometimes,
as we have ourselves detected in one or two instances, extra small
examples are erroneously set down as American Bitterns ; and there is a
considerable degree of variety in the plumage, very light examples being
occasionally met with, as well as very dark ones. Mr. H. Stevenson, in
his admirable ‘ Birds of Norfolk,’ calls attention to the beautiful purplish
bloom on the feathers of the head and back of adult birds when freshly
killed.

Bitterns are nocturnal birds, and are never seen on wing by day unless
they are disturbed from their cover. They then rise with great reluctance,
looking not unlike awkward Cochin-China fowls, and drop again imme-
diately into the first shelter. They prefer to climb up the tall reeds
rather than take flight, even when a dog is closely pressing them. When
seated among the reeds a Bittern might easily escape detection, for, as
Mr. Dresser ‘well says, it looks “ like an old stump or a bundle of dried
flags.”

In old days the Common Bittern, or Bittour, as it was also called, was
a resident bird in this country, and its booming cry was heard at night
from every marsh; it may still nest occasionally in a few places in some
of the remaining fenlands in the East of England, but all our Devonshire
Bitterns are winter migrants from the Continent. The strange nocturnal
cry of the bird is emitted as it stands on the ground in its characteristic
attitude, in which the head and the beak are directed vertically upwards.
The Bittern is a solitary and unsociable bird, and it is rare to find more
than one in the same spot of sedge, except at the nesting-time. The
Barnstaple bird-stuffer assures us that, even at the present day, a winter
never passes without two or three Bitterns being brought in. The severe
winter of 1890-91 produced a great number, and we ourselves heard of
seventeen having been shot at various places in Devon and Somerset alone.
The Rev. G. C. Green, of Modbury, South Devon, has informed us that,
when he was fishing on the Erme on 14th April, 1887, he “ flushed, and
had a splendid sight of, a grand Bittern, three times in one day.” It was
quite close each time, so that he might have counted every feather. He
kept it quite secret for a long time, in hopes that the bird might have
got, or might find, a mate, and might breed in the Orcherton marshes
down below. But he never saw the bird again, or heard of its being
seen, so that it must have left the neighbourhood.

Bitterns were _particularly numerous in the winters of 1829, 1851-32, 1848-49,
1853-54, 1854-55, 1855-56, 1878-79, 1879-80, 1889-90, 1890-91. One or more also
occurred in the years 1861, 64, 65, 66, 67, “12, 145 Tp. Sle 8s, ‘87.

Many were shot in January and Febr uary 1855, and January 1856 (Zool. 1856,
p- 5064), and though we can find but one occurrence in Devon in November 1866,

ARDEID.Z. 193

a large flight visited Cornwall at that time. Several were shot near Plymouth in
December 1878 and January 1879. In December 1879 one was killed in the parish
of Modbury and four near Kingsbridge. In December 1889 three were killed in North
Devon. In November and December 1890 and January 1891 at least a dozen were
shot at Slapton Ley (W. Toll, 2m litt.), and in January 1891 several occurred at Totnes
(R. P.N., in litt.). Dr. E. Moore mentions two specimens obtained on the Exe in May
(Trans. Plym. Inst. 1830, p.524); Mr. R. Cumming obtained one near Exeter in March
1849; one occurred near Cullompton early in March 1890; and one, recorded as a
“ Little Bittern,” was shot near Monk Okehampton in June 1889 (Zool. 1890, pp. 105,
185). With the above exceptions the Bittern has been obtained only in the months of
November, December, January, and February. The principal localities where it has
occurred in Devon are the Tawton marshes above Barnstaple, Braunton Marsh, and
the valley of the Taw; the marshes of the Culm, Exe, and Clyst; Torcross, Slapton,
and other Leys near Kingsbridge; the neighbourhood of Plymouth and the valley of

the Tamar.
The Bittern does not appear to have been any more plentiful in Polwhele’s time in

this county than it is at present.

American Bittern. Botawrus lentiyinosus (Mont.).
[This was the Freckled Heron of Montagu. ]

An accidental visitor of extremely rare occurrence.

As its name imports, this is a common species in North America, from
which continent stragglers have occasionally found their way to this
country. It is a matter of surprise that a bird which is not remarkable
for any power of wing—indeed, the Bitterns are, for the most part, heavy
and awkward fliers—should be able successfully to accomplish so great
an aerial journey; and we can only suppose that the few that have reached
England and the Continent must have, while on their way, alighted with
outstretched wings upon the surface of the water to rest, as other birds of
_ equally feeble flight have been detected in doing. But we believe that
all stragglers to this country from America travel as far as possible by an
overland route, reaching us across Northern Asia and Europe, so that the
distances they would have to accomplish over water would not be exces-
sive. It is impossible that any American Bitterns could cross the wide
Atlantic unless they were passengers on the rigging ofsomeship. Notall
the soi-disant American Bitterns reported as having been obtained in this
country can be accepted as genuine, for some, upon examination by com-
petent ornithologists, have resolved themselves into small examples of
female Common Bitterns. But it may confidently be said that the resem-
blance between the two species is but slight. Not only is the American
Bittern a smaller bird, but it wants the decided hood of the Common Bittern,
and the adults possess patches of light-yellow feathers upon the cheeks
behind the eyes, while a broad black line runs from the gape down either
side of the neck; and an unmistakable distinction is provided by the
primary feathers of the wings, which, in the American Bittern, are in all
stages of plumage uniform brownish black, the same feathers in the Common
Bittern being distinctly barred with rufous. We had the pleasure of
examining in the flesh an undoubted Devonshire specimen of the American
Fittern shortly after it had been shot on some moorland near Parracombe,
on Lord Fortescue’s estate. This was towards the end of October 1875,

O

194 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

The bird was shot by Mr. Rickards, and is, we believe, still in that gentle-
man’s possession at his house near South Molton. The first example
detected in this country was one shot in the autumn of 1804 by a Mr.
Cunningham not far from the river Froome, in the parish of Piddletown,
in Dorsetshire, which passed into the collection of Col. George, of Penrhyn,
in Cornwall, at whose sale it was purchased by Col. Montagu bearing the
label * Ardea minuta.’ This bird, which Col. Montagu at once detected
to be a stranger, was described by him as the Freckled Heron, and is now
in the National Collection at South Kensington, where we have noted it
with a reverent interest. The only Cornish example of the American
Bittern (which seems to have been unknown to Mr. Rodd) is one stated
by Dr. Bullmore, in his ‘Cornish Fauna,’ to have been shot at Tresamble,
Gwennap, Nov. 4, 1873, and to have been sent to a bird-stuffer in Fal-
mouth, where the doctor, as he was kind enough to write to inform us,
examined it in the flesh. No other example has occurred in Dorsetshire
since Col. Montagu’s type specimen, and we know of no instance of it in
the county of Somerset.

One at Mothecombe, near Plymouth, December 22nd, 1829 (Dr. E. Moore as
“ Freckled Heron,” Trans. Plym. Inst. 1830, p. 323 ; and Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837, p. 320).
A young bird of the year was shot towards the end of October 1875 by Mr. Rickards,
on some high grounds near Parracombe, North Devon (J. G., Zool. 1875, p. 4719;
and M. A. M., op. cit. p. 4720).

The specimen said to have oceurred at Chudleigh, and preserved in Mr. Bower
Scott’s collection, was a Common Bittern, as that gentleman himself informed us.

[American Green Heron. Butorides virescens (Linn.).

In the late autumn of 1889 we received information that Foot, the bird-
stuffer in Bath, had a small species of Heron which was a stranger, and
paying him a visit we saw the bird, but were unable to identify it.
Being in London a week or two later we examined the skins of American
Herons at the South Kensington Natural History Museum, and at once
recognized the unknown bird as the American Green Heron, a species
common throughout the United States. We subsequently received full
particulars of its capture from its owner, Sir C. Graves Sawle, Bart., of
Penrice, St. Austell, whose keeper, W. Abbott, had shot itin Hay Bottom,
a swampy Valley running inland from the sea, on 27th October, 1889.
The bird was a fine specimen, in beautiful condition, and almost in
perfect adult plumage. ‘his is the first occurrence of this American
Heron in Europe. Its arrival on the Cornish coast is, however, uo more
extraordinary than that of the preceding species, or of any of the numerous
American birds which have been detected in the 8.W. of England. (Zool.
1890, pp. 105, 181.)}

Family CICONIIDE.
THE STORKS.

The Storks are greatly superior to the Herons and

CICONIID.E. 195

Bitterns in their powers of flight, and with their strong
wings are able to undertake vast aerial journeys, so that
the Common Stork may serve equally well with the
Swallow as our type of a migratory bird. Every spring
countless numbers of these great white birds pour north-
wards towards Palestine on the right, and Central and
Westward Europe on the left, through the great funnel of
the Nile Valley, and distribute themselves over an exten-
sive area for their summer-quarters. The British Islands
are too far to the west for their range, although they come
very near to us in Holland, where, throughout the sum-
mer, they are most conspicuous objects in the landscape,
as they may be seen standing on the roof of almost every
house. The Black Stork is a species of Eastern Africa
and Asia, which does not extend itself so far to the west
as the Common Stork, and instances of its occurrence any-
where in England are, as might be expected, extremely
rare. We have met with both species in British Kaffraria,
where the White Stork is known as the “Great White
Locust-bird,” as flocks occasionally make their appearance
on the frontier of the colony, following the flights of
locusts in January. On account of their valuable services
in destroying these destructive insects they are not molested,
and were so tame that we once walked through a flock at
rest, scattered about over the “veldt,” looking like so
many sheep, and taking just as little notice of us as those
animals would in England, although we carried guns.

White Stork. Ciconia alba, Bechst.

A casual visitor of very rare occurrence.

From the abundance of this bird in Holland, where it arrives with
great regularity about 18th March, leaving again for the far south towards
the end of August, we might well expect it to visit us more frequently
than it does. It is, however, a very rare straggler, except where it might
be reasonably looked for, on our eastern coasts. In the county of Nortolk

»
v4)

196 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

one or two appear regularly every spring, and Mr. Stevenson considered
it strange that they have never been known to breed there, no record
existing of a nest, even in those remote times when every Stork that showed
itself was not shot down, as is the fate of the bird at the presentday. In
Holland the pious villagers provide boxes for the birds, the nest of a Stork
being considered to bring good luck; but with us, as Mr. Stevenson
remarks, the only box offered to them is “the bird-stuffer’s case, wherein
the victim of misplaced confidence inevitably finds its last home.”

In the West Country the visits of the Common Stork are only acci-
dental and are extremely rare. Jesides the five instances of its occur-
rence in South Devon, mentioned below, we know of only one Cornish
example, a fine adult, killed in May 1848 in the Land’s End district ;
while the only instance of its having been obtained in Somerset is one
concerning which Mr, Cecil Smith had no information, which is recorded
in the list of rare birds from the neighbourhood of Bridgwater furnished
by Mr. Baker to the ‘ Proceedings’ of the County Archeological Society
for 1850. Mr. Mansel-Pleydell (‘ Birds of Dorset, p. 132) knew of two
which appeared in Poole Harbour in 1884, which were subsequently shot
at Christ Church. We have no knowledge of any specimen having been
secured in North Devon.

Dr. E. Moore says, on the authority of Mr. T. E. Gosling, that “‘three of these birds
have at different times within the last ten years [1820-1830] been obtained on Slapton
Ley, near Kingsbridge” (Trans. Plym. Inst. 1830, p. 3847; Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837,
p. 321).

In Morris's ‘ British Birds, vol. iy. p. 151, it is stated, on the authority of Mr. N.
Roe, that one was shot at Topsham, on the estuary of the Exe, 28th July, 1852.

A specimen in the Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter, was shot at Clyst St. George,
four miles from that city, in January 1856, as recorded on a label attached to the box-
case in which it came with the rest of the collection of the late Mr. F. W. L. Ross, of
Topsham.

Black Stork. Ciconia nigra (Linn.).

An accidental visitor of extremely rare occurrence.

The Black Stork is more of an Asiatic and African than a European
species, and being only a summer migrant to the South of Europe, cannot
be expected so far to the north as the British Isles, except as an accidental
storm-driven wanderer. Col. Montagu received a young black Stork alive
from his friend Mr. Anstice, of Bridgwater, which had been wounded on
West Sedgmoor on 14th May, 1814; this was the first reported instance
of the occurrence of this species in the British Isles. The bird lived for
nearly a year with the Colonel, who carefully described its moults, habits,
&e., in some interesting letters to Mr. Anstice, which were subsequently
contributed by Mr. W. Baker, of Bridgwater, to the ‘ Zoologist.’ This
specimen still exists in the collection of British birds at South Kensington,
and is probably the same bird as that mentioned by Atkinson (Compend.
Brit. Orn. 1834) as having been obtained in the parish of Stoke St. Gregory.
A Black Stork was shot on the Tamar, in South Devon, on 5th November,
1831, which was seen by Dr. Moore while it was still warm. It passed
into the collection of Mr. Drew, and from thence into the rich and beautiful

PLATALEID.&. 197

collection of Mr. E. H. Rodd, where we have seen it. There is no Cornish
example; but two are recorded from Dorsetshire, both of them obtained
near Poole, when the small estuary which goes by the name of Poole Harbour
was, in old days, a celebrated gathering-place for rare Waders, Geese, and
Wild Ducks of all kinds, as those who can recall the mighty doings of
Colonel Hawker and his punt-gun will be aware. One of these, shot on
November 22, 1839, passed into the collection of the late Earl of Malmes-
bury, at Heron Court; while the other, shot in Poole Harbour in the
autumn of 1849, is in the collection of Mr. J. H. Gurney. Another, seen
in 1857 at Lodmoor, near Weymouth, was not obtained (Mansel-Pleydell,
‘Birds of Dorset,’ p. 133).

In ‘ The Ibis’ for 1861, p. 372, are some interesting particulars con-
cerning the nesting of the Black Stork in Bulgaria.

One was shot on the Tamar (or the Lynher, a tributary of that river on the Cornish
side), on November 5th, 1831, and is in the collection formed by the late Mr, E. H.
Rodd, of Penzance (K. M., Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837, p. 321; and Rowe’s ‘ Peramb.
Dartmoor,’ 1848, p. 231; Rodd, Zool. p. 2147, and ‘ Birds of Cornwall,’ p. 126; Couch,
‘Cornish Fauna’).

On 12th February, 1855, when the cold was extremely severe, a large bird was seen
on the Exe near Topsham, which, from the description given to us at the time by a
man who got withiu twenty yards of it, and failed to shoot it, owing to his gun missing
fire, could have been nothing else than a Black Stork. Curiously enough, about a week
previously, what was supposed to be a gigantic Heron had been seen near the same
spot,

Family PLATALEIDZ.
Spoonbill. Platalea leucorodia, Linn.

A casual visitor, usually during the autumn and winter months. The
specimens obtained are generally immature.

Very many years ago this strange-looking bird was a resident in this
country. If we go as far back as the reign of Henry VILL., according
to Mr. J. EK. Harting (‘ Zoologist,’ 1886, p.81), the Shovelard, as it was
then called, used to place its great nests in the elms in the Bishop of
London’s grounds at Fulham; that place, as we are told, meaning Fowl-
home, and even taking its name from the birds! But it is now more
than two hundred years since there was a Spoonbill’s nest in England, and
the bird is only an occasional visitor, chiefly in the winter, to the West
Country, although there are some few instances in which it has been seen
in the spring. As it is still common in Holland, our eastern coasts are
more often visited by this bird, as is to be expected, and hardly a year
passes without some being obtained in the HMastern Counties, and that at
the season of the spring migrations. Sufficient numbers have been met
with in Devonshire to remove it from the list of our rarer birds, and smal}
flocks have even occurred in the far West. Thus, in the third week of
October, in 1843, as many as nineteen Spoonbills were seen near Newquay,
in Cornwall (Dr. Bullmore); and on the opposite coast of the Bristol
Channel, in the winter of 1854, eleven were shot on the shores of Milford

198 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

Haven, and seven more in the winter of 1885. Two or three are said to
be seen about Pembroke every year. But, on either side of England,
adults in their full plumage are extremely rare, the larger proportion of
those obtained being in immature plumage, without the yellowish-white
occipital plumes. The Spoonbill occurs very seldom in North Devon, two
immature examples, which were obtained on the Northam Burrows, being
the only ones of which we have knowledge.

The food of the Spoonbill consists of small fish, frogs, &c., and in search
of these it works its curious bill from side to side in a scooping fashion.
It rarely strays far inland, feeding for the most part upon the shore or on
the edges of large lagoons in marshes.

Montagu mentions two specimens which were shot near Kingsbridge, one immature
in Nov. 1804, and an old female 16th March 1807 (Orn. Dict., Suppl.). One on the
Tamar, another on the Exe; and one killed on Millbrook Lake (E. M., Trans. Plym.
Inst. 1830 ; Rowe’s Peramb. ‘Dartmoor, 1848, Appendix, p. 234). One shot in 1833 on
the Tamar, and one in 1838, both in the month of December (J. C. B., Nat. Hist. 8.
Devon, p. 210). One’cn the Warren Sands at Exmouth, Dec. 1847 (W. R. S., Zool.
1849, p. 2385). Two between 1840 and 1847 at Kingsbridge (H. N., Zool. 1847,
p. 1694). One at Bridford, whilst feeding with a flock of Geese in Dec. 1849 (R. C.,
and ‘ Exeter Gazette’). Two immature birds at Exmouth, at end of Dec. 1853; one
of these is in the A. M. M. One at Slapton Ley, Nov. 12th, 1858 (H. N., MS. Notes),
and one in Dee. 1858, at Plymouth (Zool. 1859, p. 6377). Three immature birds at
the latter locality, Nov. 3rd, 1862 (J. G., Zool. 1863, p. 8330). Bolitho had one from

the St. Germans River in Cornwall, not far from the border of Devon, April 6th,
1867. One immature specimen occurred at Northam Burrows, North Devon, Oct. 26th,
1867 (Zool. 1867, p. 1017). An immature bird was killed on the banks of the St.
Germans River, Oct. 14th, 1876, and another in Sept. 1878, on the Tavy (J. G., Zool.
1877, p. 44; 1878, p. 45). One at Northam Burrows at the end of Nov. 1879 (Zool.
1880, p. 70). One on St. Germans River, near Plymouth, Nov. 1883 (Thos. Cornish,
Zool. 1883, p.495). A young female on the Avon, between the weir and Aveton Gifford
Bridge, Nov. 4th, 1884 (E. A. 8. E., Zool. 1885, p. 29). A fine adult specimen in the
collection of the late Mr. Byne, afterwards the property of the late Mr. Marsh-Dunn
at Teignmouth, is said to have been obtained on the estuary of the Exe.

The Spoonbill has frequently visited Cornwall; in Somerset only two
instances are recorded ; in Dorsetshire several have been obtained in various
years in Poole Harbour.

In ‘ The Ibis’ for 1887, p. 412, there is an interesting account of a visit
paid by Messrs. Sclater and Forbes to agreat breeding-place of the Spoonbill
at the Horster Meer, between Amsterdam and Utrecht, where there were
several thousand nests placed upon the swampy ground.

Glossy Ibis. Plegadis falcinellus (Linn.).

An accidental visitor, of rare occurrence, in the autumn.
From the old lines quoted by Mr. Stevenson—
“The Curlew, be she white or black,
Carries twelvepence on her back,”—
we may infer that the Glossy Ibis, which also went by the name of the
Black Curlew, was more commonly met with formerly, and was better
known to the race of shore-shooters, than it is at the present time. It is
a curious, almost a grotesque-looking bird, and is to-day only an accidental

PLATALEID.2. 199

visitor to the West of England, where it was never seen so often as it used
to be on the shores of the Eastern Counties. Two Devonshire specimens,
which belonged to Col. Montagu, are still to be seen in the National Col-
lection of British Birds at South Kensington, looking as fresh as if they
had been shot only yesterday, there being something in the metallic-coloured
plumage of this bird which seems to resist the fading properties of light.
We have never had the fortune to come across a Glossy Ibis ourselves, but
we handled one which was still warm at Budleigh Salterton, in South Devon,
in Sept. 1866. We met a sailor carrying the bird in one hand and a gun
in the other, who told us that he had seen it that morning ona strip of
sand at the mouth of the Otter. After his dinner he had taken a gun and
had found the bird at the same place. It was very tame, allowing him to
walk up to it and shoot it, and he had a few moments before we came up sold
it to somebody for a shilling! We know of only one example of the Glossy
Ibis from North Devon, but several have occurred in the south of the county,
of which we give particulars below. Some half-dozen specimens have been
obtained in Cornwall. We saw two, almost in perfect adult plumage, in
the Museum at Truro; one bore no record of capture, but the other was
labelled as having been shot at Hayle. Several have occurred in
Dorsetshire. The Somerset Peat Moors have produced a couple of
examples ; one of them, shot at Shapwick in 1859, is now in the collection
of Sir H. Harpur Crewe, Bart., at Calke Abbey, Derbyshire.

Of the Devonshire examples two were obtained inland at a considerable
distance from the coast. One shot at Holsworthy, Sept. 7th, 1851, was
recorded in the ‘ Western Times’ for Oct. 11th, 1851. Another was shot at
Bridestow, on the N.W. borders of Dartmoor, in October 1835.

The Glossy Ibis used to go by various names, all of them descriptive of
stages inits plumage: the Glossy Ibis is the immature bird; the Green
Ibis is the bird advancing towards maturity ; while the Bay Ibis, with
the head and neck of a bright bay colour, is the adult. In their full
plumage these birds are a deep maroon-red, with brilliant green and purple
reflections on the wing-coverts and tertials. Specimens obtained in this
country mostly belong to the Glossy Ibis, or immature stage. The home
of this bird, in the summer, is the South of Europe, the marshes of the
Danube, &e.

Montagu mentions three immature specimens shot in Devonshire: one in Mr-
Comyns’s collection [shot on the Exe, 1805]; another near Ivybridge, in middle of Sept.
1805; and the third near Plymouth, about 12th Oct. 1809 (Trans. Linn. Soe. ix. p. 198,
and Orn. Dict.). One shot near Warleigh on the Tamar, and a pair killed at Slapton
Ley, near Dartmouth (E. M., Trans. Plym. Inst. 1830, p. 325; Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837,
p. 319). One at Bridestow, Oct. 1835 (J. C. B., Nat. Hist. 8. Devon, p. 211). An imma-
ture bird captured at Blatchboro, near Holsworthy, Sept. 7th, 1851 (W.'T., ‘ Naturalist,’
1852, p. 19; J. B. R., Trans. Plym. Inst. 1862-63, p. 76 ; Morris, B. Birds, iv. p. 172).
This specimen is now in the A. M. M., where there is also one saéd to have occurred
near South Molton in Oct. 1851. An immature bird was obtained at the mouth of the
River Otter, Oct. 11th, 1866 (Zool. 1866, p. 524). One shot on the Dart not far from
Votnes, Sept. 20th, 1869 (Von H., Zool. 1869, p. 1917), is in the collection of Mr. J. 1.
Gurney. A Glossy Ibis in the collection of the late Mr. J. Elliot, of Kingsbridge, was
shot on the estuary there, but the date was not recorded. About 1870 one was seen
in the autumn at Thurlestone Ley by a hunting party, A gun was borrowed, but proved
so rusty that it refused to go off (E. A. 8. E.).

200 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

Order ANSERES.
Family ANATIDA.

THE GEESE.

The great skeins, or “ gaggles,” of Wild Geese, on
leaving their breeding-haunts on the tundras of Northern
Europe, seek their winter-quarters in the south by the
routes of the Baltic and the German Ocean, and are, in
consequence, chiefly to be found as winter visitors to our
Eastern Counties, those which reach the shores of Devon-
shire being very few in number in comparison. ‘The
Pink-footed Goose, which in the winter has been seen in
flocks of six or seven hundred in Norfolk, and makes its
appearance in that county with great regularity, so rarely
extends its flight to the West that we have never heard of
a single well-authenticated instance of it in Devonshire,
Cornwall, or Somerset, and Mr. Mansel-Pleydell was only
able to record two Dorsetshire examples. It is very
doubtful if this Goose has ever occurred in Ireland, so that
it affords a very good example of the preference given by
the Wild Geese to our Eastern coasts. At the time to
which our own experience reaches back the White-fronted
or Laughing Goose and the Brent Goose were winter
visitors regularly seen in both North and South Devon, and
in severe weather were occasionally observed in consider-
able numbers. A few examples of the fine Grey Lag Goose
and of the Barnacle Goose used also to be obtained, while
the Bean-Goose was a pretty regular winter visitor in
small flocks. At the present day the visits of Wild Geese
to any part of our Devonshire coast are rare events.
Their old haunts are much more disturbed; there are
now twenty gunners on the look out for them where there

ANATID.E. 201

used to be one; so that it is only natural these sagacious
and wary birds should avoid places now become so
dangerous to them, and our county ornithologists can only
lament the absence of these once regular visitors from the
North. In very severe winters, like that of 1890-91, a
few are still driven by stress of weather to our estuaries
and marshes, and one hears of Brent Geese, Laughing
and Bean Geese being shot and brought to the local bird-
stuffers, or being seen hanging up in game-dealers’ shops ;
but the old times, when Wild Geese were commonly seen
flying overhead in <-shaped flocks in the autumn and
winter months, have now passed away for ever. ‘This is
one of the inevitable changes which modern days have
witnessed in our county ornis, to be added to others of
a similar character and to be equally deplored. With
the exception of the Pink-footed Goose and the American
Snow Goose, which last has occurred a few times in Ireland
and the North of England, all the British species of Wild
Geese can be included in our County List. Even the rare
Red-breasted Goose has occurred twice in Devonshire.

* Egyptian Goose, Chenalopex wyyptiacus (Linn.).

Introduced. A large number of these handsome birds were formerly
kept on a pond, or lake, at Bicton, near Kast Budleigh, the seat of Lady
Rolle, and we have frequently seen parties of twenty or more flying down
to the mouth of the Otter to feed, on autumn evenings, when they were
extremely wary and very noisy, and had all the actions of genuine wild
birds. ‘These Geese sometimes roamed about the county, especially in
severe winters, when the ponds were frozen over, and after very heavy
rains; a8 many as forty were scen in a flock near Exeter, on February
12th, 1869, when one was killed by a man who flung a pitchfork at them.
Probably most, if not all, of the specimens which have been shot at large
in Devonshire and the neighbouring counties were only wandering
* Pond Ornaments ” from Bicton, or from a piece of water near Crediton,
where some Egyptian Geese were also formerly kept (G. F. M., ‘ Naturalist,’
1566, p. 560), The time of the year when some of these were obtained
would entirely preclude the possibility of their having been migrants from
Africa, Though most often obtained in mid-winter, they have been met

202 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

with in spring and summer as well. As they have been almost totally
destroyed at Bicton, where once they were so numerous, it is probable
that there will not be so many occurrences in future in the south of the
county as formerly.

In 1868 Mr. James Barnes, the head gardener at Bicton, published in
the ‘ Exeter Gazette’ a very graphic account of the habits of the Egyptian
Goose as observed by him there, and it is so interesting that we think it
worthy of being reprinted in evtenso, and accordingly subjoin it, feeling
sure our readers will appreciate the quaintness of the style :—

«This is no doubt one of the most savage and pugnacious water-fowls
we have here, and there are many of them. They fly about in large
flocks to and fro, from Jake to sea. These are their favourite feeding-
grounds, though they range much for the sake of change, and have a rare
taste for the best and freshest piece of watered meadow, or any other
warm spots, where fresh and nice green-growing grass is to be found
throughout the winter months. They are not silent at all, but go about
prating and making a harsh gurgling noise as they fly, which may be
heard a long distance off. Here they pair in the month of November,
and at that season muny fights take place, and there is an immense deal
of chattering and noise as they fly from tree to tree. The highest and
largest limbs of the great spreading oaks in the park are their favourite
places of resort, and here they spend much of their time prating and
fighting, till they knock each other off. Then they take a little rest, and
away to the water to fight it out. Here again they go at it in earnest,
and batter cach other with all their might, with wings spread and beaks
open, and their heads looking twice their natural size. Very often one
tikes the advantage, as quickly as lightning, of thrusting its beak through
the other’s open mouth, grinding its tongue and the lower half of its beak
with impetuous strength and savagery. Presently the weakest one
becomes exhausted, and the other, taking instant advantage of this, is on
its back, to keep it under water, pecking and hammering away at its
head the moment it ventures above water, and as soon as possible gets
tight hold of the head, and holds it under water for so long at times, that
one would never expect to see it above again alive. But I saw what I
considered a greater act of cruelty the other day in passing through the
park. Many pairs were prating away on the outspreading limbs of an
immense oak. A pair fell to fighting, and down they came close to me
on the grass. How they did batter each other with the elbow, or spur,
of their wings! Then they made a change in the fighting by hammering
each other’s heads. They were soon open-mouthed, with their tongues
loose, as it were, in the centre of their beaks. One took instant advan-
tage, seized the other’s tongue full grip, and tugged and twisted it in a
manner horrible to behold. This act of cruelty I determined to put a
stop to, and instantly parted them. But the peace was soon broken
again; they flew to the lake, and there they went at it as vigorously as
ever. There, of course, I left them to finish their battle in their usual
way.

“The Egyptian Goose, notwithstanding its pugnacious propensities, is

ANATID.E. 203

always interesting, and at times a very peaceful bird. When once paired
they are exceedingly true and attentive to each other. But no intrusion
is allowed from their neighbours ; in tact, each pair is jealous of every
other pair, and village gossip is unknown amongst them. If any meddling
is attempted, there is a desperate fight. I have seen a dozen or fifteen
couples standing on the limbs of one great spreading oak, cavilling and
chattering with all their might. They bring out very early broods. I
have often seen the young abroad early in January, and throughout
January and February there are always some broods hatched. Few,
however, of these early broods are raised to maturity, the reason of which
I will presently inform you. While incubation is going on by the Goose
a wonderfully strict guard is kept by the Gander. He, at a distance,
closely watches night and day. If an enemy, or even a neighbour,
thoughtlessly attempts a near approach to the locality, no time is lost in
giving battle. When the Goose requires to leave her nest to feed, notice
is given by an inward, quiet kind of cackling, or chattering, and the
Gander goes to relieve guard. On the islands here boxes and hutches,
with plenty of hay, straw, and dry leaves, are provided for the water-fowl
to choose their nesting-materials from, and, if they desire, places in
which to make their nests. The Egyptian Goose, like the Wild Duck
with us, does not always nest in these provided places, or on the ground,
or under a thick bush, or other nice sheltered or well-protected spots.
Oh, no! Here they often nest on the top of ivied walls, or on the forks
of very large trees, where four great limbs diverge more particularly, or
those which are clothed with ivy. In such places they make a nest and
hatch. Yes, and thence convey their young down to the nearest water
in perfect safety. One pair of Egyptians nested for many years in suc-
cession on the fork of a large tree in the American garden here, about
fifty feet from the ground, and always conveyed their brood of eight or
ten down to the water hard by with complete safety. Their broods here
generally average in number, when first brought out, from seven to ten,
I have occasionally seen thirteen, and even fourteen, Goslings in a brood.
They are exceedingly hardy, notwithstanding which the early broods get
very much reduced in numbers; indeed, very often the whole brood is
lost. This, however, does not result so much from the inclemency of the
weather, as you may at first imagine. Oh dear no! and thereby hangs a
tale. The shrewdness, pugnacity, pluck, and natural craftiness of the
Egyptian Goose are not sufficient to ensure its safety. There is another
quiet, sly, and much smaller bird, an unmistakable match for Goosey,
especially at the time when peace reigns, and Goose and Gander are alike
absorbed in attending, with the utmost kindness, on their young. ‘This
other bird is a downright trickster, and a most comical devil too, wicked
and funny at once. Oh, such sly, crafty tricks have I seen when close
to them, and as it were in the very midst of the performance. I will
relate a few real facts. This bird is no other than the Carrion-Crow,
Amongst a number of dainties, this fellow is partial to young Ducks and
Goslings, and the early broods get sadly diminished, and often altogether
carried off by him, 1 haye seen them perform their thievish tricks in

204 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

various ways. The young Ducks they have but little trouble with.
When they come on land from an aquatic excursion, pretty much
fatigued, the Crows pounce on them from some tree, where they have
been waiting patiently for some time watching for a chance. Some time
ago, one morning, I noticed a brood of ten pretty little Egyptian Goslings
on the water. The next morning, on again passing the spot, there were
but nine. The old birds were quite proud, and very attentive, and
strictly guarding their family. But I could tell by their harsh cackle
that an enemy was near at hand. On looking about I spied a pair of
sleek shiny-looking Crows, quietly perched on some large limbs of spread-
ing trees that extended nearly to the water’s edge on the south side,
where the old Geese intended to land their family. The Crows knew
well enough where they would land, and, no doubt, made a shrewd guess
about the time they would do so. Now, the Geese knew well enough
the Crows were there waiting for them, as evinced by their cackle, and
manceuyring, and strict attention. They did not intend their enemy
should deprive them of any more of their brood. This was a deep laid
plan indeed. Just as the old Goose came ashore, down came one of the
Crows, hopping and jumping just ahead of her. The Goose bolted after
the Crow, the Goslings running and squealing in single file after her, the
Gander keeping guard behind. At this moment down pounces the other
Crow, and knocked down one of the foremost Goslings, turning the poor
thing over. The old Gander, however, was too quick. Before the Crow
could get off his booty, he was up full mouthed, and then what a row
and cackling all at once! The old Goose ran back, got her brood together,
and gathered them over, close to the butt of a large tree, the Gander
keeping strict guard, ‘The pair of Crows kept hopping, and jumping, and
running about and around, at a respectful distance, till they found the
game was up. At the same time a brood of seven landed on the other
side of the lake, and were quickly observed by the Crows. One of the
Crows flew straight across, and caught up a Gosling in an instant, and
made off with it before the parents could either shield their brood, or give
battle. A terrible outcry and cackling were all that could be done to
warn their neighbours that an enemy was at hand. I have seen many
and various fights and plunderings such as these, and believe the Carrion-
Crow to be a match for any bird in craftiness.”

Mr. Comyns had an Egyptian Goose in his collection which was killed on the
Warren [at the mouth of the Exe probably, and not near Sidmouth as stated] (E. M.,
Trans. Plym. Inst. 1830, p. 343). In 1839, Mr. F. W. L. Ross records (MS. Journal,
ii. p. 17) that one was seen on the Exe some years previously, and he himself had
seen three on the river near the sea, which were very wild, but that he killed two of
them. One shot on the coast was bought in Exeter Market by Dr. Scott in January
1849 (Zool. 1849, p. 2585). Specimens occurred on the Exe in 1850, February 1859,
and at other dates, the last in May 1691. One was preserved in the Sands Hotel,
Slapton Ley, which had been shot there. We saw this bird ina case at the hotel
in January 1856. A fine male was killed there January 12th, 1885 (R. P. N., Zool.
1885, p. 68). Some were obtained on the Laira, apparently wild, in 1860 (J. B. R.,
Trans. Plym. Inst. 1862-3, p. 77) and in 1871 (B., MS. Notes).

This Goose has also been shot on several occasions on the Taw. One out of a flock

in May 1865 (G. F. M., ‘Naturalist, 1866, p. 360); one April 1867 (Zool. 1867,

ANATIDZ. 205

851); two on December 28th, 1885, and one on January 2nd, 1886. These last
tiece birds were seen coming from a north-west direction, and going south or south-
east. They were at a great ‘height, but suddenly came down rapidly to the river, not
a quarter of a mile above Barnstaple. Several occurred in January 1891. (J. G. lel.
Zool. 1886, p. 76; 1891, p. 68.)

We handled two in the flesh which were shot on the Tone, a mile or two below
Taunton, in July ; one we skinned and mounted and have now in our collection was
shot on the Taw near Barnstaple at the end of April; and we know of several others
having been obtained in North Devon; there is one in the museum of the College at
Westward Ho! which was shot near New Bridge, on the Taw, in the winter- time.
Several have been obtained at different times at Weston- -super-Mare; Mr. Rodd
mentions examples having been shot in the winter-time in Cornwall ; and Mr. Mansel-
Pleydell knew of several “which had been obtained in Dorsetshire during the winter
months.

The home of this Goose is to be found, as its name implies, in the Nile valley and
in tropical Africa. There are no authentic instances of its having occurred, even as
a straggler,in any of the countries of Southern Europe, and Mr. Dresser does not
include it in his beautiful work on the ‘ Birds of Europe,’

Grey Lag Goose. Anser cinereus, Meyer.

A casual visitor, of very rare occurrence.

This fine Goose, the progenitor of our ordinary farmyard Geese, is the
only species of Wild Goose nesting at the present day anywhere in the
British Islands, a few pairs still breeding annually by some of the lochs
in Sutherlandshire. There was a time when it nested commonly in the
fens of the Eastern Counties, and it is said to have taken its name from
this circumstance, it being the only Goose out of all the various species
seen in the winter-time which “lagged,” or stayed behind, to breed, and
did not join the flocks of other Geese going northwards for their summer
haunts. However, at the present day, we learn from Mr. Stevenson’s
valuable book, that the Grey Lag Goose is almost as rare in Norfolk as it
is in the West Country, where it is one of the most seldom seen of our
British Geese; and we are aware of very few instances of its occurrence.
One which we had in our collection was shot many years ago near
Barnstaple: we ourselves once came across an example of this Goose
when Snipe-shooting; we had just emptied both barrels at a Jack-Snipe,
when out of some rushes right at our feet sprang a magnificent Grey Lag
Goose, and we could only look at it! This was on a salt marsh, long
since enclosed and drained, bordering on the Taw.

Several were bronght to Plymouth Market in January 1829 and January 1830, as
recorded by Dr. Edward Moore, who says if was sometimes seen on Dartmoor with
other wild-fowl. Mr. Newton had a specimen (Trans. Plym. Inst. 1850, and Rowe's
Peramb. Dartmoor, 1848), Bolitho notes a Grey Lag Goose which was brought to
him by Mr. Gatcombe, January 18th, 1858, having been bought in Plymouth Market
(MS. Notes). Mr. Gatcombe also records having obtained a female in the market at
Devonport on 25th November, 1858, which was killed on the River Tamar (Zool.
1859, p. 6376). This specimen’ is now in the A .M. M. Mr.8. Square shot one at
Thurlestone, after it had been observed for several days feeding on the Ley there, in
company with four tame Geese, September 26th, 1886 ( B.A.8. B.).

Mr. Cecil Smith knew of no instances of the occurrence of the Grey

206 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

Lag Goose in Somerset, nor have we been able to add it to the Somerset
list. of birds; in Cornw all Mr. Rodd was able to record but three which
came to his knowledge, and one of these was obtained on the Scilly
Islands; in Dorsetshire it is equally rare, only one or two examples being
known to Mr. Mansel-Pleydell, who quotes Mr, J. E. Harting’s remark
as to the Grey Lag Goose being an iuland bird, and not a frequenter of,
or to be expected on, the coast.

Bean-Goose. Anser segetum (Gm.).

A casual winter visitor.

This Goose is the commonest of the British Wild Geese, but is one of
those to which we have already referred as being more numerous on the
Eastern coasts of the kingdom than it is on the West, where it is only
occasionally seen. It is, however, far more often met with than the pre-
ceding species, and has occurred several times to ourselves. In the hard
winter of 1860 a small flock of Bean-Geese appeared on Lundy Island,
where they fed always far out in the middle of one of the stubble-fields,
and although we once or twice watched for them, they never came near
enough to afford a shot. In severe winters we have known them to
appear on the Braunton Marsh, where examples have been obtained.

Montagu mentions two Devonshire specimens (Orn. Dict.). Many were obtained
at Plymouth in January 1850 (E. M., Trans. Plym. Inst. 1830; Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837,
p- 360). Some were seen in Ply mouth Market in February 1855 by Mr. Gatcombe ;
some there December 22nd, 1874; one in December 1879; and a few in January 1881
(Zool. 1875, p. 4371; 1880, p. 48; 1881, p. 196). Three were shot by Mr. Waiter
Toll, of Street, on ‘the upper waters of Slapton Ley, on 7th February, 1888.
One is in Mr. Toll’s collection, and was seen by us at. his house, September 2nd, 1890,
and one is in the collection of the late Mr. W. Bastard. The third was cooked and
eaten (R. P. N., MS. Notes). An adult male was shot by Mr. E. A. S. Elliot, December
29th, 1890, on Kingsbridge estuary, and another was seen in company with it.

In Somerset Bean-Geese occasionally occur on the turf moors. Mr.
Cecil Smith saw two at a poulterer’s shop in Taunton, in December 1865,
which had just come in, with a number of other wild-fowl, from the fen-
shooters. We have ourselves seen Bean-Geese near Weston-super-Mare,
and during the severe frost and snow of January 1891 a flock of seven
flew low over our garden at Buckland Dinham, in East Somerset. These
birds continued about the neighbourhood for a fortnight, but none of
them were shot. In Cornwall Mr. Rodd considered the Bean-Goose the
commonest of the Wild Geese visiting the county, and states that in hard
winters considerable flocks are seen. Mr. Mansel-Pleydell calls the Bean-
Goose far from common in Dorsetshire; five were shot in Poole Harbour
in November 1876.

The Bean-Goose goes very far north, beyond the Arctic Circle, for its
breeding-quarters.

This Goose takes its name from the black nail on the tip of the upper

mandible, which is of the shape of a bean; or, perhaps, from its making
its appearance at the time of the sowing of winter beans.

ANATID.E. 207

[Pink-footed Goose. <Anser brachyrhynchus, Baillon.

This species is of doubtful occurrence in Devonshire. Mr. Henry
Nicholls says he saw three or four examples hanging up in a poulterer’s
shop in Kingsbridge many winters ago. They were shot on the estuary
there (E. A. 8. E., MS. Notes). A specimen mentioned by Bolitho, of
Plymouth, in his MS. Notes, as having been received by him on 15th
November, 1860, was supposed by Mr. Gatcombe to have been sent from
Cambridge by Mr. R. A. Julian. The Pink-footed Goose in Mr. J.
Brooking-Rowe’s collection was obtained in Leadenhall Market. ]

White-fronted Goose, Anser albifrons (Scop.).
[Laughing Goose: North Devon. ]

A winter visitor, generally in severe weather, when it has sometimes
been rather plentiful, both inland and on the estuaries.

The White-fronted or Laughing Goose used to be a regular winter
visitor to North Devon, where it was more often seen than obtained,
these wary birds being always on the watch, moving in the daytime from
one ground to another, and passing overhead in “ gaggles” of twenty to
thirty in number, flying in V formation, with the point of the V forwards,
and uttering their singular “ laughing” cackle. Many a time have they
thus passed over us in old days when we have been Sniping in Braunton
Marsh and Braunton Burrows. It is only in very severe weather that it
is possible to get a shot at them. Several were killed near the Taw, and
brought to the Barnstaple bird-stuffer, during the very hard winter of
1890-91 ; and others have been obtained at various dates in by-gone
years. We have also seen White-fronted Geese at Weston-super-Mare,
and have noted some very fine examples hanging up in the gamedealer’s
shop which had been shot on the level near that town. One winter we
several times saw a small flock flying low over the houses, and one day
this flock passed close over our head while we were walking on the
esplanade. There had been a long-continued black frost binding the
ground with its iron bands, and these poor Geese were, doubtless, half-
starved.

Great numbers were shot near Plymouth in January 1830 (I. M., Trans. Plym. Inst.
1830, p. 342). Some were obtained at Plymouth in 1855 (J. G.) and 1861 (B., MS.
Notes) ; one was killed on the down near Calstock, October 20th, 1877; some were
brought into Plymouth Market, October 1880; and a young one was seen there
December 7th, 1882 (J. G., Zool. 1878, p. 29; 1881, p. 61; 1883, p. 166).

At Kingsbridge Mr. Ei. A. 8. Elliot shot one out of a flock close to the estuary at
Gerston, December 24th, 1878. A flock of twenty-five visited the district about
Christmas 189), They roosted sometimes in a farmyard at Rickham, and sometimes
on Charleston Marsh; and some were shot (1. A. 8. H.).

A flovk of ten was seen on the Exe, January 22nd, 1841 (F. W. L. R., MS. Journal,
iil, p. 40). Several occurred on that river at the end of 1846 (W.R.S., Zool. p. 2384).
There were many on the Exe estuary in 1850, and we saw many again in January and

208 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

February 1855, obtaining a fine male on 31st January. Some occurred in November
1888, and one was shot there in January 189].

Four were shot out of a flock on Braunton Marsh early in October 1877 (M. A. M.,
Zool. 1877, p. 498). This Goose visits Lundy Island in winter (rans. Deyon. Assoc.
vill. p. 308).

According to Mr. Rodd the White-fronted Goose is not rare in hard
winters in Cornwall, flocks having been noted feeding in turnip-fields in
the Land’s End district. In Dorsetshire it is rare, and Mr. Mansel-
Pleydell states that, like all other Wild Geese, it becomes more scarce
every year.

This Goose has a great range between its summer-quarters, which are
in the extreme North of Europe, and its winter-haunts in N. Africa,
India, and China. It is said by Capt. Shelley to be the commonest of all
the Wild Geese in Egypt during the winter months. In Lapland a .
smaller species of White-fronted Goose occurs (A. erythropus, Linn.), and
Mr. Cordeaux once saw one hanging in a stall in Grimsby Market.

In January 1888 Mr. Cecil Smith received the head, wings, feet, and
legs of a Wild Goose which had been shot at West Buckland, near Wel-
lington, in Somerset, close to the Devonshire border, which, from their
small size, he supposed to have belonged to a Lesser White-fronted Goose.
These fragments of the bird were exhibited by Mr. Crisp at a meeting of
the Linnean Society in the month of April that year, and were considered
to indicate an immature Anser albifrons (Zool. 1888, pp. 145, 228).

Brent Goose, Bernicla brenta (Pallas).

A winter visitor, occurring in flocks of considerable size in our bays,
and in the estuaries of our larger rivers, especially in severe seasons.
These flocks sometimes appear as early as September and October, and
remain until April and even May.

The Brent Goose is a smaller species than any we have hitherto
described, and is by far the most common of all the Wild Geese in our
West Country, and also the tamest. As we write its name we seem once
more to hear the crunch, crunch, of our boat as we are slowly beating
against wind and tide towards a flock of these little black Geese on the
mudbanks on the Barnstaple river, where it was numerous enough in the
old days before the railways ran on either side, when the salt-marshes
were still undrained and unenclosed, and when shore-shooters were few.
We have shot Brent Geese at Instow as early as the middle of September
and as late as the end of April. In old days a successful stalk of a flock
used to result in six or eight being bagged to a single shot, but such
chances are not to be had at the present day. Sometimes out of those
obtained we would find one which was fairly palatable when cooked, but,
in general, the flavour of the flesh was strong and fishy. The last shot
we had at Brent Geese was in November 1874; when, sailing back to
Instow from a day’s Sniping on the Braunton Burrows, we espied two
sitting upon the water, which were tame enough to permit us to come

ANATID.. 2()9

within fifty yards before they rose, when we dropped them to a successful
right and left. We have frequently seen small flocks numbering eight or
ten of these Geese as high up the Bristol Channel as Weston-super-Mare,
where we have known of many having been shot in various years.

In February 1855 a flock of about one hundred and twenty frequented
the mudbanks on the Exe estuary below Topsham for ten days, and we
frequently saw them. ‘They often flew about over the town of Topsham
when disturbed, and several were shot from the streets. Large flocks
also visited the Exe in November 1871, in January 1880, January and
December 1890, and January 1891. ‘These last fed on the mudbanks
cluse to the Railway-Station at Exmouth. The Brent Goose frequently
visits the Kingsbridge estuary and Slapton Ley (R. P. N., MS. Notes).
Mr. E. A. 8. Elliot obtained five on November 2nd, 1891, near Kings-
bridge: they were greedily eating the grass-wrack (Zostera marina) on
the mud. Mr. Gatcombe saw a couple in the flesh at Plymouth on May
12th, 1883 (Zool. 1883, p. 419), and we ourselves shot one, and saw six
others, on April 22nd, 1861, on the estuary of the Taw (M. A. M.).

Great numbers of Brent Geese occur some winters at Poole Harbour in
Dorsetshire. “ Early in February 1879 a great number arrived during
the prevalence of a strong east wind, and were very tame; sixty or
seventy were shot by three gunners at the mouth of Poole Harbour”
(Mansel-Pleydell, « birds of Dorset,’ p. 189).

These Geese are also numerous off the Cornish coast; large flocks
sometimes appearing in Mount’s Bay, and great execution being done
among them by the shooters with their punt-guns,

Like our other British Geese, the Brent Goose goes very far north to
nest.

There are two forms of this Goose which visit the British Islands—one,
with the underparts somewhat light-coloured, from the westward, and
one, with a darker breast and abdomen, from Novaya Zemblya and the
north-east. The latter form predominates on the Kast Coast of England.

The Rev. Charles Swainson, in his ‘ Provincial Names of British Birds,’
derives the name Brent or Brant from the Welsh brenig, Breton brening,
a limpet; but it seems more likely to come from the Saxon, brennen,
braunte—i. e., burnt, in allusion to the black scorched colour of the
plumage.

Barnacle Goose. Bernicla leucopsis (Bechst.).

A casual visitor, of rare occurrence.

This is another species of Goose which goes very far north to nest, and
is a rare winter visitor to our English coasts, being nowhere plentiful,
and scarcer everywhere than it was formerly. It is more numerous on
the Scotch coasts than it is with us in England, and is a Jand-feeding
bird, very rarely taking to the water, unless persecuted and driven there,
In North Devon we once saw a pair in the winter-time at no great dis-
tance from the Lighthouse on the Braunton Burrows, but could not

I

210 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

obtain a shot at them. Like the Brent Goose, the Barnacle is usually
tame. Some years ago it used to occur almost: annually on the north
coast of Pembrokeshire. Sir Hugh Owen, who was constantly on the
look-out for wild-fowl at Goodwick, near Fishguard, informed us that he
generally shot one or two of these Geese, which were in company with
the first flocks of Brent Geese arriving on the coast.

There are two specimens of the Barnacle Goose from Devonshire in the collection
of British Birds at the Natural History Museum, South Kensington—one from Col.
Montagu’s collection, the other from that of Mr. Bartlett. Montagu says: “a large
flock of these birds were observed in Slapton Ley in the winter of 1801” (Orn. Dict.,
Suppl.). Mr. Comyns had two specimens shot on Dawlish Warren (E. M., Trans,
Plym. Inst. 1830; Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837, p. 350). A pair killed at Slapton Ley were
preserved at the Sands Hotel, where we saw them in January 1856, and another pair
were shot there in 1860 (H. N., MS. Notes). An example obtained in 1864 in the
neighbourhood of Plymouth is in Mr. J. Brooking-Rowe's collection. Mr. 8. Square
shot one at Thurlestone in the autumn of 1882 (R. P. N., MS. Notes). Four rose
from the sea near Thurlestone Rock close to the shore in January 1891 (E. A.S. E.).

In Cornwall the Barnacle Goose would seem to be more often met with
than it is in Devonshire. Mr. Rodd states that ‘ little parties now and
then appear in hard winters, their black and white plumage rendering
them very conspicuous on the wing. Specimens have been obtained in
the Land’s End marshes, in Mount’s Bay, and at Helford.” In Somerset
the only example Mr. Cecil Smith knew of was the one sent alive by
Mr. Anstice, of Bridgwater, to Col. Montagu in February 1809. <A few
appear occasionally off the Dorset coast at Weymouth and Poole; some
were shot in February 1879, and sent to Mr. Hart, of Christchurch, for
preservation (Mansel-Pleydell, ‘ Birds of Dorset,’ p. 138).

This species of Goose takes its name from an extraordinary fable which
was solemnly accepted by the naturalists of two hundred years ago—that
these Geese were hatched from the barnacles which attach themselves to
the bottoms of vessels !

*Canada Goose. Bernicla canadensis (Linn.).

Introduced, but has occurred several times on the Exe, in the Kings-
bridge district, near Plymouth, and on the Taw, apparently in a wild
state.

This handsome Goose, almost a Swan in size, is the common Wild
Goose of America, whose arrival in the autumn is anxiously expected by
sportsmen, to whom the passing flocks afford excellent shooting and large
bags. It is so generally kept among the ornamental Water-fowl on
Jakes in England, that the stragglers which are occasionally shot at large
must be set down as English-reared birds, and not as migrants from
America, One was shot on the Laira, in September 1855 (J. G., MS. Notes).
One killed on the Exe in 1859, and another from Mr. Ralph Sanders’s
collection, are in the A. M. M. Two were killed near Plymouth in 1860
(J. B. R., Trans. Plym. Inst. 1862-63, p. 76). One was shot by Mr. Ellis
on the River Avon, April 3rd, 1867, aud is now in the possession of

ANATIDA. Ft

Rey. W. Pittman, of Aveton Gifford (H. N., MS. Notes). Two were
seen in Plymouth Sound, October 29th, 1877; and two were killed, and
a flock of ten seen, near Plymouth in January 1879 (J. G., Zool. 1878,
p. 53; 1879, p. 206). A son of Mr. H. Square, on returning from
school to Court Barton, caught one of these birds on the road in November
1879, which had been injured in some way. It was kept alive in a hen-
coop for two days at Thurlestone, and was then killed in order that it
might be preserved by Mr. Henry Nicholls (E. A. 8. E., MS. Notes).

A specimen of this Goose was shot on the Taw, near Barnstaple, many
years ago; and during the severe winter of 1890-91, Mr. Miller, of
Barnstaple, shot another at Fremington, on the Taw.

Some years ago we knew of a fine flock of these Geese, twenty or more,
which were kept at East Clevedon, in Somerset, where we sometimes saw
them flying, with all the appearance of wild birds, over the adjoining
level.

In Cornwall specimens of the Canada Goose have been obtained in the
winter-time near Falmouth; but none are recorded from Dorsetshire or
Somerset, although the last county possessed the flock mentioned above,
which, it might be supposed, would have furnished stray birds to the
North Somerset mud-tlats. Dr. Coues reports that the Canada Goose
nests in various parts of the Upper Missouri and Yellowstone regions in
trees, the old birds carrying the young when hatched down to the water
in their bills (‘ Birds of the North West,’ p. 554).

Red-breasted Goose. Bernicla ruficollis (Pallas).

An accidental visitor, of extremely rare occurrence. One killed on
Dawlish (or Kenton) Warren, at the mouth of the Exe, in 1828, was in
the possession of Mr. W. Russell, of Dawlish (E. M., Mag. Nat. Hist.
1837, p. 360). A second was shot on the Teign Marshes, February 21st,
1837, by Rendell, of Buckland (idem, 1. ¢.). ‘There have been no recent
occurrences in the county.

The home of this very beautiful Goose is Northern Siberia, so that the
fow stragglers which have visited our shores have had a long flight to
reach us. We have never set eyes on either of the Devonshire specimens,
but have often admired the very perfect example which belonged to the
late Mr. John Marshall, of Belmont, Taunton, and is now in his brother’s
collection at Norton Manor. ‘This bird was shot at Maldon, in Essex, on
January 6th, 1871, and was for some time in the possession of Mr, J. E.
Harting.

The Red-breasted Goose is only a very rare straggler to any part of
Europe, and little is known about its nesting-habits. There was a live
one for some time at the Zoological Gardens, in London, which was very
tame, and had much of the actions and habits of the Common Brent
Goose (Dresser, ‘ Birds of Europe,’ vol. vi. p. 406).

[A specimen of the Spur-winged Goose, an African species, was shot
p2

212 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

near St. Germans, in Cornwall, on June 20th, 1821, and is still to
be seen in the Museum at Newcastle-on-Tyne. The wife of the man
who shot it cut off its wings for dusters, and then threw the body away!
Three weeks afterwards it was picked up covered with mud, one of the
Wings sewn on to jt, and made as presentable a specimen as its untoward
treatment allowed (Rodd, ‘ Birds of Cornwall,’ p. 143). The time of the
year when this bird was obtained sufficiently indicates that it was an
escape from some ornamental water. |

THE SWANS.

The remark we made respecting the winter distribution
of the Wild Geese in this kingdom applies with equal
force to the Wild Swans, which are, with the exception of
one species, Bewick’s Swan, far more numerous on the
Eastern coasts than they are in the West. The majority of
Wild Swans seen flying over our estuaries are merely
tame Swans, which often wander away from the rivers and
ornamental waters where they reside for the greater part
of the year in a semi-domesticated state. ‘The fine Whooper,
and the much smaller Swan which has been named after
the great line-engraver, like most of the British Wild
Geese, find their summer homes in the extreme north of
Europe, flying south in the autumn, and passing the
winter months in the south-eastern countries of the Con-
tinent and in Africa.

*Mute Swan. Cygnus olor (Gmelin).

Introduced.

This most beautiful, graceful, and elegant bird, to whose history
alone in this country a most interesting volume might be given, has
generally been supposed to have been introduced to our lakes and rivers
by the Romans, to whom we owe also our English Pheasant. It is
justly considered the greatest ornament among our aquatic fowl, and
in old days was served at great banquets, and was ss as a royal
dish. In the third volume. of that most interesting work, ‘ The Birds of
Norfolk,’ is a long account of the Norfolk Swans, in which we read of the
“ Swan Pits” at N orwich, which still exist,in which the Cygnets are kept

ANATID#. 2IS

and fattened for the table. A fine young Swan, of 15 lbs. weight, must
form a grand dish to set before a dinner-party ; we have never ourselves
had the luck to partake of one, but we have had the evidence of those who
have feasted upon examples of Bewick’s Swan, of the excellence of the
meat. Considering how prone tame Swans are to wander away from
the swanneries, and the extensive breeding-places which exist in the
West of England, it is not a little remarkable that so few Mute Swans
should be observed at large in the winter-time in the sheltered estuaries
of our Devonshire coast. We have only once or twice seen Swans, which
we considered were only Mute Swans, when we were after wild-fowl on
the Barnstaple river, and the instances of their occurrence are not nume-
rous even on the southern, and more favoured, shores of the county.
Now, the celebrated swannery at Abbotsbury, on the Dorset coast, where
there is a stock of several hundred Swans, might well be expected to
furnish many stragglers to such close adjoining waters as the mouth of
the Exe, Slapton Ley, &c.; and on the north coast we might imagine
that we should be not unseldom visited by Mute Swans straying across
the Channel from a great resort of Swans at Stackpole, Lord Cawdor’s
beautiful seat on the south coast of Pembrokeshire. Here the extensive
lake is at one end only separated from the sea by a narrow belt of sand-hills;
and the numerous Swans which frequent it in the summer, directly the
weed dies down beyond their reach in the autumn, wander off almost to
a bird. <A few are then shot as “ Wild Swans” on the shores of Milford
Haven and on the adjoining marshes, but the greater number disappear
entirely and must have flown off towards the south. In answer to
an inquiry respecting the Swans at Stackpole Court, Lord Cawdor kindly
wrote as follows, under date November 9th, 1891 :—“ The Swans come.
and go as they please. I never introduce any fresh blood. A few weeks
ago there were above ninety here; to-day there are not ten, because the
water has risen and the American weed is out of their reach. They will,
I doubt not, return when the water falls. The American weed, after
twenty-five years, has begun to diminish, and has almost died out in some
parts of the water. The Swans go up and down Milford Haven, and, I
daresay, some of them go across to Devonshire.” When we resided at
Bishop’s Lydeard, in the west of Somerset, we were near to several large
sheets of ornamental water on which tame Swans were kept, and it was
the practice of these birds to visit the various waters in turn, so that it
Was quite a common sight to see a small string of Swans passing over-
head, and to hear the musical clang of their wings, as the Sandhill Park
Swans flew up to the lake at Cothelestone Park, or were making eastwards
for the smaller water at Tetton House.

A considerable number of Swans formerly lived on the estuary of the
Exe between Countess Weir an.. Topsham, a pair or two nesting yearly
in the reed-beds. Up to 1856, we used to see twenty-five feeding to-
gether in one spot outside the river-wall at Newport House. They were
constantly to be seen and heard flying up and down the iiver, and their
musical flight was a source of much gratification to lovers of birds. As they
lived in a state of perfect freedom, they frequently flew away to long

214 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

distances from the Exe, and were often shot as “ Wild Swans.” From
‘an absurd idea that they destroyed the salmon-spawn their numbers have
been greatly reduced by the fishermen, and now only a few pairs remain.
Some are kept on ponds and ornamental waters throughout the county,
in a domesticated condition. On June 21st, 188], a female Swan, five
feet in length and weighing 243 lbs., was brought tous. She had broken
her neck by flying against a telegraph-wire at Cowley Bridge, near
Exeter; she had eight cygnets at the time. When we were very young
there was much taik in the neighbourhood of Topsham about some Swans
that had been killed with silver collars round their necks. ‘This must
haye happened in 1836 or 1838, we think.

Under the name of the Polish Swan (Cygnus immutabilis, Yarrell),
Mr. Yarrell described a beautiful Swan, apparently differing somewhat
from the Mute Swan, which was found invariably to have its eygnets
pure white, while the Mute Swan hasthem grey. Asthis White Swan has
been met with nowhere else except on the British coasts, and its habitat
has not been detected in any part of the world, ornithologists are very
doubtful if it is more than a variety of the Mute Swan ; and in the ‘ Field’
for October 17th, 1891, Mr. A. D. Bartlett, of the Zoological Gardens in
London, while writing on the subject of albinos, instances the Polish
Swan of Yarrell as a remarkable example of semi-albinism in the Common
Mute Swan. It is probable, therefore, that this puzzling Swan will
henceforth be regarded as only an albinism of the common bird.

Whooper Swan. 9 Cygnus musicus (Bechst.).

A casual visitor of rare occurrence, and only in severe winters, Pol-
whele, in his ‘ History of Devon,’ vol. i. p. 111, states that in 1788-89, the
tiver Exe, and the Exminster Marshes, and banks of the River Clyst
were covered with Swans, but of what species he does not say. In
January 1830, many Wild Swans were brought to the markets in
Plymouth and Devonport, and in the same year some were obtained in
the north of the county (E. M., Trans. Plym. Inst. 1830; Mag. Nat.
Hist. 1837, p. 360; and T. J., Bray’ s ‘Tamar and Tavy’). Mr. Henry
Nicholls writes: ‘* in a severe winter some fifty years ago, I saw a flock of
nineteen [Whoopers] in the Kingsbridge estuary, near Gerston Kiln.
Many were obtained, and passed through my hands. I saw three hung
up in the kiln on the Quay, which had just been shot by a man called
Pepperall.” Some were shot on the Kingsbridge estuary in the winter
of 1860, and one on Slapton Ley in the winter of 1866 (R. P. N., MS.
Notes). Two Swans were seen flying up the River Tamar, January 19th,
1877 (J. G., Zool. 1877, p. 163), and were probably the same as two
Wild Swans killed in Cornwall soon afterwards. One was killed on the
Yealm in January 1881 (Zool. 1881, p. 196). Two are said to have been
shot at Bude. Seven were seen in Torbay in January 1891. One
was killed at Slapton about the same time, and is now in the Torquay
Museum (W. E.).

ANATID.E. 215

This fine bird is very rare indeed in Devonshire, in the north
of the county especially, where we do not remember that we have
ever seen a specimen. Several Swans were shot on the Barnstaple
river in the severe winter of 1890-91, and one of these is said to have
been a Whooper, but we have no knowledge that the identification
was correct. In Cornwall, Mr. Rodd can only speak of three specimens,
and from what he states about them there can be no doubt that these
birds were not Whoopers, but only stray domestic Swans. On the Dorset
coast the Whooper occurs more frequently, and Mr. Mansel-Pleydell
remarks that it occasionally associates in the winter-time with thé tame
birds on the Fleet, at Abbotsbury. In Poole Harbour, a classical resort
of wild-fowl, Colonel] Hawker, many years ago, killed eight at a shot with
his punt-gun, and our edition of his celebrated ‘ Instructions to Young
Sportsmen’ (Longman & Co., 1826) contains as its frontispiece a view of
Poole Harbour, in which a successful shot has just been made from a
punt, and lying on the water are dead and crippled Coots, Curlews, and
Brent Geese, together with a Swan with a broken wing, while another
Swan is making off in an attitude expressive of great astonishment. As
two other punts are represented, one blazing away, and the other
approaching the flocks of fowl, and retrievers and spaniels are also “all
over” the picture, one can only wonder at the great tameness of Geese
aud Swans in those days, so very different from our own experience in these
degenerate times! Mr. Mansel-Pleydell adds that most of the “* Wild
Swans ” obtained in more recent years in Poole Harbour must be ascribed
to straggling Mute Swans. In the county of Somerset the Whooper is
exceedingly rare. Mr. Cecil Smith only knew of the one which was
sent from Bridgwater to Col. Montagu by his friend Mr. Anstice, in 1805,
and conjectures that a Swan, shot many years ago (in 1829) out of a pair
which appeared on his own pond at Lydeard House, may probably have been
a Whooper, although we concur with him in thinking that it was more
likely an example of Bewick’s Swan, a far more common species in the
West of England. We ourselves know of no Somerset Whooper, and the
specimen in our own collection was shot on the Thames, in the first or
second year of the Rifle Volunteer movement, by a volunteer, who cleverly
sent a bullet from a “long Enfield” through the bird’s neck. This bird
followed us about in a hamper from one place in Devonshire to another,
as we chanced to be on a round of visits at the time, and when we at last
unpacked it had been killed close on three weeks, and the work of
skinning and mounting it was rather a gruesome task !

Bewick’s Swan. Cygnus bewicki, Yarrell.

A casual visitor, of very rare occurrence in severe winters.

Dr. Thos. Shapter, in his ‘ Climate of the South of Devon,’ speaks of some
having been obtained in 1830, Fifteen occurred in a flock on the Exe and
Clyst, January 24th, 1838, and nearly all were killed, They weighed
from 141bs, to 20 lbs, (F. W. L. R., MS. Journal, i. p. 74). One shot on

216 _ THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

the Dart is in the Torquay Museum. A pair were seen November 14th,
1876, on the Kingsbridge estuary, and the female, weighing 113 lbs., was
shot (H. N., Zool. 1876, p. 5180). Another was shot and brought to
Mr. R. P. Nicholls a few days afterwards, but was not preserved.
Although only to be considered a rare visitor in the winter-time, and
appearing at uncertain intervals, Bewick’s Swan is, nevertheless, the
most common of the species of Wild Swan in the West Country. In
Ireland Mr. Thompson said it was more often seen than the Whooper ;
we know of many instances of its occurrence in Pembrokeshire, and our
own specimen comes from that county. In Cornwall, according to
Mr. Rodd’s brief note, it would seem to have been occasionally confounded
with the much Jarger and rarer Whooper, and Mr. Rodd’s collection had
examples which had been procured in his county; while in Somerset it
has several times been met with in considerable numbers. In the winter
of 1878 there was a large visitation of these beautiful Swans to the West
Somerset Moors. We quote our own notes communicated to the ‘ Zoologist’”
at the time (‘ Zoologist,’ 1879, p. 173) :—* Our friend, the Rev. R. C. L.
Browne, Vicar of North Curry, who was greatly interested by the visit of
a flock of Bewick’s Swans to the moors in his parish, has given us the
following particulars :—The flock numbered about sixty birds, and fre-
quented the neighbourhood of North Curry for a month. ‘The birds were
remarkably wary, and although many gunners were on the watch for
them, only one succeeded in obtaining a shot. The Vicar himself spent
a moonlight night on a frozen rhine, lying up for the Swans, but although
they often shifted their ground, they did not come within reach of his
duck-gun. A labourer, with his single-barrelled gun, had greater luck,
coming on them unexpectedly, and succeeded in knocking over four; of
these two were picked up, while the other two, being but slightly
wounded, managed to escape. One of the two obtained was sold to
Mr. Foster, of North Curry ; the other the Vicar was anxious to secure,
but arrived at the man’s cottage just as he and his family were sitting
down to a dinner off roast Swan. A slice from the breast, although both
juicy and tender, was but a poor equivalent for the loss of what would
have been prized as an extremely interesting local specimen. During the
day the Swans flew about from one ‘ washet’ to another, as the open
places in the ice on the ‘ grounds’ on the moor are termed locally. The
birds passed overhead in a wedge-formation, uttering musical cries, and
as they alighted hovered for an instant with uplifted wings above the
ground, when they ‘looked like a descending flight of angels.” <A
smaller flock, numbering sixteen. appeared on the southern edge of the
moor in the neighbourhood of Glastonbury. Of these, four were pro-
cured, as stated by Mr. Porch in the ‘ Field,’ February 22nd, 1879. Two
of these were presented by that gentleman to the Museum at Taunton
Castle, and were a valuable addition to the collection of county birds.
One was a remarkably fine adult; the other, almost an adult, had a little
rust colour on the forehead and breast *. Mr. Bidgood, the Curator of the

* This tinge of rusty yellow, which is often noticed on the front of the head of
Swans, is supposed by some ornithologists to be merely the stain occasioned by the

-—————

ANATIDE. ATZ

Museum, informed us that both examples were females. Our own parish,
under the Quantocks, received a visit from these elegant little Swans.
We are told by Mr. Esdaile that four were seen for several days on the
lake in his park at Cothelestone, and that before the birds left him their
numbers were increased to seven. One was either a wounded bird, or
had received a severe handling from the tame Swans on the lake, for it
fell a prey to a prowling fox and was found half-eaten on the bank.
The head, that of an adult, was presented to Mr. Cecil Smith. One
of the four Swans obtained near Glastonbury, being only slightly wounded,
was kept alive for some time with other fowl, and soon became tame,
thus bearing out what has been frequently recorded of the domesticity of
this species. A friend of ours when Snipe-shooting on the moors to the
east of Taunton came across a small flock of Bewick’s Swans, and had an
ineffectual shot at them. He was struck by their small size, and suid
that they seemed more like Wild Geese than Swans. Some Brent Geese
appeared on the same “ ground” * when the Swans were noticed, and
two were shot at a spot considerably inland for a bird which usually con-
fines itself to the coast.

We have no knowledge of any specimens of Bewick’s Swan from North
Devon. According to Mr. Mansel-Pleydell, it is very rarely obtained in
Dorsetshire, but may have been seen and taken for “Common Wild
Swans,”

[ Observations.—Two specimens of the Australian Black Swan (Cygnus
atrata, Lath.) have been killed on the Exe. One was shot off Exmouth
in October 1885 (Zool. 1855, p. 6447), and is now in the A. M. M. The
second was killed about 1869, and was seen by us in the flesh. Both
birds were probably wanderers from Bicton Lake, near Budleigh, where
many foreign aquatic birds were kept in a semi-domesticated condition.
Had specimens been obtained oftener, this Swan would have as good
claim to be considered part of our fauna as an introduced species as the
Mute Swan, Egyptian Goose, &c.

The American Trumpeter Swan (C. luccinator), a larger species than
the Whooper with a black bill, has long been naturalized in England, and
has been killed, apparently in a wild state, near Aldeburgh; and another
North-American species, the Whistling Swan (C. americanus), is said to
have been occasionally killed in Scotland. It has small patches of a deep
orange-colour on the sides of the bill. |

decaying weeds into which the birds thrust their heads while feeding, or from some
mud or sand impregnated with iron with which they have come in contact. There are
some very interesting remarks on this subject in the ‘ Birds of Norfolk,’ vol. iii. p. 76.

* On the Somerset fens a “ground” is what would elsewhere be termed a field, ouly
it is separated from the adjoining grounds by deep ditches, full of water, with an
unknown bottom of mud, instead of by hedges or walls,

218 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

THE WILD DUCKS.

Of the numerous Ducks which come upon our British
list some are maritime, like the Sheldrake, the Scoters,
and the Scaup, and, except at the nesting-season, very
rarely leave the salt water. ‘There are others which pass
the greater part of the year on lakes and streams inland,
which only make their appearance on the estuaries on the
coast in the autumn and winter; of these the best-known
examples are the Common Wigeon and the Teal. Even
the ordinary Wild Duck, generally confining itself to
freshwater ponds and rivers and marshes, will in the
winter-time, for the sake of security, fly out to sea to
settle for the day and sleep upon its surface, seeking the
shore and its favourite feeding-grounds at dusk. ‘The
Garganey, or Summer Teal, a rather scarce spring visitor
to this country, is the only one of whose appearance at
any time on salt water we have no instance. Most of the
British Wild Ducks have been obtained in Devonshire:
some of them are very rare and only accidental stragglers
from the north, such as the Eider and Long-tailed Duck ;
some reach us from the south of Europe, like the Red-
crested Pochard and White-eyed Duck; while others are
drifted to us by accident across two continents, perhaps
coming all the way from North America, v7@ Northern Asia
and Europe, as the Surf-Scoter, the American Green-
winged Teal, and the Buffel-headed Duck. Of our own
indigenous birds, the best known representatives of the
Wild-Duck family, and the only ones we are accustomed
to see hanging up in game-dealers’ shops, the Common
Wild Duck, the Common Wigeon, and the Teal, it may
safely be asserted that not a tithe of the numbers, which,
fifty years ago, were sometimes seen blackening the sands
and oozes on our coasts, Visit us at the present day, and

ANATID.E. 219

that each succeeding year their numbers grow less and
less. The Ducks are nearly all nocturnal feeders, sleeping
by day on the middle of some quiet lake, or on some
sheltered stream, flying to their feeding-grounds in the
evening. ‘There is a great difference between the plumages
of the two sexes in some of them, the drake being decked
with a variety of bright colours, while the duck, for the
sake of protection while she is incubating her eggs and
taking charge of her young, is clad in inconspicuous brown
and russet. Directly the breeding-season is over a rapid
change takes place in the brilliant livery of the drake,
and a dingy plumage, somewhat resembling that of his
spouse, is assumed; and this “eclipse” stage, as it is
called, is, doubtless, also connected with protective pur-
poses, serving to guard the bird during the utter helpless-
ness occasioned by the summer moult, during which all
the flight-feathers are shed, and the drake, a short time
since so proud in his splendid dress and strong powers of
wing, is compelled to pass weeks sheltering among the
sedge and reeds, from whence we have had examples,
incapable of flight, occasionaily brought to us by our
retrievers. By October the moulting-stage has been fully
passed, and the drakes have once more assumed their
brilliant plumage. We believe this curious change
during the summer in the plumage of the drake is ex-
perienced in all those species in which in the adult birds
there is a conspicuous difference in the dress of the two
sexes,

Common Sheldrake. Zadorina cornuta (S. G. Gm.).
[Burrow Duck (1. D. and Somerset). |

‘esident in very limited numbers, but mainly a casual visitor in winter
and early spring.
This very handsome Duck still breeds on the Braunton Burrows in

220 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

North Devon, and we know of several breeding-stations on the north
coast of Somerset, between Minehead and Clevedon. The Burrow
Duck, as it is generally called, is a very conspicuous object on the sands,
when the sun is shining on its handsome white and rich chestnut
plumage, and is one of the most wary of all Water-fowl to approach.
However, one rough afternoon when we were walking on Brean Down,
near Weston-super-Mare, we came close on thirty or more of these
beautiful birds, sheltering on the leeward side of the Down, and as they
did not perceive our presence, had a good look at them before we con-
tinued our walk and left them undisturbed. One summer’s afternoon we
were seated among the fern on a sloping edge of the Down above the sea,
and after a time felt a curious pecking at our legs, and shghtly shifting
our position in order to discover our assailant, in so doing afforded an
escape to a Burrow Duck sitting upon her eggs placed inside a wide-
mouthed rabbit-earth, and were considerably startled by the bird as she
flew out from under us towards the water. The Burrow Ducks feed very
early in the morning on the grass, clover, and young wheat-fields
adjoining the cliffs, but directly the farm werk-people make their appear-
ance they retire to the water. Being desirous of studying the habits of these
Ducks, we have left our home at 2 4.m. on fine mornings in May and June,
when we were residing at Weston-super-Mare, in order to walk to Wood-
spring Priory, a farm on the coast, some four miles to the east of that
watering-place, where, at that time, considerable numbers of these Ducks
nested. By careful stalking we have many times approached close to the
birds when feeding. Directly the young are hatched, the old birds carry
the little ducklings to the water in their bills; and we have seen broods
only a day or two old swimming briskly along below the cliffs with the
two old birds in attendance. Noticing that the Ducks had a certain line
of flight along the coast, and that they frequently passed to and fro over
a particular patch of furze, we one morning in the autumn took up our
station there, and succeeded in shooting several, but have never fired at a
Burrow Duck since, as those we attempted to eat were utterly unpalat-
able, although we tried them in various fashions. We have had no recent
information respecting the Burrow Ducks near Weston-super-Mare, and
are quite unable to say if they are still as numerous as they were a quarter
of a century ago: we fear not.

At Plymouth the Sheldrake seldom occurs excepting during or after very severe
weather (J. G.). It was unusually numerous in 1875, and Dee. 1890 to Jan. 1891, on
the te coast of the county. At Plymouth a pair were shot Jan. 21st, 1855, and one
Jan. 19th, 1870 (B., MS. Notes). Three at Plymouth Market, Jan. Oth, 1875; two in
Devonport Market, Feb. 13th, 1875; some Noy. 1875; one Feb. 13th, 1877; ‘another
Noy. 5th, 1877; some November and December J879; one 1883 (J. G., Zool. 1875,
pp. 4873, 4448 ; 1876, p. 4784; 1877, p. 164; 1878, p. 54; 1880, p. 48; "1884, p- 56).

Several have been shot in Kingsbr idge estuary (R. P. N.). A very large ee was
shot there at the end of 1875, and two others seen (EH. A.S.E.). A fine adult male

was shot near Kingsbridge in January 1891 (R.P.N.). A flock of about ten came
into the estuary before Christmas 1890, and most were shot (E. A. S. E.).

One occurred at Teignmouth, Feb. 1855 (J. G., MS. Notes). An adult female at
Brixham, Feb, 15th, 1870 (Zool. 1870, p. 2098).

ANATIDA. pa §

On the Exe estuary the Sheldrake has oecurred at the following dates :—February
1853; Dec. 28th, 1864; March 15th, 1869 (C.8.); three in March 1870; Feb. 20th,
1875; Dee. 12th, 1875; four Jan. 27th, 1881; a young bird Sept. 1889; many adults
Dee. 1890 and Jan. 1891. Most of these specimens were obtained on Dawlish Warren at
the mouth of the Exe. The sand-hills there form a suitable breeding-ground, and one
pair has nested there annually for the last few years and brought out broods. For
some reason this species is evidently on the increase, and occurs more frequently, and
in greater numbers, on the South Coast than formerly.

The name of the bird is taken from “ sheld,’ an old word signifying
* pied,” in reference to its parti-coloured plumage.

Burrow Ducks are to be seen on the coast at all times of the year near
the places where they nest. However, in Cornwall, Mr. Rodd considered
this species a winter visitor, only to be seen in severe weather. On the
Dorsetshire coast the Burrow Duck is not uncommon, and breeds in some
numbers, where there are sand-hills, and Mr. Mansel-Pleydell quotes some
interesting notes on the bird from Colonel Hawker’s well-known book.

[Ruddy Sheldrake. Tadorna casarca (Linn.).

In the severe winter of 1890-91, a specimen of the Ruddy Sheldrake,
which we can only consider to have strayed from some ornamental water,
where it had been frozen out, was obtained at Braunton, in North Devon.
A man fired at it and wounded it, and several days later it was picked up
dead, and carried to Mr. Rowe, the Barnstaple bird-stuffer, from whom it
passed to the Museum at Westward Ho! College. The Ruddy Sheldrake
is a native of South-eastern Europe and Northern Africa, and is a bird not
to be expected to wander as far as our coasts of its own accord. As far
back as the severe winter of 1776, one was shot at. Bryanston, in Dorset-
shire, and is still to be seen at the Museum in Newcastle-on-Tyne. This
example was, most probably, also an escaped bird. |

*Summer Duck, -£r sponsa (Linn.).

Introduced. This pretty American species is frequently kept on ponds
and ornamental waters, and as it breeds freely, and roams about the
country at will, it appears to us that it is as much entitled to a place in
the British list as other introduced and naturalized species, such as the
Egyptian Goose, Mute Swan, and Pheasant. All these would soon be
exterminated did they not receive protection, and are not really fere
nature. Two specimens of the Summer Duck were killed out of a flock
of fourteen on the River Erme, near Plymouth (J. G., Zool. 1873, p. 3396).
A female was shot by Mr. Walter Toll at Slapton Ley in Dee, 1890.

Wigeon. Mareca penclope (Linn.).

A winter visitor, abundant in some seasons. It continues to be by far
the most plentiful species of Duck met with in Devonshire, as it was when

pa: THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

Montagu published the supplement to his ‘ Ornithological Dictionary,’
About thirty-five years ago, whenever the Clyst marshes were flooded, in
rainy weather, during the winter months, they were visited by large
flocks of Wigeon. But now these marshes are occupied by the Rifle-Butts
of the Clyst Valley Range. Some even now occasionally visit the Exe
estuary, the Kingsbridge arm of the sea, and the creeks in the neighbour-
hood of Plymouth. Thousands are seen on Slapton and Thurlestone Leys
in winter. his bird occasionally arrives as early as the beginning of
September (one Sept. 10th, 1851, on the Exe; six on 12th, and fifteen
on Sept. 17th, 1853, also on the Exe). Mr. Gatcombe, however, con-
sidered Sept. 23rd as an early date (Zool. 1873, p. 3785). In severe
winters we have seen large flocks on the ooze of the Exe estuary in the
daytime, and in the Clyst marshes ; but more generally they only venture
inland at night, resting out at sea, or on the freshwater leys on the
coast, during the day. Many are shot during their flight-time at night
by the gunners on the Kingsbridge estuary when flying to their feeding-
grounds, a waning moon being considered most favourable for the sport
(BE. A. 8. E.). The flocks are mainly composed of birds of the year, and
females, up to the end of November; but in January and February adult
males are most numerous. ‘They take their departure in March. A bird
intermediate between the Mallard and Wigeon is mentioned by Bellamy
(Nat. Hist. 8. Devon, p. 217, note).

The Wigeon arrives on the North Devon coast towards the end of Sep-
tember. generally making its first appearance in small flocks, which probably
represent single broods. When the Wigeon are first seen on the estuaries
they are usually pretty tame, and are not difficult to stalk, but as the
season advances the flocks collect together and become more wary. One
day in the late autumn we saw the sands adjoining the Braunton burrows
on Barnstaple Bay looking quite black from the multitude of Wigeon, but
there was no approaching them. In severe weather in the winter these
Ducks become very poor, and from feeding on the mud contract a rank
‘flavour; but after getting nothing but these indifferent birds for some
time, we have known fresh flocks to arrive suddenly of plump birds, in
far brighter plumage, and excellent for the table; and have considered
them to have been Wigeon which had only then been frozen out from
some freshwater feeding-grounds. As long as the weather is open these
Ducks feed largely upon grass, which they crop close with their beaks,
and while they continue to do this their flesh remains sweet; but when
they have to depend chiefly upon the worms, and whatever else they can
gather from the oozes on the shore, they rapidly deteriorate in flavour,
Although a few Wigeon nest in the north of Scotland, the great majority
are reared in the northern countries of Europe, migrating south on the
approach of autumn. In old days the takes of Wigeon on the large
decoys in the eastern counties were enormous, and where decoys are still
maintained the Wigeon which are secured greatly outnumber all the
other fowl.

Towards the end of April 1870, we received information from the Rev.
W. 8. Hore, then residing at Barnstaple, that a very curious Wigeon had

ANATID.&. ye

been shot on the Taw, and brought to the bird-stuffer, which he thought
might possibly prove to be an example of the American Wigeon, Mareca
americana (Gm.). Shortly afterwards this bird was forwarded to us, and
quite a conclave of ornithologists of repute, who then chanced to be in our
neighbourhood, sat upon it, and pronounced it to be, without doubt, a
specimen of the American Wigeon, and we accordingly labelled it as such,
and until quite lately felt no suspicion that it was anything else, even
after comparing it with adult skins of the American species in our posses-
sion. But being unwilling to record this specimen in our book, if there
was the least doubt about it, we took it recently to the South Kensington
Museum, where, with Dr. Sharpe’s kind help, we were able to compare it
with skins and mounted examples of the American Wigeon in various
stages, with the result that we were quite satisfied that our bird was,
after all, only a Common Wigeon in a very abnormal condition of plumage.
What seemed to us an unfailing distinction between the American and
the Common Wigeon was the head and throat of the latter being spotted
in all stages, whereas the same parts in the former are as invariably
striated,

The following interesting description of ‘ flight-shooting ’ for Wigeon is
from the pen of Mr. Edmund A. 8. Elliot of Kingsbridge, who has ‘kindly
allowed us to use it for this ea

‘*Wicron ! the very name erated one, and many a success and failure
in pursuit of Master Yellow-Poll occurs to one, and many a tragic incident,
at any rate as concerned our quarry. Now the traffic on the Estuary has
so much increased, flight-shooting is not what it used to be fifteen or
twenty years ago; and the favourite method now is to get a pot-shot by
going down undercliff at night, as the tide is rising at the same time that
the moon is waxing; lying up, and waiting till the fast-disappearing mud-
banks drive the hungry birds towards the shore in search of food. Many
are thus obtained at a shot, and one gunner—and a most enthusiastic one
to boot—often gets eight to twelve with the aid of an eight-bore, and a
clever terrier, which retrieves the birds, sometimes bringing in two at a
time.

“ Flight-shooting, however, has greater charms; there is not that long,
long, wait in the cramped-up position one has to adopt for the most
popular method of obtaining birds, but taking a stand under shelter of a
hedge on the east side of the Estuary, where the birds pass over on their
way from Slapton Ley, shooting may be obtained from twilight till alter
dark. Many a time have I stood thus, with not a sound to break the
stillness of the night, except the weird croak of the Heron, or shrill cry
of the Curlew, as they are driven off their feeding-ground by the incoming
tide ; presently a ‘ whee-au, whee-au,’ and a swish of wings, proclaim the
advent of Wigeon, and, almost before one can wink, the birds have passed
and are out of shot. Now the calls become more frequent, and one knows
the birds are arriving thickly, but rather out of one’s line; but see against
the rising moon there comes a bunch—look out overhead and let drive!
cre like a flash they have passed too far—thud, thud, is echoed to our

wood THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

shot, as the birds drop dead or crippled on the beach beneath, and the
next moment our faithful retriever is hard at work over the cliff.

“An incident, which nearly led to a tragic end, occurred as I was
once retrieving a wounded Wigeon over the soft, treacherous mud.
I got a long shot at some birds over the mud, and wounded one which
I immediately went in pursuit of, gun in hand; the wounded bird
could run quite as fast as I could flounder through the mud, knee-
deep as it was at every step. Presently, down I went up to my middle
in a soft place, and struggle as I would, I could not get my legs free,
After trying in vain to get clear, until, in fact, my strength was exhausted,
I realized my precarious position, as the tide was flowing fast, and night
was drawing on. My shouting drew no response, nor the rapid firing of
my breech-loader the help so urgent!y needed, and no boats were passing
up or down the river, yet there, in the too near distance, I noticed the
rippling tide fast appro: aching. Some method of extricating myself must
be thought of, and that quickly ; when suddenly, as by an inspiration, a
similar scene came before me, which I had read of in my vade mecum,
‘Daniel’s Rural Sports,’ where the gunner had saved himself by using his
gun as a lever, thus dragging the lower part of his body out, and rolling
to the harder edge. Fortunately, this manceuvre was successful in my
case, and not a moment too soon, for the tide was now up to me, and [
had to swim the lake, gun in hand, to reach the shore.”

Pintail. ck acuta (Linn.).
[Pheasant Duck, Sea-Pheasant (Y. D.).]

An occasional winter visitor to our bays, estuaries, and rivers, and much
less frequently obtained now than formerly.

This elegant Duck is now one of the rarest of the fowl met with in
North Devon, where many years ago it must have been not uncommon,
as it was well known to the boatmen at Instow by the name of Sea-
Pheasant. We can only remember a single example, and that a Duck,
occurring on the Barnstaple river. One or two have been brought, at
different times, to the Barnstaple bird-stuffer.

Mr. E. H. Rodd states that the Pintail is not rare as a winter visitor to
the Land’s End district, and mentions a wonderful shot made by a farmer
in 1853, who, discharging both barrels of a heavy Duck-gun from his
shoulders into a large flock of Pintails, picked up thirty-seven Pintails
and one Wigeon! We never saw a Somersetshire Pintail; but Mr. Cecil
Smith thought the species visited the county regularly every winter, and
states that in the winter of 1868-69 it was unusually common. On the
Dorsetshire Coast Mr. Mansel-Pleydell considers it a regular winter
visitor in small numbers.

The Pintail is widely distributed over the world; prefers quiet inland
waters ; and is always a shy and wary bird. The adult drakes, in their
full spring plumage, are very handsome, and we have seen beautiful spe-

ANATIDA, Zao

cimens hanging up in Leadenhall Market, which had, no doubt, been sent
over from the Continent.

The Pintail is very scarce near Plymouth. One was shot on the Tamar in 1853
(J. B., ‘ Naturalist,’ 1853, p. 204), and another shot on Jan. 17th, 1861, was the only
one received by Bolitho in twenty years. A pair obtained in Plymouth Market were
shot on the Tamar in the winter of 1862 (J. B. R., Trans. Plym. Inst. 1862-3, p. 78).
There were others in the Market in Dec. 1879 (J. G., Zooi. 1879, p. 48).

Many are shot on Slapton and Torcross Leys every year, mostly immature birds,
but some fine-plumaged males have occurred. A male and female were shot on Kings-
bridge estuary, Oct. L5th, 1889; the male was still in the “eclipse” stage (E. A. S. E.).

Pintails were numerous on Torbay in the winter of 1868-69 (Von H., Zool. 1869,
p. 1720).

There are several specimens in the A. M. M., obtained onthe Exe. Mr. Ross records
a male and a female shot on that river in 1844 (MS. Journal, iv. pp. 43, 64). An
adult male was killed on the Exe, Oct. 9th, 1855. One was shot at Nether Exe, near
Stoke Canon, in Jan. 1881. A fine adult male was obtained at Exmouth, Dec. 17th,
1890.

The Pintail is a winter visitor to Lundy Island.

Wild Duck. Anas boscas, Linn.

Partially resident, many breeding in a few suitable localities in the
county where they are protected and in other retired situations. It is
marked as breeding on Dartmoor by Dr. E. Moore (Rowe’s Peramb. Dart-
moor, p. 232). Scores breed at Slapton Ley, and many up the Avon
valley and at Thurlestone Ley. A great number are shot in the corn-
fields at harvest-time all along the adjoining coast, as we are informed by
Mr. E. A. 8. Elliot. Many appeared on the Kingsbridge estuary on
August 1, 1889, probably driven off the Leys (HE. A. 8. E.), and a few
sometimes occur on the Exe in summer and early autumn. The Wild
Duck is very plentiful as a winter visitor on the south-west coast, immense
flocks being seen in Bigbury Bay, especially under Bolt Tail, where they
rest by day, flying inland to feed at night.

White varieties have been shot near Exeter and Plymouth. A female
with a white band on the front part of the neck was shot near Topsham,
and we have seen other similar specimens. Varieties of different colours
have been procured in winter near Kingsbridge (R. P. N.) and on the
Exe estuary. A very curious variety of the male, without the white
collar, and with very little rufous on the breast, the speculum of the wing
being pale black, and the head of a yellower green than usual, was shot
below Topsham, on the Exe, early in January 1877(W. D’U., Zool. 1877,
p. 107).

As before mentioned, in our account of the Wigeon, a hybrid between
the Mallard and Wigeon was procured by Pincombe of Devonport (Bellamy,
Nat. Hist. 8. Devon); and the Rev. W.8. Hore obtained a hybrid between
the Mallard and the Teal, which is now in the possession of Mr. J. H.
Gurney.

We cannot say that the Common Wild Duck is at the present day a
numerous species in general on our Devonshire waters. Unless the winter
is severe enough to send us flocks from the northern parts of the kingdom,

Q

226 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

or from the Continent, but very few are seen, excepting on the south-
west part of our coast, where it is abundant and increasing owing
to the Bird Preservation Act. We have now no decoys in the
West Country, in which hundreds of Wild-fowl are snared every winter,
as they are still in some few favoured places in the Eastern Counties ;
and, indeed, the Wild Ducks do not visit us in sufficient numbers to
render a decoy, if constructed, profitable enough to work. A few pairs of
Wild Duck breed by the sides of some of our most remote trout-streams,
where we have now and again come across the broods when fishing.
Wild Ducks are known to place their nests occasionally in strange sites ;
we once found one on the top of a bank, by the side of a dusty road, on
the tcp of a high hillin the Exmoor country, at least a mile from the
nearest stream, which was in the valley far below. We have known very
fair bags of W ld Duck made flight-shooting by the sides of the shallow
rush- fringed pools on the Braunton Burrows, where the sportsman, sitting
ona plank, placed in the midst of the tall clumps of the spiked rush growing
nearly five feet high *, could often obtain a favourable shot at fhe flocks
coming in from the sea to feed, either as they flew past, or after they had
settled on the water, and we have known one keen shot get upwards of a
hundred in this manner in the course of a few evenings.

In severe winters immense flocks of Wild Duck visit the marshes of
the Land’s End district, according to Mr. Rodd; while numbers which
had been bred in the county assemble in the creeks of Poole Harbour, in
July, on the Dorset coast, soon to be shot down or scared away by the
gunners.

Mr. Mansel-Pleydell mentions two decoys in Dorsetshire, one at Abbots-
bury, belonging to Lord Ichester, of very ancient date, where about 200
birds is the present average take; and another at Morden, belonging to
the Charborough Park estate of Miss Drax, where at one time from 7000
to 8000 Wild-fowl were captured in a season, but where none are taken
at the present day, the decoy being out of order. In Somerset we never
found the Wild Duck very plentiful, either on the peat-moors, where a
few pairs probably still nest, or on the coast.

Gadwall. Chaulelasmus streperus (Linn.).

A casual winter visitor of very rare occurrence, which has been met
with only on the south coast. Dr. Moore records specimens in the collec-
tions of Messrs. Drew, Bolitho, and Pincombe, but says it was very rare
(Trans. Plym. Inst. 1830 ; Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837). One was obtained at
Plymouth, March 3, 1855 (J. G., ‘ Naturalist,’ 1855, p. 144; Zool. 1855,
p. 4705). There are examples i in the Torquay Museum from Kingsbridge
and the Dart; and one in the A. M. M. is said to have been obtained at
Powderham, ri the estuary of the Exe, in Dec. 1871. This bird was
in a stale condition when received in the flesh, and might have been

* Juncus acutus, a scarce rush, of which some splendid clumps exist in the Braunton
Burrows.

ANATID. pope

imported. A young male, shot on the Exe, from Mr. Robert Cumming’s
collection, is also in the Exeter Museum. One shot at Seaton in
December 1882 is in the possession of Mr. Parkins of that place. A
female, killed at Slapton Ley in January 1885, believed to be the first re-
corded specimen obtained in that locality, was in the collection of the late
Mr. W. Bastard (R. P. N., Zool. 1885, p. 68, and MS. Notes). The -two
females recorded as having been shot near Kingsbridge during the winter
of 1887-88 appear to be, without doubt, immature Pintails.

The Gadwall is so widely distributed over the world that it is not a
little remarkable that it should be so seldom seen in the West of England.
It is not uncommon as a winter visitor in Scotland, and being now semi-
domesticated in large numbers in the Eastern Counties of England, it
might be expected to reach Devonshire occasionally. It is, however, one
of the rarest of our Ducks. We know of no instance of it in North
Devon ; the only Devonshire examples, which we record above, were all
obtained on the south coast of the county. It is equally rare in Cornwall,
where Mr. Rodd knew of only three having occurred. Mr. Cecil Smith
records two from Somerset in his book, and in the ‘ Zoologist’ for 1889,
p. 149, mentions a duck and drake Gadwall which were seen in Sedgmoor,
near Langport, on Jan. 10, 1889, The duck was shot, but the drake
escaped. A drake of this species had been shot near the same spot three
years before. Mr. Mansel-Pleydell, who states that itis called locally the
** Grey Duck,” mentions nine Dorsetshire specimens, most of them from
Poole harbour.

In its habits the Gadwall is said closely to resemble the Common Wild
Duck.

Garganey. Querquedula circia (Linn.).
{Summer Teal. |

A passing visitor in March and April, of occasional occurrence, generally
in pairs, but sometimes in small flocks. It is most frequently met with
in the southern part of the county, and very rarely visits North Devon.
The spring of 1870 was remarkable for the number of Garganeys which
visited the county.

Dr. E. Moore mentions one in Mr. Tripe’s collection at Devonport, and another shot
on the Exe in that of Mr. Comyns (Trans. Plym. Inst. 1830). A young male was
shot on the Exe, March 11th, 1841 (F. W. L. R., MS. Journal, iii. p. 49). Mr. Henry
Nicholls had a pair shot in Kingsbridge estuary, about 1843 (EB. A. 8. E.). A pair
were killed at one shot in a marsh near Topsham on Mareh 12th, 1850, and are now
in the A. M. M. We saw a pair on the Exe close to Topsham, March 17th, 1856, but
did not succeed in shooting them. One was shot at Plymouth on March 29th, 1855 ;
and one April 10th, 1861 (B., MS, Notes). A pair in our collection in beautiful plumage
were shot on the Taw just above Barnstaple Bridge, about March 20th, 1870, and one
was killed on the same river on April 20th following (M. A. M., Zool. 1870, pp. 2144.
2183). A pair occurred at Plymouth, March 25th, 1870, and a male, April 15th, 1872
(J. G., Zool. 1870, p. 2143: 1872, p. 3099). A male was shot at Widdecombe on
April Ist, 1870 (A. F, Holdsworth), A pair were shot, and a flock of eight were seen,

Q 2

228 THE BIRDS OF DEVON,

at Strode, near Modbury, South Devon, on April 17th, 1875 (‘ Field’ for May 5th,
1875). One occurred at Plymouth, March 24th, 1881 (Zool. 1882, p.63). There is a
specimen from the Teign in the Museum of the Torquay Natural History Society.

We have often considered that there are places on the Somerset peat-
moors suitable for this beautiful little Duck to nest in, but have never
been able to obtain evidence that any have done so, although we have seen
examples which had been shot from these very places we have in our mind.
The unfortunate birds, probably, settle on them with an intention of
nesting, when somebody catches sight of them some unlucky day, and
they are soon to be seen hanging up in the nearest game-dealer’s shop, or
in the hands of the local bird-stuffer. Mr. Rodd never heard of a Gar-
ganey’s nest in Cornwall, where the bird appears not uncommonly, and
there is no record of a Devonshire nest; but in the ‘ Zoologist’ for 1878,
p. 130, Mr. T. M. Pike states his belief ‘‘ that a brood or two are usually
hatched off” in the neighbourhood of Poole Harbonr, but furnishes no
particulars of any ever having done so. Col. Montagu used to receive
specimens of the Garganey from the decoys in Somersetshire in the month
of April, by the name of Summer Teal, and gives the weight of a male as
about fourteen or fifteen ounces, the weight of a good Woodcock.

The Garganey used to nest on some of the Norfolk Broads, and, possibly,
may still do so in a few protected places. It is quite a freshwater
Duck, and never visits the salt water, unless it is driven there for shelter.
It is a widely distributed species, aud does not appear to go very far
north.

Common Teal. Querquedula crecca (Linn.).

A winter visitor, tolerably numerous in some seasons in suitable locali-
ties, especially in the south-western part of the county. Breeds occasionally.
The Teal sometimes arrives in August, sometimes early in September. It
has been seen on the Exe, September 9th, 1854; at Plymouth, September
16th, 1873 (J. G., Zool. 1873, p. 3784). Many were noticed at Thurle-
stone Ley, August 14th, 1878 (E. A.S. E.); others at Exmouth, Septem-
ber 1890.

This diminutive Duck is one of the best known of our indigenous wild-
fowl, as there are many places where it still nests, and it is a regular
visitor in the autumn to almost every river, pond, lake, decoy, and estuary
to be met with in the kingdom, The shore-gunner is always pleased to
notice the arrival of the first little ‘‘ bunches ” of Teal, as they are gene-
rally tame and easily stalked, and at no times are Teal as wild and
unapproachable as other wild-fowl. The flesh of the Teal is of high
excellence, and it is altogether a nice little bird. Very pretty shooting is
afforded by it to the sportsman who has the privilege of following some
likely stream of a frosty morning, where the banks are occasionally fringed
by reeds, and dwarf willows overhang the water, giving to the birds the
shelter they love. And when they are flushed they rarely fly far, even if
shot at, and may be marked down again and easily “ banked.” In our

ANATID.A. 229

opinion there is no prettier sport than that to be enjoyed by the side of
such a stream as we have before our mind, when, as one advances to each
favourite cover, there is the exciting uncertainty as to what may spring,
either a Duck and Mallard, a little tlock of Teal, or a Wigeon or two, and
if the frost be severe, Snipe are sure to be numerous at the edges of the
water, and a chance Woodcock may be flushed from some warm cover of
maingled rush and bramble. With a good retrieving water-spaniel for a
companion, what sportsman could wish for better sport ?

We have found pairs of Teal on the Dartmoor bogs in mid-April, and
think there may be an occasional nest on the least disturbed places. In
trout-fishing in North Devon we have once or twice encountered Teal in
the summer-time, which looked as if the birds might have had a nest.

In 1848 a pair of Teal bred near Beesands on Start Bay. <A young
drake was caught and reared up, which associated freely with domestic
Ducks. Teal breed occasionally at Slapton Ley, where, probably, some
which had been wounded on “ Ley Days” pass the summer, not that we
suppose any injured birds ever nest (R. P. N., MS. Notes).

Although the Teal is generally to be met with in small flocks, and
eccasionally as many as forty may be encountered together, we have some-
times flushed the birds singly from the reeds, or “spires,” on the mud-
banks (locally termed “ lick” or “ leek” beds), near Topsham.

A male bird with a pure white ring round the neck was seen at Ilfra-
combe by Mr. Gatcombe (Zool. 1875, p. 4717).

In Dorsetshire, the Teal breeds commonly in suitable places, but neither
in Cornwall nor in Somerset has it been known todo so. We think if
we had more information this bird might be included among the birds
nesting in Somersetshire, as there are so many suitable places for it to do
so on the great turf-moors in the centre of the county, alas! almost a
terra incoynita to the ornithologist.

American Green-winged Teal. Querquedula caro-
linensis (Gmel.).

An accidental visitor of extremely rare occurrence. Mr. R. P. Nicholls,
of Kingsbridge, obtained a full-dressed male specimen in the flesh, Novem-
ber 25rd, 1879, in the following manner :—A girl entered his shop with
a basket covered by a cloth, and took out the bird in question and offered
it for sale. As there was some disagreement as to the price the girl took
it away with her, and as she did not return as anticipated, Mr. Nicholls
went in search of her, and purchased the valuable specimen on her own
terms. He had at once recognized the species, as he had stuffed many
specimens in Chicago, U.S.A., and his brother, Mr. Henry Nicholls, coming
in, and seeing the bird on the counter, immediately pointed out the white
spot in front of the wings, and said he had never met with one like it
before. It appears to have been shot from a flock on an arm of the Kings-
bridge estuary by a local gunner. In December 1888, this specimen was
exhibited at a meeting of the Zoological Society by Mr. Howard Saunders,

230 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

on behalf of Mr. Henry Nicholls, to whom it was given by his brother,
aud in whose possession it now remains (R. P. N. in litt.; H. N., Zool
1880, p. 70; ‘Field, January 3rd, 1880; H. Saunders, ‘Manual of-B..
Birds,’ p. 421). Only two other specimens are known to have occurred
in England, but this American Teal has been admitted into the British
List both by Mr. H. Saunders (op. cit.) and the Committee of the British
Ornithologists’ Union.

Shoveller. Spatula clypeata (Linn.).

A winter visitor, occurring occasionally from September to April, but
seldom in any numbers. It is usually met with in small flocks in the
winter months, and in pairs in the spring, but Montagu describes a speci-
men which ‘‘ was shot on a freshwater lake on the south coast of Devon,
August 5th, 1807.”

This singular and handsome Duck is a widely diffused species, being
found throughout the northern hemisphere, and is a regular winter visitor
to the north of Devon, and a season seldom passes without one or two
being shot in the Barnstaple river; but it never occurs there in large
flocks; two or three, at the most, being seen together, or single birds in
company with Wigeon or Wild Duck. In our opinion, the Shoveller is
one of the most palatable of all the wild-fowl, the flesh being remarkably
sweet and tender. ‘This, of course, applies to it only as long as it continues
to feed on freshwater ponds ; directly it betakes itself to the sea-coast, it
becomes, like all other wild-fowl to be found there, rank and uneatable.
We know of no instance of the Shoyeller’s nest having been obtained in
Devonshire, but it has been detected breeding both in Somerset and Dorset.
The late Mr. John Marshall, of Belmont, Taunton, received eggs of the
Shoveller from North Curry Moor, a little to the east of his town, one of
which he was good enough to present to us for our collection; and the
same season several flapper Shovellers, which had been sent in from the
neighbouring peat-moors, were exposed for sale on one of the stalls in
Taunton market. At the time we resided at Weston-super-Mare we
frequently visited the peat-moors between Highbridge and Glastonbury to
shoot Snipe, and one winter’s morning received a letter from a keeper on
one of the fens we had permission to try, begging us to come at once, as
a flock of ‘Spoonbills” had appeared, Considerably fluttered by this
exciting news we managed to make an early start, and finding the moor
a little wetter than usual, at last had six or seven Ducks pointed out to us,
quite out of reach on the flooded ground, as the “ Spoonbills,” and then
discovered that this was only the local name given to the Shoveller, and
that our expectations of seeing Platalea leucorodia were not to be realized.
Handsome drake Shovellers were frequently sent in by the peat-moor
gunners to the game-dealer at Weston-super-Mare, and the bird seemed
to be far from uncommon on the fen in the winter-time. One spring two
pairs made their appearance on the lake at Sandhill Park, near ‘Taunton,
and we were in hopes they would have remained to breed, but after

ANATID A. 231

staying for three weeks they disappeared. In Dorsetshire, the Shoveller
appears to be less common, and its having nested at Ilsington (‘ Zoologist,’
1857, p. 5757) is considered by Mr. Mansel-Pleydell to have been an
exceptional case. Mr. Rodd states that the Shoveller is not uncommon in
Cornwall.

The singular beak of the Shoveller serves as a perfect colander, with
which the bird skims and strains the surface-water, thus securing the
animalcula &c. on which it feeds.

Dr. E. Moore records two specimens only. A pair occurred at Plymouth in 1853,
and another in the spring of 1855. Examples from the Tamar are in Mr. Brooking
Rowe's collection. Five occurred (three adult males and two females) in Plymouth
Market, February 7th, and three more on February 14th, 1874 ; some in November
1877 ; several in December 1878; and five in November 1879 (J. G., Zool. 1874,
pp. 3944, 3949; 1878, p. 54; 1879, p. 115; 1880, p. 48). One at Strode, in the
parish of Modbury, 8. Devon, in December 1879 (Rev. G. C. Green, Trans. Devon.
Assoc. 1880, p. 93). Seven (two drakes and five ducks) frequented Torcross Ley in
the winter of 1887-8 (EH. A. 8. E.). In January 1891, Mr. Walter Toll saw quite two
hundred feeding together, and shot some, on Slapton Ley (R. P. N. in Jitz.).

There is a Shoveller from the Dart in the Torquay Museum, A young female was
shot on the Exe in September 1841 (F. W. L. R., MS. Journ. iii. p. 107). A pair
there April 1867, Five seen on the Exeter Canal in the winter of 1874-5. A nearly
adult male was shot at Brampford Speke, December 13th, 1875, and two were killed
on the Exeter Canal in the winter of 1875-6. A pair on the Taw, March 1870; and
one on the north coast of Devon, November 1573 (M. A. M., Zool. 1870, p. 2144;
1873, p. 3825).

Red-crested Pochard. Fuligula rufina (Pallas).

An accidental visitor of extremely rare occurrence.

This beautiful species, an inhabitant of Southern and Eastern Europe,
very rarely strays as far as our kingdom, and the examples of it have been
chiefly obtained on the eastern coast of England. However, Mr. G. F.
Mathew, happening to go into the bird-stuffer’s shop at Barnstaple on the
21st December, 1867, saw lying on the counter a very fine adult drake
Red-crested Pochard, which had been just sent in from Braunton, where
it had been shot on the Burrows (G. F. M., Zool. 1868, p. 1098). This
bird was purchased by Mr. Marsh-Dunn for his collection, and is the
only instance of the occurrence of the species in Devonshire. ‘There are
three other West of England examples we may mention. Mr. Rodd
records one which was shot on the Swanpool, at Falmouth, in February
1545, sold in the market for sixpence, plucked, and eaten! Fortunately,
it had first been seen by Mr. W. P. Cocks, who recognized it and reported
it. Then, Mr. Mansel-Pleydell states that a Red-crested Pochard, in
the possession of Lord Portman, was shot on the Stour, at Bryanston, at
the commencement of this century; and for the third West Country
example we have to cross the Bristol Channel to the Pembrokeshire coast,
where a female was shot by Mr. Tracy on Lord Cawdor’s estate at Stack-
pole, which was subsequently presented by Lord Cawdor to the National
Collection, and is still, we believe, to be seen at South Kensington, In

252 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

his handbook, Mr. Harting describes two Pembrokeshire examples, but we
have reason to regard both his entries as referring to the same bird.

The Braunton example recorded above was seen by Mr. J. Gatcombe,
who informed Mr. Dresser that the white portions of its plumage were
tinged with a beautiful bluish colour. The Red-crested Pochard belongs
to the freshwater Ducks, frequenting, and nesting on the edges of, inland
lakes and ponds.

Tufted Duck. Fuligula cristata (Leach).
{Black Wigeon, Pied Wigeon: Dev. |

A winter visitor, arriving in October, and not uncommon in some
seasons on our larger rivers, and especially numerous at Slapton and
Torcross Leys. Mr. J. H. Gurney saw a Tufted Duck off Torcross on
April 11th, 1865, and his late father saw another in the same place ou
May 22nd, 1871. This Duck, therefore, possibly breeds occasionally in
the reed-beds of Slapton and other Leys on the 8.W. coast, and it is also
believed to have bred near Barnstaple.

At Plymouth, specimens were obtained in 1853-54-55, 1864, and 1870 (B., MS.
Notes). Some occurred there on October 21st, 1873, December 1878, and November
1879 (J. G., Zool. 1873, p. 3787 ; 1879, p. 115; 1880, p. 48).

Montagu says “it is frequently shot on Slapton Ley, in South Devon, a large piece
of water close to the sea, and is by the natives called ‘ Black Wigeon’” (Orn. Dict.
Suppl.). We saw some there in January 1856. An adult male occurred on Torcross
Ley, February 6th, 1888, and some splendid full-plumaged males have been obtained
by Mr. W. Toll and Mr. A. F. Holdsworth. Many were shot in January 1891

HK. A. §. E.).

( Some occurred on the Dart, December 11th, and on the Teign, December 29th,
1870 (J. H. G., Zool. 1871, p. 2631). Two were seen at Dartmouth, November 9th,
1874 (G. F. M., Zool. 1875, p. 4326).

On the Exe, examples occurred in 1859, and on December 6th, 1844 (F. W. L. R.,
MS. Journ, ii. pp. 49, 156). Also in February 1855, November 1868, and October
1850.

The Tufted Duck has often occurred to ourselves on the Barnstaple river, where it
is not rare, and a brood of very young birds made their appearance just below Barn-
staple at the end of July 1859, which we considered might have been reared some-
where close at hand (M. A. M., Zool. 1859, p. 6761).

On February 18th, 1855, we had the pleasure of watching a fine male
Tufted Duck swimming in an open space amongst the ice that at the
time covered the Exe, about a mile above Topsham. We were concealed
behind a wall not far off, and through a telescope were able to observe all
the Duck’s actions at leisure. It dived occasionally, remaining under
water about one minute at atime by our watch. We saw it come up
from a dive with a lively eel in its bill, and pass it through its mandibles
from side to side for some time, probably to crush the bones, and beat it
about in the water a great deal. At last it swallowed its captive, but the
eel had not been long down the bird’s throat before it wriggled up again,
when the process of crushing and beating it was repeated, and it was then
finally stowed away safely. Whilst watching this Duck, a female Red-

ANATIDA. Pats

breasted Merganser settled in the same place close to it, and immediately
began diving, but did not stay so long under water at a time as the Duck,
although it seemed to have great: success in fishing, as we saw it come up
with a dab and several eels in about a quarter of an hour, when it flew
away down the river. The Merganser appeared to use the same method
of crippling its prey as the Duck, but did not take so long about it, and
swallowed the fishes quicker ; several of the eels managed to escape from
its bill into the water, but were immediately recaptured; but on one
occasion the bird had to dive again for the eel, which it did with astonish-
ing rapidity. Both birds occasionally allowed an eel to float on the surface
of the water for an instant, as if to change its position in their Dill.
After the Merganser had swallowed the dab, it did not seem to find its
dinner sit comfortably, as it stretched its neck a good deal, and drank
water, apparently to get rid of the slime in its bill. Both birds avoided
getting too near to the ice, and always dived against the tide, which was
running out strongly. ‘There was a great difference in their manner of
diving. The Duck sank gradually in the water, and partially submerged
itself before plunging down. The Merganser, on the contrary, raised
itself up before putting its head under water, as though to dive with
greater force. The Merganser’s bill being better adapted for holding its
slippery quarry gave it the greater success of the two in fishing. The
Duck remained much longer under water, but did not catch so many fish ;
it may, probably, have found other things to feed on at the bottom of the
river. We once found many small shells in the stomach of a female
Tufted Duck shot on the Exe.

Mr. Rodd had no knowledge of the Tufted Duck as a nesting-bird
in Cornwall; but in Dorset it has certainly bred, on the excellent
authority of Professor Newton. This was in the year 1876 (Mansel-
Pleydell, ‘ Birds of Dorset,’ p. 158). In the winter months the shallow
and muddy waters of the bay at Weston-super-Mare, in North Somerset,
are visited by great flocks of diving Ducks; among them we frequently
saw Tufted Ducks. We have also noticed pairs of Tufted Ducks in
the spring on ornamental waters many miles inland; as, for instance,
upon the lake in Orchardleigh Park, near Frome, which must be more
than thirty miles from the nearest coast.

Although occasionally nesting in this kingdom, the Tufted Duck goes
far north, in company with most of the other wild-fow], for its summer-
quarters.

Scaup, Fuligula marila (Linn.).
[Blue-bill (on the Exe). }

A winter visitor, generally arriving in October. One, however, was
shot on the Exe on 11th August, 1876. After heavy gales in autumn
small flocks come up the estuaries of some of the rivers on the South
Coast, and being then very tame, or stupid, these Ducks are easily shot.
Mr. Gatcombe found that adults were rare at Plymouth, and he states

234 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

that he never met with more than two or three in the market there, but
immature birds were often obtained in winter. Mr, R. P. Nichoils says
it is not common in the Kingsbridge district, and old males are rare. The
Scaup occurs sometimes on Slapton Ley in winter; there were many there,
and on the Kingsbridge estuary, in January 1891 (E. A.S8. E.). It has
frequently been obtained on the Exe estuary, where it was numerous in
February 1855, and some fine adults were shot there during the severe
cold of January 1891. ‘There is a variety of the female in the A. M. M.,
shot on the Exe in 1847, which has a white collar round the neck.

The Scaup is one of the most numerous of the wild-fowl which visit the
West Country in the autumn, but being of little account for the table, and,
as a rule, keeping in large flocks some miles off the coast, not much
execution is done among its numbers by the shore-gunners, who, knowing
that it possesses little value, do not trouble themselves much to molest it.
After very rough and severe weather the Scaups sometimes are seen in
the mouths of our tidal rivers. On the Barnstaple river, at Instow, we
have met with them, and have there found them to be difficult of approach,
as they swam away from the boat faster than it could follow. Great
flocks of Scaups are to be found in the bay at Weston-super- Mare through-
out the winter, incessantly diving for their food, together with Common
Scoters, Pochards, Tufted Ducks, and a few Golden-eyed Ducks. We have
sometimes encountered small parties of Scaups feeding in the water at the
edge of the advancing tide, and by walking quietly along, and taking no
notice of them until we have got well abreast of them, have then, by
suddenly running down, obtained a good shot into the birds, getting near
enough in that second of uncertainty in which they did not know whether
to swim away or to rise on wing. Or, going out on the bay in a boat
when the water has been shronded by a dense fog, we have dropped down
quietly into the midst of the flocks, and have had them at our merey, and
have had the birds fly close across our bows, or low overhead, offering
easy shots. But there seemed to be little sport in shooting such useless
birds, and we were not often tempted to fire at them, Curiously enough,
and it is an instance of the capricious and unequal distribution of wild-
fowl along our coasts, the Scaup is reported as a rare bird in the Dorset-
shire waters; there may be something in the warm and muddy shallows
of the Severn Sea which suits its tastes; in old days, when we very fre-
quently made the uncomfortable passage across to South Wales by the ferry
to Portskewet, we invariably saw flocks of Scaups as high up the channel
as this in the winter-time. Nor does Mr. Rodd note it as a common bird
in Cornwall, for the reason which he suggests, its keeping generally far out
to sea and seldom approaching the bays and estuaries. The Scaup retires
to the northern parts of the world for the nesting-season, and Mr. Dresser
states that there is no instance of its having reared a brood anywhere in
the United Kingdom. However, Mr. Cecil Smith quotes a communication
to the ‘ Zoologist’ for 1867, p. 878, from Mr. J. H. Harvie-Brown, who
mentions Mr. Selby as an authority for a female Scaup having been seen,

attended by a young one, on a small loch in Sutherlandshire by Sir
William Jardine in 1834,

ANATID A. 235

The Rey. Charles Swainson, in his ‘ Provincial Names of British Birds,’
states that the Scaup gets its name “ from its feeding among broken oyster
and mussel shells, called in the north ‘ scaup.’”

Pochard. Fuligula ferina (Linmn.).

[Frosty-back (male, on the Exe), Dun Curre, Cur Wigeon (female
and young). |

A winter visitor, occurring in rather small numbers, seldom ascending
the estuaries ; most frequently met with at Slapton Ley, where it is said
to be common in severe winters, and also at Plymouth. Very few now
occur on the Exe, and it is rare at the present day on the Kingsbridge
estuary.

Although well known, the Pochard is far from common in North
Devon. We have occasionally seen it on the Barnstaple river, and have
known examples brought into Barnstaple which had been shot on the
Braunton Marshes; but it is, certainly, one of our rarer Devonshire fowl.
It is frequently met with on the South Cornish coast, according to Mr.
Rodd, and is considered an excellent bird for the table. On the Dorset
coast Mr. Mansel-Pleydell considered the Pochard the commonest of all
the Wild Ducks, and of late years it has become a regular nesting species
in his county,a result due to the beneficial effects of the Bird Preservation
Acts. In Somerset this diving Duck is also fairly common, to be met
with during the winter on inland ponds, as well as upon the shallows on
the northern coast. We have frequently seen it on the bay at Weston-
super-Mare, diving in the shallow muddy water, in company with Scaups
and other fowl.

The Pochard does not go so far to the North for the breeding-season
as some of our other Ducks, being mainly confined to the North Central
portions of Europe.

Its name seems to be connected with the colour of its head, perhaps
fancifully supposed to have some resemblance to a red-hot poker. In
some districts the bird is known as the “ Poker”; and in the North of
Ireland it goes by the names of the ‘“ Bull-headed” and “ Great-headed
Wigeon,” from the trick the bird has of puffing out the feathers on the
head while it is swimming on the water, making the head appear of
unnatural size. Mr. Cecil Smith states that the gamekeepers he was
acquainted with in his county persisted in calling this bird “the
Wigeon.”

Specimens occurred at Plymouth in 1853, -54, -55, and -62 (B., MS. Notes) ; 1875,
-78, -79, -81 (J.G.). An adult female was shot there August 7th, 1885, with the tail
and wing-feathers much worn and faded in colour (J. G., Zool. 1885, p. 378). A
male was obtained on Torbay, December 28th, 1859 (A. von H., Zool. 1870, p. 2059).
One in Kingsbridge estuary, December 1890 (1. A. 8S. 1.). Mr. Elliot shot two males
on Slapton Ley, January 1891, and wounded birds have been known to remain there
all the summer (R. P. N.). On the Exe estuary a few were obtained in January and
February 1855, and one January 17th, 1856. The last we haye seen were a male on
December 27th, 1878, and a male and female exposed for sale in Exeter on 19th and
26th December, 1879,

236 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

White-eyed Duck. Nyroca ferruginea (Gm.).
[Ferruginous Duck. }

An accidental visitor, of extremely rare occurrence.

Dr. Moore records a specimen “at Drew’s” (Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837,
p. 360). Bellamy says ‘‘ only one specimen” (Nat. Hist. S. Devon,
p- 218); and Mr. J. B. Rowe mentions that “only one or two specimens
have occurred” (Trans. Plym. Inst. 1862-63, p.78). Mr. Gatcombe only
knew of the occurrence of one immature bird, probably the one at Drew's,

A female of this species was shot on Slapton Ley about the middle of
November 1874. It was recognized amongst a number of wild-fowl
which had been killed on the Ley on a Public Shooting Day there. Mr.
W. Jesse sent this bird to Mr. R. P. Nicholls, and the skin was submitted
for inspection to Messrs. Sharpe and Dresser, and was exhibited before
the Zoological Society. Mr. R. P. Nicholls does not know what became
of it afterwards (R. P. N., in litt. and MS. Notes).

This pretty little species of freshwater Duck is a summer migrant to
the South and Central parts of Europe only, and it is a rare occasional
visitor to our Eastern Counties in the spring months, while its appearance
anywhere in the West Country can only be regarded as accidental, and it
is singular that the only two instances of its occurrence should have been
in the winter—the one in the south of Devon having been shot at the
beginning of November, while a fine example, recorded by Mr. Mansel-
Pleydell, was obtained at the mouth of the Wareham river, in Dorset, on
3rd January, 1879. These winter occurrences of a Duck which is, in
general, only a summer migrant from the far South may be compared
with the appearances of the Red-footed Falcon, also a summer migrant
from the South, in the West of England in the winter months, and are
not a little puzzling. There are no instances of the White-eyed Duck
reported either from Cornwall or Somerset. Our own specimens were
sent us in the flesh, through the kindness of Mr. J. H. Gurney, from
Leadenhall Market, where this Duck is occasionally to be seen in the
spring hanging up with other fowl which have been received from the
Continent.

The prevailing tints of the plumage of this small species are 4 bright
rusty red on the head, throat, and breast, with a brown back and white
underparts ; and it gets its name from the white iris of the eye.

Golden-eye. Clangula glaucion (Linn.).
[Diving Wigeon, Cur Wigeon (female). |

A winter visitor, but not very numerous; small flocks and single birds
occurring occasionally, especially in severe seasons, on our estuaries and
at Slapton Ley. A small flock generally appears on Kingsbridge estuary
early in October, consisting of females and young birds (HK. A. 8. E., MS.
Notes). ‘his Duck appears to have been much more abundant formerly.

ANATID.2. ety |

‘“This bird 1s common in the estuary of Kingsbridge, and on Slapton
Ley (a large piece of fresh water), where they are frequently seen in
small flocks” (Montagu, Orn. Dict., Suppl.). ‘‘ Formerly the Golden-
eye came [to the Exe estuary] in considerable flocks every winter, but
now they are visible in comparatively small numbers” (W. R. 8., Zool.
1845, p. 982). We have, however, seen a good many on the Exe from
time to time.

The Golden-eye is another very expert diver, and is not uncommon as
a winter visitor to North Devon, where it has occurred to ourselves, on
small ponds and marshes adjoining the Barnstaple river, both in its full
adult and in its immature dress. In the former of these stages it is,
however, more rarely obtained than in the latter; young birds and
females greatly outnumbering the adult males, which do not appear until
the winter is well advanced. And this appears to be the case with this
species all round our coast, according to the information which we glean
from other writers.

Specimens were obtained on the Exe in January and February 1838, and November
1842 (F. W. L. R.); in 1847 and 1849 (R. C.); February and December 1853, No-
vember 1854, January, March, and November 1855, December 1879, 1882, and January
1891 (several adult males). An adult male on the Teigen, February 15th, 1870 (Zool.
1870, p. 2078). A female on Torbay, December 28th, 1869 (Zool. 1870, y. 2059).
Golden-eyes were very numerous on Kingsbridge estuary in the winter of 1874, and
some were met with in 1875, ’76, and’77 (E.A.S.E.). An adult male January 1885, near
Slapton (R. P. N., Zool. 1885, p.68). A flock of about thirty on Kingsbridge estuary,
October 14th, 1886. Three adult males were shot on the estuary at Kingsbridge,
January 1889. Some females on Slapton Ley in January 1891 (EH. A. 8. E., MS. Notes).

At Plymouth it ovcurred in 1855 (three) and in 1870 (B., MS. Notes); some
November 1875, January 1878, 1879, January 1881, December 1882 (J.G., Zool. 1876,
p. 4784; 1877, p. 132; 1879, p. 48; 1881, p. 195; 1883, p. 166).

Several were obtained on the Taw in 1878 (Zool. 1879, p. 129).

We have occasionally seen the Golden-eye on the bay at Weston-super-
Mare, but Mr. Cecil Smith did not consider it a common species in Somerset,
Although there are one or two instances reported of this species having
nested in the North of Scotland, it is one of those Ducks which go very
far north for their nesting-stations. The favourite position for the nest
js in the hollow of a tree, and the peasants in Sweden and Finland
suspend wooden boxes, which the birds readily take to and nest in,

[ Observation.—In Greenland and Iceland there is another species of
Golden-eye—Barrow’s Golden-eye (Clanyula islandica), a somewhat
larger and stouter bird, differing also considerably in its plumage from the
Common Golden-eye, having a greater development of crest and a more
purple gloss on the head. As almost every bird to be found in the
Northern Palearctic Region may be expected to occur at some time or
other in the United Kingdom, it is quite probable this species may have
been obtained, and may have been confounded with our common bird ;
and there is a reported instance of a female fram Yorkshire (Zool. 1864,
p. 9038), which failed, however, to establish its authenticity (Yarrell,
2nd ed. iv. p. 436), as it proved to have been received from Iceland (Zool.
1864, p. 9122).]

238 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

[Buffel-headed Duck. Clangula albeola (Linn.).

The occurrence of this bird in Devon is doubtful. “One, West Mud,
near Devonport, winter of 1841, in the collection of Rev. W. Hore,
of Barnstaple ” (Harting, ‘ Handbook of B. Birds,’ p. 161). According to
Mr. Gatcombe this specimen ** came from the late Mr. Tripe, of Devonport,
whose collection contained several American birds, and a mistake is
therefore not impossible” (H. Saunders, Yarrell’s B. Birds, 4th ed. iv.
p. 443). Mr. Saunders omits any mention of this specimen in his ‘ Manual
of B. Birds,’ but retains the species in the British List. We have often
seen the Rev. W. 8. Hore’s example which he told us he had purchased
from the collection of Mr. Tripe, ef Devonport, who, for many years, was
the only person who collected birds in that town. It is a male in full
plumage, and is said to have been shot on the West Mud, Hamoaze, in
the winter of 1841. Mr. Tripe considered it to be only an example of
the Golden-eye, and had no idea of its real value (Rev. W. 8. Hore,
in litt.).

This is a very common North-American species, like the Golden-eye,
also nesting in holes of trees, whose appearance in this country is not
unlikely, considering how many North-American birds contrive to reach
us by an overland route to the extreme north.

The Buffel-headed Duck is a plump little bird, known to the American
shore-shooters as the ‘‘ Butter-Ball,” because it is almost invariably in
excellent condition. The drake, in its full plumage, is an extremely
handsome bird, having a crest or hood of elongated feathers of a dark
greenish glossy black, the crown, the lores, and the chin rich purple,
while extending behind the eye to the nape is a broad patch of pure
white, giving the bird, when the crest is erected, the appearance of being
adorned with a tricolour cockade; the back is deep velvety black, and
the underparts are white. We give this description from a very beautiful
North-American specimen in our own collection. We have shot this
Duck on the Detroit River, near Port Sarnia, in Ontario, and nothing
could exceed the beauty of the adult drakes as they sat on the water.
They were rather difficult to kill, as they dived with great rapidity. and
well deserved the name of “Spirit Ducks” sometimes applied to them,
We have also met with it on the Pacific coast in California in winter. |

[Harlequin Duck. Cosmonetta histrionica (Linn.).

Of very doubtful occurrence. Dr. Moore records a female which was
shot on the Hamoaze, in the winter of 1830 (Trans. Plym. Inst. 1880, and
Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837, p. 360). The two specimens mentioned by Dr.
Battersby (Zool. 1847, p. 1697) as having been killed on Torbay, proved
to be young Long-tailed Ducks (A. Newton, Ibis, 1859, p. 165). This
beautiful bird, which has received its name from its parti-coloured
plumage of blue, black, white, and red, strongly contrasted, is most
common in North America, but is also found in the northern parts of
Europe and Asia. ]

ANATID.E. 239

Long-tailed Duck. Harelda glacialis (Linn.).

A winter visitor, of occasional eccurrence in the autumn and winter
months, chiefly on the south coast of the county. Montagu, however,
met with only one specimen, a female, on the South Coast of England,
and Dr. E. Moore does not seem to have seen any at allin Devon. In
his day the bird was, very likely, undetected as an occasional straggler in
winter.

The Long-tailed Duck is a species frequenting high latitudes, which
comes south in the autumn, and, although well known as a saltwater
Duck during the winter months off the coasts of Scotland, only in severe
winters strays as far southwards as to be met with on the shores of the
S.W. of England. Still, a sufficient number of examples have occurred
in South Devon, on the bays and estuaries, in all stages of plumage, to
remove it from the list of our rarest wild-fowl. In North Devon it is
not so often met with, and we know of only three examples having been
procured on the Taw, all young birds in immature plumage, obtained in
hard weather; one of them is in our collection.

The drakes of this species, with their long tails, and their pied plumage
of chestnut and white, are extremely handsome birds. This Duck goes
by many names in the North, being called the Calloo Duck, the Ice Duck,
the Northern Hareld, &c. The first of the three names we have
mentioned is taken from the very musical note of the bird; “ the united
ery of a large flock sounds very like bagpipes at a distance,” we are told.
Flocks of Long-tailed Ducks are said to be very playful, the birds chasing
one another, and indulging in various gambols, especially in rough and
boisterous weather. During a tremendous storm off the Isle of Iona, a
correspondent of Mr. Gray’s informed him that in the midst of the intense
gloom occasioned by the mist and driving sleet, “ there arose a triumphant
song of these wild creatures above the uproar of the elements; and, when
the mist lifted, I beheld the whole flock careering about the bay as if mad
with delight ” (Gray, ‘ Birds of the W. of Scotland,’ p. 390).

Bellamy says that ‘several specimens have been captured on the Tamar” (Nat.
Hist. 8. Devon, p. 217). An immature bird was bought in the Devonport Market by
Mr. J. Gatcombe, November 19th, 1851.

Many have occurred at different times on the Kingsbridge estuary. A male, in
almost full plumage, together with a female. were obtained there, October 28th,
1865; a female, October 14th, 1875; and another female in 1876 (R. P. N., Zool.
1875, p. 4697; H. N., Zovl. 1866, p. 526; 1876, p. 5180). Several immature
birds were shot there in November 1589, and five in December 1890, when it was
quite numerous (E. A. 8. E., MS. Notes). The Long-tailed Duck has also occurred
at Slapton Ley (R. P. N.). A flock, recorded as Harlequin Ducks, was seen in the
winter of 1846-47 on Torbay (Dr. Battersby, Zool. 1847, p. 1697). A young male
was shot on Torbay, December 20th, 1869 (Zool, 1870, p. 2059), and an immature
bird, November 24th, 1873 (Trans. Devon. Assoc. viii. p. 294).

Mr. Ross records a young male on the Exe in December 1841 (MS. Journ. iii. p. 35),
and there is a fine adult male in summer plumage killed on the Exe in 1847, and
another adult in winter plumage, from that river, in his collection now preserved in
the A. M. M. A young male occurred on the Exe in October 1851 (fF. W. L. R.);
and another was seen on the Exe, by Mr. Rudd, in March 1852 (W. 'T., ‘ Naturalist,

240 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

1852, p. 205). A bird of the year was shot out of a small flock between Exmouth and
Starcross, November 18th, 1867 (C.S., Zool. 1868, p. 1059). A young male on the
Exe, December 1876 (Zool. 1877, p. 105); two immature birds were shot by Mr.
Dumbleton, of Exmouth, January 1st, 1879, and another was killed in December 1890.
One occurred at Barnstaple, November 1858 (Zool. 1859, p. 6448).

In Cornwall Mr. E. H. Rodd considered the Long-tailed Duck very
rare, but is able to mention several instances of its occurrence, one of
them having been shot some distance inland. On the Dorset coast Mr.
Mansel-Pleydell regarded it as to be generally expected in severe winters,
and speaks of two which were shot at Poole as late as the month of May,
and mentions five, one of them an adult drake, which were shot in the
harbour there in November 1887 (Zool. 1888, p. 31). Mr. Cecil Smith
was not able to include this species among the birds of his county, and
the only Somerset example we know of is an immature bird, which was
shot at Weston-super-Mare, December 16, 1890 (Zool. 1891, p. 66). The
Long-tailed Duck has, apparently, occurred more frequently on the South
Devon coast than anywhere else on the sea-board of the S.W. peninsula,

Eider Duck. Somateria mollissima (Linn.).

A casual visitor, of rare occurrence during the winter months.
Montagu records a female shot on the coast of South Devon in the winter
of 1807 (Orn. Dict.). Dr. E. Moore mentions another female obtained
near Plymouth in January 1830 (Trans. Plym. Inst. 1830, p. 340),
During the frost in December 1844 three immature birds were shot on
the Exe estuary (W. R.8., Zool. 1845, p. 982). <A fine young male
was killed in Plymouth Sound early in January 1868 by Mr. G. Morcom.
There were two birds in company, but the second {probably a female), on
the fall of her companion, made a few circuits in the air and then flew
off seawards. Mr. J. Gatcombe, who made a drawing of this specimen,
informed us that he had seen one or two other examples of this species
that had been killed in Devonshire (in litt. 26th April, 1853). A female
was shot on Torbay in the winter of 1866 (Von H., Zool. 1874, p. 3908),
and is preserved in the Torquay Museum. One is said to have been killed
at Exmouth in January 1871 (J.C. W., am litt. January 18th, 1871);
and an immature male on Torbay in the winter of 1875. We received a
fine young male from Barnstaple in December 1891, which had been shot
on the Taw, the only instance we know of this Duck’s occurrence in
North Devon.

Although the Eider Duck nests every year on the Farne Islands, off
the Northumberland coast, as well as on several of the islands off the
coast of Scotland, it very seldom comes south, and is a far scarcer visitant
to our West Country shores than the preceding species. In Cornwall
Mr. Rodd could only mention one; while off the Dorset coast a few are
stated by Mr. Mansel-Pleydell to have been met with, a flock of nine
having been seen on the Fleet, near Poole, November 27th, 1871, out of
which four were shot. The few recorded Devonshire examples have

ANATIDZ. 241

mostly been obtained in the south of the county. The only Somerset
Eider we know of is a female which was shot on the reservoir of the
waterworks at Barrow, near Bristol, in November 1888 (Zool. 1889, p. 32).

The Eider is a very common and well-known bird in the far north, and
in many places nests quite tamely close to human habitations, readily
making use of boxes provided for its convenience. The well-known and
valuable eider-down is plucked from the breast of the female bird by
herself in order to line her nest, and to cover her eggs and keep them
warm while she is away on the water obtaining food. Like all the
drakes belonging to the extensive genera of Anas and Fuliqgula, the male
Eiders also undergo a curious summer moult, in which they pass from
their brilliant spring plumage into a dark sombre dress, somewhat
resembling that of the female bird.

[King Hider. Somateria spectabilis (Linn.).

An accidental visitor, of extremely rare occurrence. One, said to have
been killed near Plymouth, was seen by Mr. Gatcombe in the flesh at a
bird-stuffer’s named Mutton (J. H. G., Zool. 1876, p. 4803). Mr. Howard
Saunders says that Mr. Gatcombe states that some years ago he saw an
immature bird in Plymouth Market (Yarrell’s B. Birds, 4th ed. iv. p. 464).
Possibly these two records relate to the same bird, which might have
been brought from Newfoundland or Labrador in a frozen condition in
one of the numerous vessels bringing salt-fish to our ports. One year, to
our knowledge, several fine adult males were brought to Exeter in the
flesh in that manner, were purchased by Messrs. Ross, W. Tombs, and
Dr. W. R. Scott, and were preserved in their collections, now in the
A.M. M. This very beautiful bird is more of an Arctic species than the
Common Eider, its home being to the extreme north of the Old and New
Worlds, and it very seldom indeed comes so far to the south as to be a
rare straggler even to the northern coasts of Scotland. The adult male
differs considerably from the adult male of the Common Hider both in
plumage and in the shape of the bill, which in the King Eider possesses
a curious frontal knob. As the supposed Plymouth specimen is the only
one which has ever been recorded from the 8.W. of England, we are
disposed to look upon it with the greatest suspicion. |

[ Observation.—There is yet another Hider on the British List, two
instances of its occurrence being recorded on the Eastern coasts of the
Kingdom, one at Yarmouth and the other at Filey, in Yorkshire. This is,
perhaps, the most handsome representative of this beautiful family, and
goes by the name of Steller’s Eider or Steller’s Western Duck. Its home
is in the extreme north of Europe and Asia. The adult Drake is a
singularly beautiful bird, its plumage consisting of various brightly
contrasted colours—white, green, and blue on the upper parts of the body,
and deep ferruginous red on the underparts. Its appearance on the 8.W.
coasts is hardly to be expected. |

R

242 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

Common Scoter. (demia nigra (Linn.).
{Black Duck. |

A winter visitor, arriving in August or September, and remaining till
late in the spring. Dr. E. Moore suspected that this species bred in
Devon (J. B. R., Trans. Plym. Inst. 1862-63). A few non-breeding birds
occasionally remain on the coast during thesummer. Mr. Ross had a male
shot on the Exe in July 1844, but it is very unusual for this bird to enter
that estuary. Mr. Bolitho at Plymouth received two males in May and
June 1853. Mr. Cecil Smith saw a male off Exmouth, May 19th, 1868.
On June 2nd, 1877, we saw flocks off Langstone Point, near Dawlish,
Large flocks are sometimes seen off the South Coast in autumn and
winter, but they usually keep well out at sea. The Common Scoter
generally visits Plymouth Sound in October, especially if the wind is
easterly. One was seen in Stonehouse Pool on September 12th, 1876,
and large flocks in Start Bay, at the end of September 1883 (J. G., Zool.
1880, p. 47; 1876, p. 5145; 1884, p. 53).

A fine old male was killed near Plymouth, March 22nd, 1873. Many flocks
appeared on the Tamar, after severe frost, October 29th, 1875. Thirty were seen on
Plymouth Sound, January 28th, 1875; and an adult male, February Ist, 1881, and
another later (J. G., Zool. 1873, p. 3563 ; 1874, p.3906 ; 1875, p.4273; 1881, p. 197).

Some occur occasionally on Kingsbridge estuary (R. P. N., MS. Notes). Mr, E.
Elliot killed three females there at the end of 1889, and one in March 1891.

Numerous flocks were seen on Torbay in October 1844 (Ross, MS, Journ. iv. p. 148);
two were shot there, February 17th, 1869, and two adult males, January 12th, 1870,
and common Scoters were abundant and in large flocks again in February 1874 (A. von
H., Zool. 1869, p. 1720; 1870, p. 2059; 1874, p. 8906). Large numbers were seen off
Brixham, February 1891. ane

Flocks are frequently seen off Exmouth. A great many were observed there in
April 1869 (C.S., iv lit¢.). One at Dawlish, October 14th, i874. Flocks off Langstone
Point, 2nd June, 1877. In August 1890 and 1891 we saw large flocks flying towards
Torbay from the 8.E. (W. D’'U.).

This bird is an occasional visitor to Lundy Island (Trans. Devon. Assoc. Vili.
p- 309), but is not numerous on the north coast of the county.

Baron A. von Hiigel observed that in Torbay it fed on Solen ensis and S, vagina (Zool.
1870, p. 2059).

Except at the nesting-season the Scoters are all salt-water Ducks, very
rarely entering our estuaries. Large flocks of the Common Scoter make
their appearance in the English Channel early in the autumn, and many
are to be met with throughout the winter off the South Devon coast at
Exmouth, Torbay, Plymouth, &c. Flocks also ascend ‘the Bristol Channel,
where we have seen them on the bay at Weston-super-Mare diving in
company with the Scaups and other fowl. Flocks of Common Scoters
are also seen off the Cornish and Dorset coasts, keeping some distance
out, unless very rough weather drives them to seck the shelter of the
shore. Mr. Rodd states that examples are occasionally found entangled
in the fishermen’s nets. After severe storms a stray Scoter is sometimes
picked up a considerable distance inland. \We had in our possession a
fine adult which was shot at New Bridge, on the Taw, some nine or ten

ANATIDE. 243

miles from the mouth of that river. Specimens of the Common Scoter
have also been obtained occasionally between Barnstaple and Instow.

The Common Scoter nests in the extreme north of Scotland in small
numbers, but the summer station of the species is more generally sought
in the North of Europe, in the northern parts of Norway, Finland, &e.
We consider that it is extremely improbable that it has ever nested in
South Devon.

Velvet Scoter. Cdemia fusca (Linn.).
[Velvet Duck. ]

A casual winter visitor, of rare occurrence.

Being exclusively a sea Duck the Velvet Scoter seldom approaches the
coast. Polwhele, in his ‘ History of Devon,’ states that the “ Great Black
Duck,” as he called it, had been found in Deyon, and Dr. E. Moore
mentions a female which was in Mr. Drew’s collection (Mag. Nat. Hist.
1837, p. 360). An adult male and two females were shot on Torbay at
the beginning of November 1869, and some were seen there in January
1870 (A. von H., Zool. 1870, pp. 1583, 2059). Perhaps the two females
in the collection of the late Mr. Cecil Smith from Torbay were obtained
at that time. An immature specimen in the Torquay Museum was killed
on Torbay, and one in the A. M. M. was probably killed there also, One
was shot in Plymouth Sound in January 1879 (J. G., Zool. 1879, p. 206).
A female shot at the mouth of the Kingsbridge estuary is in Mr. Henry
Nicholls’s collection. One was shot in the estuary of the Exe, near
Lympstone (W. Taylor, Zool. 1883, p. 426).

To be easily distinguished from the Common Scoter in all stages of its
plumage by the white bar on the wings, the Velvet Scoter is a much rarer
species, apparently limiting itself in the autumn and winter chiefly to the
north-eastern shores of the kingdom. Many years ago we saw a vast flock
of Velvet Ducks off Deal, pretty close inshore, in rough weather, at the
end of December *, and there can be little doubt that flocks appear annually
in the English Channel, in general keeping a considerable distance from
the shore. In North Devon it is extremely rare. The bird-stuffer at
Barnstaple informs us that he has had an occasional example of the Velvet
Scoter sent to him, and Mr, Cecil Smith saw one in his shop which had
been shot in Barnstaple Bay in the year 1882 (Zool. 1885, p. 4); but
we ourselyes have never seen an example from North Devon, nor can we
remember one ever having been obtained on the North Somerset coast
among the wild-fowl at Weston-super-Mare, The only Somerset example
we ever heard of is one said to be in the museum at Salisbury, a female,
labelled ‘* Somerset” (Dresser, ‘ Birds of Europe,’ vi. p. 658). Like the
Common Scoter, this species arrives very early from the north, as

* We were very anxious to go out and shoot a few, but there was at that time a
great fleet of weather-bound ships in the Downs, and the boatmen, having plenty to
do, asked a prohibitive price when we tried to engage a boat for the purpose,

R 2

244 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

Col. Hawker states that he shot three out of a flock one day in the month
of August, in Poole Harbour, where, at the present day, it is not very
rare, being, according to Mr, Mansel-Pleydell, in proportion of one to
every twenty of the Common Scoter.

From information supplied by the late Mr. Booth to Mr. Dresser it
seems probable that the Velvet Duck, as well as the Common Scoter,
nests occasionally in the North of Scotland. It is common throughout
Scandinavia and Lapland, north of 60°, during the breeding-season.

Surf-Scoter. Mlemia perspicillata (Linn.).

An accidental visitor, of very rare occurrence on the south coast of
the county.

The Surf-Scoter is a very common and well-known bird in North
America, both on the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, called by the shore-
shooters by the not very elegant name of “ Skunk-billed Coot,” Coot being
their generic term for every species of Duck. The adults are readily to
be distinguished from the other Scoters by the two white patches, one on
the forehead and the other on the nape; and in the Surf-Scoter there is
no white alar patch as in the Velvet Scoter. The three Scoters also differ
considerably in the colours of their bills, which are remarkably parti-
coloured with red, orange, and blue-black. The Surf-Scoter has now
occurred three times on the south coast of Devon, particulars of which
we give below; all were immature birds. Mr. Rodd mentions two
obtained on the Scilly Islands, one of these, picked up on the beach in a
dying state, was examined by him in the flesh, and was a beautiful adult
male; the other was immature. One, recorded by Dr. Bullmore, was
picked up near Pendennis Castle, on the beach, in a mutilated state.
Two have been recorded from the Dorsetshire coast, both from Weymouth.
Like the other Scoters, this American species is an excellent diver. It
goes very far to the north in the nesting-season, and is then quite a
circumpolar bird.

An immature specimen shot on Torbay in 1860 was purchased by the
late Mr. J. C. Hele, of Newton Abbot, from Mr. E. Burt, curator of the
Torquay Museum, and was sold in one of the lots at the dispersion of
Mr. Hele’s collection. Mr. Henry Nicholls mounted a Surf-Scoter in,
or about, 1862, which had been shot by Mr. Anning on Slapton
Ley; and Mr. Edmund A. 8, Elliot had the good fortune to obtain an
immeture male which was shot near Kingsbridge by Mr. Tom Foale on
20th October, 1891. It was very thin, the stomach containing grass-
wrack (Zostera marina) and some small shells determined to belong to
British species (E. A. 8. E., in litt.).

|)
nae
On

ANATIDA.

THE MERGANSERS.

The Mergansers form a well-defined family of diving
Ducks, with rather flat and compressed bodies adapted to
offer the least resistance to the water, all of them adorned
with crests, and possessing serrated mandibles, which
enable them to hold the captured fish on which they
almost exclusively live. ‘Two of them, the Goosander
and the Red-breasted Merganser, nest within the limits
of the United Kingdom; the pretty black and white
Smew comes to us as a winter visitor from the North, and
none of them are seen off the Devonshire coast until the
season of the autumn migration arrives. One other
species, the Hooded Merganser, which has its home in
North America, a very handsome bird, with a conspicuous
cockade-shaped crest, has once or twice been obtained on
the British coast, but there is no authenticated instance
of its appearance in the S.W. peninsula.

Goosander. Mergus merganser, Linn.

A winter visitor, of occasional occurrence, either singly or in small
flocks, on the bays, leys, and estuaries of the south coast, but it is far
from common in the north of the county. The specimens met with are
generally in immature plumage, or else females; adult males in full
plumage are rare. The beautiful buff-colour of the breast-feathers soon
disappears after death. When recently killed this bird is one of the most
brilliantly coloured of all our wild-fowl.

This very handsome diver is rare on the northern coasts of Devon,
although it is a frequent winter visitor to the bays and estuaries in the
south of the county, and is, in some seasons, quite common. We only
know of two drakes, in full plumage, haying been secured in the neigh-
bourhood of Barnstaple ; immature birds and females are of more frequent
occurrence, and we have ourselves seen them on the Barnstaple river.
Mr. Rodd mentions that adults, in perfect plumage, are also rarely
obtained in Cornwall, Off the Dorsetshire coast the Goosander is not an
uncommon winter visitor, On the North Somerset coast Goosanders are
frequently obtained in severe winters. In one hard frost three or four
splendid males were brought to the Weston-super-Mare bird-stuffer in the

246 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

course of a single week, all having been shot on the frozen “ rhines ”
which intersect the adjoining levels. Goosanders are sometimes met with
on freshwater ponds some distance inland, occasionally presenting them-
selves in curious places, and one of the two adults obtained at Barnstaple
suffered itself to be caught by the hand. It was in a narrow stream, and
when it was approached attempted to conceal itself in a scanty patch of
rushes by the bank, where its beautiful plumage led to its easy detection.
A few Goosanders nest in Scotland; and in the nesting-season the
bird is widely distributed throughout the whole of the northern parts of
the world, coming south in the autumn with the other migratory fowl.

An adult male occurred on the Tamar on February 5th, and another on February
9th, 1830 (T. J., Bray’s ‘Tamar and Tavy,’ p. 355, with figure of trachea). One on the
Exe, January 8th, 1838 (F. W. L. R., MS. Journ. i. p. 57). One near Exeter about 1840
(R. C.). One at Countess Weir, on the Exe, December 10th, 1879; this bird we
purchased in the flesh from the man who shot it (Zool. 1880, p. 68). These last two
specimens are now in the A. M. M.

Some in the severe weather of February 1855 occurred at Plymouth, and there
was an adult female in Plymovth Market, January 6th, 1875. Several in immature
plumage were noted there, December 19th, 1875 (J. G., Zool. 1855, p. 4705 ; 1875,
p- 4372; 1876, p. 4785). Some at Slapton Ley in January 1856; and some young
males there, December 3rd and 23rd, 1875; and a female was shot on December 7th,
1875, out of a flock of seven on the Avon, and three males were seen soon after
(R. P. N., Zool. 1876, p. 4803). A female was shot on the Avon, January 15th, 1889
(EB. A.S. E.). Mr. R. P. Nicholls has never had a full-plumaged male from the
Kingsbridge estuary. An adult female was shot on Torbay, January 11th, 1870 (A.
von H., Zool. 1870, p. 2059). On the Exe a young male was shot on February
10th, 1855, and others were seen during the severe weather of that month. A
young male was shot at Brampford Speke, near Exeter, February 9th, 1881, which is
now in the A. M. M., with several other immature birds, killed on the Exe at various
dates. Several were killed in December 1890 and January 1891. One occurred
on the Taw, in February 1870 (J. G., Zool, 1870, p. 2069).

Red-breasted Merganser. MJergus serrator, Linn.
[Spike-billed Wigeon (on the Taw), Saw-bill (on the Exe).]

A winter visitor, of rather frequent occurrence on the coast and in the
estuaries of our larger rivers, appearing sometimes in October, and has been
seen by us as late as the end of May in North Devon. Immature birds are
most frequently met with, but adults are occasionally obtained, especially
in early spring, when they are usually in pairs. Montagu considered it a
rare species in the South of England (Orn. Dict., Suppl.), and Mr. J.
Gatcombe says it is very seldom met with in the West of England (Zool.
1881, p. 198). Mr. Bolitho had only three sent to him to preserve in
twenty years. We have, however, seen and handled more examples of
this species than of the Goosander, and do not consider it an uncommon,
but an irregular visitor, and both Mr. R. P. Nicholls and Mr. E. A. S.
Elliot find it more frequent on the Kingsbridge estuary than the
Goosander.

On February 3rd, 1855, we took fourteen small flounders, of the size

ANATIDA, 247

of a half-crown piece, from the gullet of a female specimen shot on the
Exe near Topsham. The little fishes lay in the bird’s gullet, one on the
top of the other, closely packed up in a neat rouleau, like coins in a silk
urse.

‘ As this beautiful species nests not uncommonly on some of the Scottish
lochs, and also on some of the loughs in the North of Ireland, it might
be well expected to be a not uncommon winter visitor to our 8.W. coasts.
On the Barnstaple and Bideford rivers it is well known to the boatmen
as the Spike-billed Wigeon, and young birds and females are frequently
obtained. We have ourselves met with them when after Wild Duck, and
have also once or twice noticed adult drakes in their complete plumage,
when they are strikingly beautiful birds. But in this stage they are
remarkably wary, keeping always in the centre of the estuary, on some
sandbank, whence they can watch the approach of the gunner, and
make off long before he gets within shot. We have seen and shot
immature birds in the neighbourhood of Weston-super-Mare. ‘The Red-
breasted Merganser is a common bird on the Cornish and Dorset coasts.
In Poole Harbour it is said sometimes to appear in November in flocks of
a hundred or more; the birds are then extremely wary, and few are
shot.

A Red-breasted Merganser occurred at Plymouth in 1858, and two in 1865 (B.,
MS. Notes). A pair were obtained there in adult plumage, February 1881; two
immature specimens appeared in Devonport Market, November 13th, 1882 VJ. G.,
Zool. 1881, p, 198; 1885, p. 165).

One was shot December 1874, and another December 1876 (out of a flock of four),
on Kingsbridge estuary, where females occur frequently during winter (Hi. A. S. E.).
A male was killed at Beesands on the sea, and an adult male was caught in a crab-pot
in April.

This Merganser occurred in some numbers on Torbay, 21st and 22nd December,
1869, and a female was shot there, February 22nd, 1870 (Von H., 1870, p. 2059).

A male and female on the Exe, February 26th, 1838 (F. W. L. R., MS. Jonrn. i.
p. 94). Many immature birds were seen in February 1855 and January 1856. On
January 15th, 1856, we saw a pair of adults near Topsham, and on January 17th of
that year six were seen together on the Exeter Canal (W. D’U.). One December 27th,
1864. An adult male at Exmouth, December 1865 (R. C.), where another was shot
by Mr. H. Dumbleton, February 3rd, 1875. Two were noted in a poulterer’s shop
in Exeter, December 8th, 1876. One was shot near Topsham by Mr. Clare Porter,
October 7th, 1879. Two more at Exmouth, October 1888.

A female was seen May 26th, 1874, at the confluence of the Taw and Torridge
(G. F. M., Zovl. 1874, p. 4134).

[Hooded Merganser. Mergus cucullatus, Linn.

In ‘ Land and Water,’ some years ago, Mr. Frank Gosden, a fishmonger
of Exeter, recorded the occurrence of two Hooded Mergansers, but we have
good reason to believe the birds referred to belonged to the last species.
The Rey. H. A. Macpherson obligingly called our attention to a specimen
he had been informed was in the Museum of Westward Ho! College,
which was shot by one of the college boys on the Torridge, near Bideford,
and was supposed to be a female Hooded Merganser. At our request

248 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

Mr. H. A. Evans, of Westward Ho! College, kindly sent the bird to us
for examination, and we at once detected it to be a young female Smew.

The Hooded Merganser is a North-American species, and has occasionally
been reported as having been obtained in this kingdom, but most of the
instances have subsequently proved to be mistakes. |

Smew. JMergus albellus, Linn.

[White Nun, White Wigeon, White Merganser (adult male), Vare-
Wigeon* (female and young male). |

A winter visitor, of occasional occurrence, from November to March,
on the South Coast during severe weather; sometimes penetrating far
inland along the course of the larger rivers. Immature birds are most
frequently met with, adults being scarce usually, but in January 1891
many occurred all over the county. When in full plumage this species
generally occurs in pairs, but we know of cases in which several adult
drakes have been seen together.

In its pretty pied plumage of glossy black and silvery white, and with
its particoloured crest of the same contrasted colours, this small species
of Merganser is a yery conspicuous and beautiful bird. On the estuary
of the Taw and Torridge it is not a rare winter visitor, old males in their
full adult plumage being more frequently seen than young birds or females,
contrary to what is experienced in the south of the county, where adults
are rare. The Smew is not an easy bird to shoot, as on the approach of
a boat it soon ceases to dive, and rising on wing, escapes with rapid flight.
The only way to obtain a shot is to get the bird between the boat and
the shore; it will then sometimes fly across the boat, presenting a
chance to the gunner. We one morning saw six adults swimming
together in a little flock at Instow, but could get nowhere near them.
Adult drakes have been obtained from time to time on the Barnstaple
river; one was shot during the severe winter of 1890-91, as far up as
Tawstock Court. While we resided at Weston-super-Mare we used
occasionally to see examples, in full adult dress, hanging up in the game-
dealer’s shop, which had been shot in the neighbourhood of the town, as
well as females and young males. Mr. Cecil Smith records a beautiful
drake which was shot on the river Tone, close to Taunton, and several
were obtained on the same river during the hard winter of 1891. The
Smew is occasionally procured in the winter off the Cornish coast, and is
more numerous in the fleets and harbours of Dorsetshire, but adult males
are rarely met with. In the winter of 1849-50 Mr. Mansel-Pleydell
states that nine were shot in one week in the Portland Roads.

Well-authenticated eggs of the Smew are rare in collections. The late
Mr. John Wolley was the first naturalist who obtained the nest in Lap-

* In North Devon the Weasel is commonly called a “ Vair,” pronounced “veer” ;
in South Devon a “ Vare,” * Vair,” or “ Vairy,” pronounced ‘‘ ferry,” evidently from
the French vair=fur; and, according to Col. Montagu, the Smew has been given the
above name because of its Weasel-like head.

COLUMBID. 249

land, in 1857, where the bird was, unexpectedly, discovered to be a tree-
breeder, laying its eggs in holes of trees or in the wooden boxes placed by
the peasants for birds to nest in. A full account of this most interesting
fact is given by Mr. Dresser (‘ Birds of Europe, vi. p. 705, and
‘This,’ 1859, p. 69, where Mr. Wolley records his discovery).

Five Smews occurred on Slapton Ley in 1809. A pair, shot on the Warren at
Exmouth, were in the collection of Mr. Comyns, and some had been killed on the
Tamar (E. M., Trans. Plym. Inst. 1830; Mag. Nat. Hist, 1837). A pair shot on the
Exe, January 8th, 1838, are now in the A. M. M. (F. W. L. R., MS. Journ. i. p. 64).
A young male in January 1844 was also shot on the Exe. One at Teignmouth,
January 1850. One at Plymouth, February 23rd, and another, December 26th, 1853 ;
a pair February 2nd, and one March 25th, 1855 (B., MS. Notes). One January 1854,
at Cullompton. One January 26th, 1855, near Exeter. An adult male was shot on
the Laira (J. B. R., Trans. Plym. Inst. 1862- -63). A female killed on the Kingsbridge
estuary in 1860 is in Mr. H. Nicholls’s collection. One at Exmouth, January 24th, 1867
(C.8.). A pair were killed on the Dart, January 5th, 1871 (J. H. G., Zool. 1871, p. 2651).
A female at Newton Abbot (R. C.). Several immature birds occurred at Plymouth,
December 19th, 1875 (J.G., Zool. 1876, p. 4785). A female at Slapton Ley, December
30th, 1875 (R. P. N., Zool. 1876, p. 4803). Two immature specimens at Plymouth in
December 1879, and an adult male seen in Plymouth Sound, March 11th, 1882 (J. G.,
Zool. 1879, p. 48; 1882, p.457). A female was shot on Slapton Ley in January i891
by Mr. W. V. Toll, and two adult males were seen there by Mr. E. A. S. Elliot.
An adult male was shot on January 20th, 1891, by Mr. F. B. Mildmay, M.P., at the
mouth of the Erme. Three adult males and three females were observed on Torcross
Ley by Mr. A. F. Holdsworth, and one of the males was shot by him on February
2nd, 1891 (R. P. N.). An adult male was shot on the Exe estuary early in January
1891.

Order COLUMB4.
Family COLUMBIDZ.

THE PIGEONS, OR DOVES.

The Pigeons are anomalous both in structure and habits,
and the ingenuity of ornithologists has long been exercised
to find a suitable place for them in a linear arrangement
of birds. It is, however, generally acknowledged that
they possess affinity with the Gallinz or Poultry, through
the Sand-Grouse, though they offer a marked contrast to
that order in being strictly monogamous, the attachment
of paired birds to each other being proverbial, whilst the
Poultry are mostly polygamous. Moreover, Pigeons lay
only two eggs at each sitting, and have several broods

250 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

during the breeding-season. The nestlings, or ‘“ squabs,”
are quite blind, naked, and helpless, instead of being covered
with down, and able to run about and feed themselves as
soon as hatched, like chickens. Pigeons feed their young
with a kind of milky fluid, secreted by the crop, mixed
with macerated food, poured by regurgitation directly into
the mouths of their progeny. ‘They have no gall-bladder,
hence, according to some, their amiable disposition. ‘They
have only twelve or fourteen tail-feathers, and no after-
shafts to the plumage, in which characters they agree
with the Perching-Birds, as well as in their generally
arboreal habits and in the structure of their feet. Their
manner of drinking is quite different from all other birds,
as they hold their bills in the water till they have
quenched their thirst; and they neither sing nor utter
any call-notes, their only voice consisting of the well-
known ‘ cooing” sound.

The Devonshire list of birds includes all the four
English Wild Pigeons, or Doves, but only one of them,
the Common Ring-Dove, is at all times numerous, generally
distributed, and well known. Within the last quarter
of a century, the Stock-Dove, far from a common species
in the S.W. counties during the nesting-seasqn, has
established itself at a few places on the coast, both in
South and North Devon, having been previously unknown
in the latter part of the county. We had come to regard
the Rock-Dove as extinct asa resident bird in Devonshire,
but competent observers have recently detected a pair or
two still frequenting their old haunts in the romantic
neighbourhood of Lynton. ‘The pretty Turtle Dove, a
summer visitor to England, is distributed in small numbers
in sheltered places throughout the West Country, but is
far from being as plentiful as it is in the Midland and
Eastern Counties.

COLUMBID. 951

Five specimens of the American Passenger-Pigeon have
been shot at large in the British Islands, and the species
has, accordingly, by some authors been included in the
British list; but, as it has been largely imported from
America, it is doubtful if the individuals thus obtained
really occurred in a wild state, and the species is not
admitted as British by Mr. Howard Saunders in his
‘Manual of British Birds.’ It has never been met with in
any of the Western Counties. This singular Pigeon is
stated to be one among a few species of American birds
which are rapidly becoming extinct.

Ring-Dove. Columba palumbus, Linn.
[Wild Pigeon, Wood-Pigeon, Culver: Dev.]

Resident, abundant and generally distributed in wooded districts
throughout the county. This fine Pigeon is to be seen everywhere in the
8.W. of England, except upon the moors, and receives large reinforcements
to its numbers in the winter months from fiocks migrating from the east.
Unfortunately, it is the most destructive bird to agriculturists of all upon the
British list, and there is hardly a month in the year when it is not doing
injury to the crops, and its mischief is but slightly counterbalanced by
any good it does in feeding upon the seeds of noxious weeds, such as
charlock, &c. It also multiplies at a great rate, generally having three
broods in the year, and, being a very wary bird, it is not easily kept
under. The Ring-Dove begins to make its nest as early as February, in
mild seasons, a fir-plantation affording the favourite site; and we have
found callow nestlings near Hatherleigh as late as the middle of October.
Owing to the destruction by keepers of the Sparrow-Hawk, which largely
preys upon the Ring-Dove, this mischievous bird has greatly increased,
and is still increasing, throughout the kingdom. In the spring and
summer, when we were lads, we used to mark the different Wood-Pigeons’
nests in our immediate neighbourhood, and when the young were nearly
fledged, took them from the nest, and kept them for a time in hutches,
fattening them on barley meal. The next process was to hand them over
to the cook, who made them into a delicious pie. Throughout the
autumn and winter the flesh of the Ring-Dove is very good eating, but
it is dry at the time the birds are stealing grain from the ripening corn-
fields, and is not worth much in severe frosts when turnips have formed
their food. A friend once furnished us with an excellent recipe for
cooking a Wood-Pigeon so as to imitate a Woodcock, which, from ex-
perience, we can strongly recommend. ‘The Pigeon, after hanging a few

252 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

days, is drawn, and the intestines are replaced with the soft roes of two red
herrings. It is then larded, roasted, and served up on buttered toast;
and it will be found that the contents of the inside are a very good
imitation of the delicate trail of the Woodcock. In the winter-time
large flocks of Ring-Doves resort to woods to roost, an ash or an oak
being their usual perch, and then is the time to lie in wait for them, and
to give them a volley when they are thick together on a convenient
branch. Or, good practice may be had by sheltering under some roughly
constructed ambush in a fir-wood, and shooting the birds as they drop in
one by one just before dusk. It is astonishing how quick the eye of the
bird is in detecting the least sign of danger, and how marvellous the
power of wing which then enables it, in a second, to change the direction
of its flight, and to be off before the gunner can obtain a chance. Ring-
Doves are easily tamed in confinement and become amusing pets. Col.
Montagu has related how he once reared together a Common Pigeon, a
Ring-Dove, a White Owl, and a Sparrow-Hawk, and how the somewhat
incongruous companions lived together in great amity, the Ring-Dove
being the master. In general the Ring-Dove is a very cowardly bird
before any of the Falconide, the little Merlin, even, daring to fly at it,
but on the Dart Mr. G. F. Mathew once saw a Peregrine put to flight by
a pair of Ring-Doves. These birds appear to be somewhat liable to
diseases of the mandibles, which prevent their feeding and lead to their
dying of starvation ; we have several times taken up with the hand birds
with curiously malformed beaks almost in a dying state. In spite of the
mischief he does, we count the Ring-Dove among our favourites, never
molesting him when he nests near the house, as we love to hear his soft,
mournful notes descending on our ears from ‘‘immemorial elms ;” and
like to see him strutting on the lawn in the early hours of a summer's
morning, although he pay visits to the flower-beds and display a taste for
the lupine-seeds. In the autumn, when out with the gun, we regard him
as fair game, and, in gencral, he is pretty well able to keep himself out of
harm’s way.

In the Teign Valley Ring-Doves have lately become so numerous as to
cause serious damage to the growing crops. The flocks which assemble
in winter in the south of the county feed much upon beech-mast. In
February we have found the crops of these Pigeons distended with
the leaves and tubers of the Pilewort Crowfoot (Ranunculus ficaria).
Great numbers are shot during the winter months, regular hunts being
organized for their destruction in some localities, and a ready sale is
found for all that are killed, as their flesh is so much esteemed for the
table.

Stock-Dove. Columba enas, Linn.
[Culver : Dev. ]

Resident, and numerous at the landslip at Dowlands, near Axmouth,
where it breeds (Henry Swaysland, Jur., v. v. 1884). This species seems to

COLUMBID&. 253

be extending its range westward in the breeding-season, as in July 1889 we
saw eight Stock-Doves on Dawlish Warren; and Messrs. E. A. 8S. Elliot
and R. P. Nicholls say that since June 1887 it has become rather common
in the Kingsbridge district, and that it breeds on the cliffs between the
Bolt Head and Hope (MS. Notes). The Stock-Dove also bred in Corn-
wall in 1886 and 1888 (Zool. 1888, p. 302).

During the years in which we carefully observed the birds of North
Devon we never met with an example of the Stock-Doye, either alive or
dead, and could never detect one among the numerous Pigeons brought
into the Barnstaple Market, or hanging up in the game-dealers’ shops;
but it is certainly now established as a resident in small numbers on the
coast in the neighbourhood of Ilfracombe, where Mr. O. V. Aplin tells us
he is confident he saw two or three in the summer of 1887. There is
also a specimen of the bird in the Museum of Westward Ho! College,
which was shot close at hand. In the south of the county the Stock-
Dove is now fairly common, and large flocks are occasionally noticed in
the winter-time.

The Stock-Dove nests in hollow trees, in holes in banks, in crevices in
old ivy-covered masonry, and in church-towers, sometimes beneath the
shelter of an impenetrable furze-bush, and rabbit-earths in the sand-hills
on the coast are favourite sites. In its habits it closely resembles the
Ring-Dove, but does not coo, making instead a grunting sound. The
Stock-Dove has a more southern range than the Ring-Dove, and is only
a summer visitor to Northern Europe, and is said not to be found beyond
the limits suitable to the oak. It takes its name from its fondness for
the stocks of trees, ¢.¢. for trees which have been pollarded, and whose
tops, in consequence, are thick and bushy. When these trees become
hollow, as they often are, they afford the Stock-Dove, in inland districts,
its favourite nesting-station. The Stock-Dove can be easily distinguished,
when on wing, from the commoner Ring-Doyve, for, as Mr. Dresser states,
its flight “is lighter and more elegant, and when it rises on the wing it
does so without the loud flapping sound almost always produced by the

ting-Dove.” Its darker colour, and somewhat smaller size, also assist in

its recognition. ‘In all its movements the Stock-Dove is graceful, and
it walks on the ground with ease, progressing by short steps like the
tame Pigeon, every now and again nodding its head as it walks. When
seated on a bough or branch it sits rather upright; and it usually has
some favourite perch, where it will sit early in the day preening its
feathers in the morning sun: it most frequently selects some very
elevated branch, from which it can have a tolerably clear view of the
surrounding country ” (Dresser, ‘ Birds of Europe,’ vol. vii. p. 26).

The Stock-Dove is not so shy and wary a bird as the Ring-Dove, and is
very affectionate to its mate.

We consider the flesh of the Stock-Dove, especially that of young birds,
to be both sweeter and of better flavour even than that of the Ring-Dove,
though the latter is usually excellent.

Mr. J. Barnes, formerly head gardener at Bicton, near East Budleigh,
in an article published in the ‘ Exeter Gazette, about 1868, speaks of

204 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

*‘ Stock-Doves” breeding in trees there. Formerly, however, it appears
to have been only an irregular winter visitor to this county, appearing
in large flocks when beech-mast was plentiful. Both Dr. E. Moore and
Bellamy speak of flocks in winter, and the Rev. Thos. Johnes says, ‘“ I
have occasionally seen flocks of a middle-sized, dark-blue Pigeon, amount-
ing to many hundreds, flying about the valley of the Tamar in the latter
end of autumn, the weather being mild, but have never been able to
procure any of them” (Bray’s ‘Tamar and Tavy,’ vol. i. p. 351). Mr. J.
Gatcombe mentions in 1872 that at the approach of winter multitudes of
Stock-Doves make their appearance in the woods at Tiverton, but states
that it was very rare in the neighbourhood of Plymouth (Zool. 1872,
p. 3398). He also records some in Plymouth Market in June 1881, said
to be the first ever received there, and observes that flocks annually visit
the more eastern parts of Devon in November (Zool. 1881, p.196). Some
were killed at Pamphlete, near Plymouth, in January 1885 (Zool. 1885,
p- 376). We never met with any Stock-Doves ourselves near Exeter until
the winter of 1868-9, when flocks pocuned in that neighbourhood, and
again in November and December 1872. We saw a pair near Topsham on
March 8th, 1876, and one April 8th, 71883. Pigeons seen by us about
the cliffs between Teignmouth and Dawlish in November 1874 and April
1880 may have belonged to this species (W. D’U.). Probably the flock
of thirty Pigeons reported to have been seen in North Devon in 1875
consisted of Stock-Doves (Zool. 1875, p. 4299). A young bird was shot
in Ilton Wood, near Kingsbridge, at the end of August 1876. Many pairs
were seen breeding on the cliffs near the Bolt Head at the end of May,
and a small flock of these birds was seen and one shot at Collapit,
near Kingsbridge, October 3lst, 1887; and in August 1889 a large
flock was met with about Rowdon, and one bird was shot (KE. A. 8. E.).

A few Stock-Doves haunt the cliffs to the west of Ilfracombe, and
probably breed in some likely-looking holes and fissures (O. V. A., Zool.
1S887,'p: 71).

Flocks of Stock-Doves are occasionally seen in winter. At the time
Mr. E. H. Rodd’s book on the Birds of Cornwall was published (1880), no
instances of the Stock-Dove having bred in his county were on record; but
in May 1886 Mr. F. R. Rodd detected a nest in an oak tree, and three
more in rabbit-earths in some gravel-pits on his estate of Trebartha, near
Launceston, proving that, like “the Starling, the Stock-Dove is extending
itself as a resident westwards in Cornwall. In Dorsetshire Mr. Mansel-
Pleydell considers this species to be on the increase, and states that
numbers nest in the rabbit-earths in the sand-hills on the coast. Through-
out Somerset the Stock-Dove nests in a few scattered pairs, generally in
old pollard trees, but is nowhere numerous. In West Somerset, during a
deep snow, we shot a number of Wood-Pigeons by lying up in a thick
hedge, and waiting for the birds as they passed over to feed on some
turnips, and among them obtained a Stock-Dove, but we never saw any
flocks composed entirely of this species. The Stock-Dove is rarely seen in
the east of Somerset, and the only example which has occurred to us was
one we shot in our own shrubbery.

COLUMBID.E. 255

Rock-Dove. Columba livia, Bonnat.
[Chift-Culver, Dev.]

An occasional visitor to some localities on the sea-coast, and a few are
said to breed in the caves or fissures of the sea-cliffs.

‘‘ Near Orchard in Combmartin there mounteth up a hill to a great
height,” says Risdon, “just upon the cliffs of the sea, where in a hole,
infinite numbers of doves do frequent, called by a particular name of the
place Cliff-Culvers.”

Polwhele states (Hist. of Devon, vol. i. chap. 6) that the Rock-Dove
existed in his time (1797) on the north coast near Combe Martin, and at
Lundy Island. ‘There are none at the latter locality at the present day,
and there have been none since we became acquainted with the island.
It was formerly also found on the rocky parts of the South Coast (E. M.,
Trans. Plym. Inst. 1830; Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837). The earlier writers on
Devonshire ornithology, however, seem to have confused this species with
the Stock-Dove, and it is therefore difficult to decide to which species
their observations apply.

A ‘ Rock-Dove” was shot in December 1818, near Egg Buckland
(E. M., Rowe’s Peramb. Dartmoor, 1848). The Rock-Dove was found
on the rocky parts of the Dart between Dartmouth and Totnes (T. and K.,
1830). Bellamy says he saw one in June 1839 on the rocks in a small
cave at Dartmouth (Nat. Hist. 8. Devon, p. 209).

Mr. E. A. 8. Elliot writes :—‘ There is no doubt that this species
breeds in an extensive quarry-pit, now disused, near Beesands, and also
near the Start Point, as I have seen old birds about there in the spring,
but whether they are descendants from escaped tame birds, as some
assert, I am not prepared to say. I shot two immature birds in the fall
of 1889 which were apparently wild.” (MS. Notes.)

Although it is extremely probable that in some instances stray farm-
yard Pigeons which have taken to the cliffs, and also Stock-Doves, have
been confounded with this species, we are confident both from our own
knowledge, and also from the reports of observers who are not likely to
have been in error, that a few Rock-Doves still exist on the cliffs of
North Devon. Only this last spring (1891) Mr. H. A. Evans, of
Westward Ho! College, wrote to inform us that a pair were seen at
Northam. We were spending part of the Long Vacation in 1856 with a
reading-party at Lynmouth, and continually saw three or four pairs of
Rock-Doves on the Countesbury Hill, and quite recently the birds have
been detected in the same locality. We one day got close to an un-
doubted Rock-Dove near the Cricket Field at Instow, and heard of others
having been seen on a stubble-field a little distance inland.

The two dark bands upon the wings, and also the conspicuous white
rump, are sufficient distinctions to prevent the Rock-Dove from being
confounded with any other species, but will not serve as a distinction
from the Common Domestic ** Blue Rock,’’ which sometimes becomes wild
and associates with Ring-Doves and Stock-Doves, Such a specimen was

256 THE BIRDS OF DEVON,

shot on Black Hill, near Woodbury, in 1878, and is now preserved in the
A. M. M.

“ Blue Pigeons ” frequent the chalk cliffs between the fishing-village of
Beer and Beer Head; but Mr. Gatcombe, who visited the place on purpose
to try and identify the species, was unable to do so with certainty,
on account of their wildness. He, however, had not much doubt that the
birds he saw were either genuine Rock-Doves or ‘‘ very wild tame
Pigeons ” (J. G., in litt to R. P. N.).

In flight the Rock-Dove is the swiftest of the family, strong on wing
as they all are, and it requires a good shot to account for one as it darts
out from a cave amongst the cliffs.

All our domestic Pigeons, greatly as they differ in their varieties, are
descended from the Rock-Dove, and show their descent by their reluc-
tance to perch on trees.

There used to be a few Rock-Doves on the North Somerset coast. We
have seen them at Uphill, near Weston-super-Mare ; also on Brean
Down ; and early one morning at the end of May, when we were watching
Burrow-Ducks on Sand Point, between Weston-super-Mare and Clevedon,
we came close on a Rock-Dove seated on her nest, and almost touched
the bird with our hand.

Mr. Rodd states that there are a few at Looe and Polperro, on the
south coast of Cornwall, and there may be, perhaps, a pair or two on the
Dorset coast.

Turtle Dove. Zurtur communis, Selby.

A summer migrant, visiting suitable localities throughout the county,
but it is usually far from numerous. Breeds. Arrives at the end of
April or early in May, and leaves in September. The Turtle Dove fre-
quents marsh-land in the estuary of the Exe in small parties in June
and July. Flocks of considerable size used to visit Dawlish Warren in
summer; we saw a flock there of about forty on July 17th, 1854, and
shot one. ‘This bird is also not uncommon near Exeter. It is rare near
Plymouth, but breeds in the woods at Kelly on the Tamar (J. G., Zool.
1877, p. 495; 1878, p. 433). From a young bird having been obtained
at Gnaton, in August 1850, Mr. R. A. Julian thought it occasionally bred
there (‘ Naturalist, 1851, p. 88). It is, however, usually met with
solitary in the Plymouth district, South Hams, and in West Devon in
May and September, when migrating (J. G., Zool. 1875, p. 4569; J. B.
R., MS. Notes; T. J. Bray’s ‘Tamar and Tavy,’ i. p. 351). Montagu
states that ‘it is found, though rarely, as far westward as Devonshire ”
(Orn. Dict.). Dr. E. Moore says it was more numerous on the woody
borders of the moor (Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837). Every summer some breed
in the Kingsbridge district, and are frequently met with either singly or
in pairs upon the roads (RK. P. N.). ‘* Breeds in Oxon Wood and Combe
Royal” (EH. A. 8. E.).

COLUMBID. 254

This pretty Dove, although numerous as a summer visitor to many
parts of the kingdom, is one of those species whose dispersion to the
extreme west is limited in numbers. In North Devon a pair or two
are generally to be seen near Fremington; we have seen a pair close
to South Molton; and we have from time to time encountered a single
Turtle Dove, or a pair, upon the road, in driving through the north of the
county. On Lundy Island we are assured by the Rey. H. G. Heaven that
‘this Dove has occasionally nested in a small patch of stunted cover. The
Turtle Dove is generally first noticed at the beginning of May, and leaves
this county about Michaelmas. We have a note of one which we saw in
our own grounds as late as October 23rd. Where the Turtle Dove is nume-
rous, as it is in some of the midland counties, we have known it to be
sometimes sociable at the nesting-season, and once found three nests
together in alarge thorn bush. In Somerset we have found a hedgerow elm
to be the favourite situation for the Turtle Dove’s nest. This Dove is
fond of tall trees, perching among the higher branches, wheuce, unseen,
it utters its soft monotonous cooing notes, which on a hot summer's day
come with a soothing sound to anyone seeking the shade beneath. In
the days when there were Fens, great numbers of Turtle Doves used to
flock into the high sedge, finding some favourite food on the sheltered
ground, and afforded good shooting as they were flushed and flew straight
off over the tops of the sedge ; but, in our opinion, they are only indifferent
birds for the table, and we never molest them when they rise before our
gun. Around Taunton the Turtle Dove is not uncommon, but throughout
Somerset it is very local in its distribution, there being districts where we
haye neyer seen one. Mr. Rodd mentions a flock of thirty-four Turtle
Doves having been seen on the Scilly Islands in May 1871. Mr. A. G.
More (‘ Ibis,’ 1865, p. 142) states that, although the Turtle Dove is occa-
sionally seen in Cornwall, it is doubtful if it nests in the county, and we
possess no information upon the point. In Dorset it is about as plentiful
as in Deyon as a summer migrant.

[ Observation.—The Collared Turtle (Turtur risorius), so frequently kept
in confinement, has occasionally been killed in a wild state near Plymouth,
and is said to breed in some of the large woods and plantations in that
neighbourhood (Zool. 1877, p. 493). ]

bo
or
1e/2)

THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

Order PTEROCLETES.
Family PTEROCLIDA.
Pallas’s Sand-Grouse. Syrrhaptes paradozus (Pall.).

An accidental visitor, of very rare occurrence. Like the rest of England,
Devonshire was visited by flocks during the great irruptions of this
species in 1863 and 1888.

Although there are two species of Sand-Grouse (Pterocles) which are not
uncommon in Portugal, Spain, and N. Africa, this country has never been
visited by stragglers of either, though it would be nothing extraordinary if
some had done so, considering how many birds have wandered to our
Devonshire coasts from those parts of the world; it has been reserved for
a very singular species, a native of the vast sandy steppes of Central Asia,
to introduce the family to British ornithologists. The irruption of Pallas’s
Sand-Grouse into Western Europe in 1863, and again, a quarter of a
century later, in 1888, may justly be regarded as the most sensational
ornithological occurrence of modern times. Professor Newton drew up
in ‘The Ibis’ for 1864 a full and particular account of the visitation of
these birds to the United Kingdom in the first irruption, accompanied by
a map, on which all the localities where they were observed and reported
are set down. We find these to be very numerous along the whole ex-
tent of the South-east and East Coast of England, beginning at East-
bourne and extending north to Berwick-on-Tweed; there are a few
marked on the East Coast of Scotland, but very few indeed anywhere on
the Western shores of the kingdom, and inland the appearances of the
birds were chiefly limited to the Eastern and Eastern Central Counties. In
the map there is not a single occurrence marked for either Somerset or
Dorset ; in the whole of Devonshire there are only two—Slapton Sands in
the south, and Heanton, near Barnstaple, in the north of the county.
Two specimens only were recorded from Cornwall—a female shot at the
Land’s End, and a male, picked up dead at St. Agnes, on the Scilly Isles.
The birds were first noticed in England on 21st May (in Northumberland),
and we believe the female shot at Heanton, in North Devon, on 11th
December, was the last reported for the year. Although Professor Newton

calculated that as many as 700 were recorded in the United Kingdom, he
did not believe that the main body crossed the North Sea, being brought
up by the shores of Holland and Denmark, and passing the summer on the
sand dunes of those countries. The year 1888 witnessed as great, if not
a greater, arrival of Sand-Grouse in this kingdom, the birds again sweeping
gradually across Central Europe from their Asiatic habitat, and trending
constantly in a N.W, direction until numbers of them were dispersed over
the British Islands, and on this occasion they nested and reared their
young in several places on the Eastern Coast of Scotland. As in 1863,

;

PTEROCLID.E. 959

the greater number of occurrences were reported from the Eastern and
North-eastern Counties ; but in this second visitation the birds treated the
West of England more liberally, having been recorded from all the four
counties of the S8.W. Peninsula. In North Devon a flock of seven
appeared on Lundy Island, and remained there for three weeks without
being shot at or molested. Mr. J. G. Hamling, of The Chase, Barnstaple,
recorded one forwarded to the bird-stuffer in that town, which had been
shot with three or four others (we fear this may have been the little
Lundy flock) at Hartland, about the 3rd or 4th of June. None appear to
have been obtained this time in the south of the county. In Somerset a
flock of eleven appeared on May 25th, on Steart Island, in Bridgwater
Bay, and one was shot. On the afternoon of the same day two were
seen at Charlynch, near Bridgwater, by the Rev. W. A. Bell, the Rector.
A small flock passed close to Mr. W. Ayshford Sanford, in his grounds
at Nynehead one Sunday, the date of which is unknown to us. This
was only a short distance from the eastern boundary of Devon. One is
reported to have occurred at Burnham, and we heard of some having
been seen near Weston-super-Mare: one was exhibited at a meeting of
a Naturalists’ Club in Bristol, which had been shot somewhere near the
city in Somerset. We ourselves were not lucky enough to see any of the
Sand-Grouse on the occasion of their visit to this country in 1863, but
were more fortunate at the end of June 1888, when we passed close to a
flock of upwards of twenty as we were driving to Bath. They were in a
turnip-field where the young turnips were just showing above the ground,
and were about a long gunshot in from the hedge. On first noticing
them we took them for Turtle Doves, but as we have never in this part
of Somerset seen more than a single Turtle Dove, or at most a pair, at a
time, we looked more closely at the birds, and then easily detected them
to be Pallas’s Sand-Grouse. Only a few days before we had watched and
studied a live Sand-Grouse in the Western Aviary of the Zoological Gardens,
and at once recognized the same waddling gait in the few birds which
were moving. ‘The greater number were squatting on the ground, appa-
rently asleep ; one or two were preening their feathers, and occasionally
stretching themselves, with precisely the same gestures as the bird we
had seen in London. We looked out for them again as we repassed the
spot in the afternoon (it was in the parish of Norton St. Philip), but
they had disappeared,

In Dorsetshire, Mr. Mansel-Pleydell recorded six which were picked up
dead or dying, on May 28th, under the telegraph-wires, at Stoborough,
Wareham. Mr. G. B. Corbin (Zool. 1888, p. 388) states that at the end
of June, or beginning of July, a flock frequented a sandy piece of heath-
land on the borders of Dorsetshire and Hampshire, and that several were
killed and eaten; and, further, mentions a male bird which was killed on
1sth June in a garden near Wimborne, which was terribly mutilated,
In the Land’s End district, in Cornwall, a flock of eleven appeared in
May: three were killed, and one captured alive. his bird Mr. Thomas
Cornish, of Penzance, succeeded in keeping alive for three months, when
it unfortunately died during its moult (Zool. 1888, p. 348; 1589, p. 108),

82

260 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

Mr. Cornish records that he received another Sand-Grouse, a male, which
had been shot on January 3rd, 1889, at Kelynack, in St. Just-in-Penwith,
the same place from whence he had obtained his live bird. These appear
to be the only occurrences reported from Cornwall; but we cannot resist
the supposition that in all of the S.W. counties Sand-Grouse may have
been seen, and perhaps shot and eaten, without being either identified or
recorded. People with no knowledge of birds might well take them to
be either Plovers or Pigeons.

The Sand-Grouse which arrived in the United Kingdom in May and
June 1888 continued with us until the beginning of the following spring,
when they gradually disappeared. In many places great care was taken
to protect them, in the hopes that they might remain and nest ; but when
the restless spirit of migration came upon them they wandered off—and
whither? Did they press westwards, to perish on the Atlantic, or did
any of them safely return to their distant Eastern home by the shores of
Lake Baikal?

The name conferred by ornithologists upon the Sand-Grouse sufficiently
indicates what a strange bird it is. The specific name given to it is
paradoxus, surprising ; for, in appearance, it is something like a Pigeon;
it flies with great velocity, somewhat resembling a Golden Plover when
on wing; its legs and feet are feathered like a Grouse, and its tail has
the two central feathers elongated and terminating in a narrow point. Its
generic name, Syrrhaptes=“ sewn together,” refers to its toes, which are
united together, and remind one of the fingerless gloves worn by babies ;
the under surface of the foot is covered by a hard skin, so that the birds
can conveniently run over the heated sands. Their united toes occasion
the waddling gait we have already described. All the Sand-Grouse have
their upper parts coloured with tawny yellow of darker or paler shades,
corresponding with the tints of the sandy steppes which are their native
home; some of them have bright belts of black or orange on the lower
parts of the body, but when the birds squat these conspicuous colours are
hidden, and the protective tints of the plumage of the head, wings, and
back make it extremely difficult to distinguish them upon the ground.

We have in our collection specimens which were among the first killed
out of the 1863 arrivals; two shot by Mr. W. C. Mathew, of the 64th
Regiment, at Aldershot, on 26th May, in that year. The 64th had but
just returned from India, and the Major of the regiment came across and
recognized a flock of Sand-Grouse on the heath, reporting them as “ Sindh
Doves,” a name given to the Pintailed Sand-Grouse (Pterocles alchata,
Licht.), which is very abundant in N.W. India, and is aiso a common
species in North Africa and in the South of Spain. We have no knowledge
of Pallas’s Sand-Grouse ever having been detected in India.

The causes which led to the wandering off from their native home of
these great armies of Sand-Grouse can only be conjectured. Perhaps they
had become congested in some particular district, and there had been a
failure in some necessary food ; all the streams and lakes of the country
in which the flocks collected, and from whence they started, may have been

GALLINE. 261

dried up; and without drinking water regularly twice a day Sand-Grouse
cannot exist.

A pair of Pallas’s Sand-Grouse were shot by Mr. Anning, of the Royal Sands Hotel,
Slapton Ley, out of a flock of thirteen in June 1863. ‘The birds settled on the sands
between Torcross and the hotel. They are now in the possession of Sir Lydstone
Newman, Bart., at Stokeley House, Stokenham (‘ Field’ for July 4th, 1863 ; Zool. 1863,
p- 8721; H.N., MS. Notes). An old female was shot by a game-keeper at Heanton
Court, near Barnstaple, December 11th, 1863 (J. L. Langdon Fulford, and M. A. M.,
Zool. 1864, p. 8958). Several were shot at Hartland about June 3rd or 4th, 1888
(J. G. H., Zool. 1888, p. 266).

Order GALLIN.

THE GAME BIRDS.

The indigenous Game Birds of Devon are but few. In
fact but three of the British species can be claimed as
genuine natives—namely, the Common Partridge, Quail,
and Black Grouse, the first and last being residents, and
the second migratory. Of these three the Partridge alone
is abundant and increasing in numbers, owing to the
improved cultivation of the land; whilst from the same
cause the Black Grouse, or Heath Poult, as it is called in
Devonshire, has decreased, and is now but scantily repre-
sented. ‘The Common Pheasant and Red-legged Partridge
are introductions, the latter being, happily, not yet
naturalized, whilst the former, largely crossed with the
Ring-necked Pheasant, is artificially reared in large num-
bers in the preserves all over the county, except in the wild
open moorlands, But little credit can be attached to the
reported occurrence of the Red Grouse and Ptarmigan on
Dartmoor, and at best it could have been only accidental.

Owing to the Galline nesting on the ground, breeding
but once in the season, and laying a large number of eggs
at a sitting, they are more liable to extermination than
other birds, and need protection to enable them to exist.
Agricultural operations lead to the destruction of many

262 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

nests, and the eggs, being so numerous and of a light
colour, are readily seen, though in some cases the parent
birds have the instinct to cover them up with leaves on
leaving the nest. The hen birds are so much like the
colour of the soil, and lie so close when on the nest, as
not to be readily seen, and, moreover, appear sometimes
to lose their scent when sitting, so as not to be found by a
dog or fox; yet, when sprung, their nests are at once be-
trayed. Most Gallinaceous birds are polygamous, but the
Common Partridge, the Red Grouse, and perhaps the
Quail, are exceptions, being monogamous, and pairing in
spring.

Family PHASIANIDA,
* Pheasant. Phasianus colchicus, Linn.

Introduced, semi-domesticated, and plentiful, where artificially reared
and preserved. It is, however, now difficult to obtain a pure-bred speci-
men, as, through interbreeding with P. torquatus, the Ring-necked
Pheasant, specimens with white rings round the neck, or with more or
less white on its sides, are by far the most plentiful. Other varieties
are frequently met with—pure white, white-tailed, pied, mottled, and
buff-coloured ‘* Isabelline,” or “‘ Bohemian.” Dr. E. Moore mentions that
a hybrid between a male Pheasant and a female Black Grouse was shot
at Whidey, near Plymouth, by the Rey. Mr. Morshead (Mag. Nat. Hist.
1837), and several other instances will be mentioned under Black Grouse.
Mr. John Gatcombe describes a curious hybrid between a Domestic Fowl
and a Common Pheasant killed in a wild state in Dec. 1883, at Membland,
between the mouths of the Yealm and Erme, the property of Mr. E. C.
Baring. It was a remarkably fine bird, weighing within one ounce of six
pounds. The plumage exhibited equally the character of both species,
The keeper who shot the bird said there were several similar specimens in
the covers. It had a very large and long spur on one leg only, the other
leg being similar to an ordinary hen Pheasant (Zool. 1885, p. 21). Mr.
J.C. Mansel-Pleydell mentions a similar hybrid (‘ Birds of Dorset,’ p. 69).
Such bybrids are known as “ Peros.”’

Polwhele mentions (1797) that Pheasants had been almost annihilated
in Devon, but were beginning to increase again when carefully preserved.
In 1830 they were common in the neighbourhood of Mamhead, Kenn,
and other preserves (T. & K.). The Rey. Thos. Johnes, Rector of

PHASIANIDA. PAGE

Bradstone in the extreme western portion of Devon, in a letter on the
Birds of Dartmoor, written about 1882, published in Bray’s ‘ Tamar and
Tavy’ (vol. i. p. 351, 1844), says “the Pheasant has been introduced
of late years by the Duke of Bedford and Sir W. P. Call. The ringed-
neck variety is the most common.” Dr. Thos. Shapter, in his ‘ Climate of
the South of Devon, 1842, states that the Pheasant was, he believed,
introduced into the county only about sixty years before he wrote. This
probably applied to P. torquatus, as the beginning of the present century
was about the period of its introduction into this country. The common
Pheasant, however, has been proved to have been of ancient importation
into England, and it was sufficiently abundant in the neighbourhood of
London to be recognized as a regular article of diet in the middle of the
11th century. The Romans certainly introduced the Fallow Deer, very
probably the Rabbit, and, perhaps, the Pheasant also. Itis an interesting
fact that the metatarsal of a Gallinaceous bird, either a Domestic Cock
ora Pheasant, was found amongst the bones deposited in the ancient
camp on the summit of Peak Hill near Sidmouth, and a similar specimen
is in the A. M. M. from the Bench Cavern, near Brixham.

The Pheasant, the most beautiful of our game birds, has now been for
so many hundred years established in our woodlands that it may almost
rank among our indigenous ayifauna, although, as its name indicates, it
was originally imported into Europe and this country from the banks of
the Asiatic Phasis. So greatly have its numbers increased of late years,
owing to its careful preservation, that it now forms a valuable and
important addition to our food supply. Several varieties of the Pheasant
from China and Japan have been introduced into ovr preserves, some even
surpassing the old red bird in beauty of plumage, but all of them possess
an undesirable qualification in being addicted to straying off beyond their
proper bounds. The beautiful Chinese Ring-necked Pheasant (P. tor-
quatus), brought over to this country now nearly a hundred years ago,
has almost established itself throughout the kingdom, and by interbreeding
with the Red Pheasant, and by proving itself to be the dominant species,
is—and we consider this a circumstance to be greatly deplored—fast
obliterating the handsome Pheasant which for so long had sole possession
of our covers. Some forty years ago all the wild-bred Pheasants in the
woods we were acquainted with in North Devon belonged to the red species,
but we imagine that at the present time an infusion of the Ring-necked
strain has extended into all parts of the county, and pure, unmixed,
descendants of the ancient stock are yearly becoming more rare. Although
Pheasants require careful watching, no other bird possessing a greater
variety of enemies; yet birds of the Red and Ring-necked species will
thrive very well if left to themselves, rearing stronger broods than any
the keepers can bring up under coops. In rough parts of the country,
where there are a number of stiff furze brakes, it is almost impossible to
exterminate the Pheasant, as he finds shelter from which he cannot be
dislodged, and plenty of suitable food. In such districts, about Christmas-
time, we have shot grand cock birds, of fully 4 lbs. weight, whose flavour
greatly surpassed that of the overfatteued birds of the preserves. There is

264 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

no part of the United Kingdom where the Pheasant, a most hardy bird, does
not do well, provided the country be suchas suits its requirements. The first
essential is that there be plenty of water, and woods containing rough
undergrowth, in which this timid bird can shelter itself. It also loves a
district where there are thick, old-fashioned hedgerows, with a good stock
of timber, especially oaks, as in the autumn the acorns constitute its
favourite food. In the blackberry season Pheasants wander far in search
of the berries, and most sportsmen must have noticed the luscious juice
oozing from the gape of the bird the gun has ju:t dropped amid the fern.
Most berries are dear to the birds, and they thrive well in moorland
coverts where the whortleberry abounds. In long-protracted and deep
snows we have picked up dead and frozen hen Pheasants in the woods,
but we never knew a cock bird to succumb to the weather, however
severe.

The day after a battue the survivors appear to be stunned and frightened
by the noise of the guns, as we have picked up uninjured birds squatting
beneath the bushes. The short crow of the cock Pheasant, with the sound
of his clapping wings, may be heard in the spring-time in the woods he
frequents. ‘This noise is intended to attract the hen birds, and is equally
a challenge to other cocks. The cock Pheasant is rather a noisy bird,
often bringing himself into trouble by his voice: thus, the cackling he
makes at roosting-time as he flies up into the trees betrays his perch to
the poacher ; his crow and his loud rustling wings, on being flushed in
cover, generally bring him to grief, when, had he risen quietly, as a
Grouse slips up from the heather, he might, perhaps, have got off without
attracting attention. He sometimes rises with reckless precipitation, and
colliding against a branch, falls wounded to the ground. As a rule, cock
Pheasants seek their safety by running through the covers; it is only
when suddenly surprised they take wing; and as they run off they drive
up the hens in selfish cowardice to screen their own retreat. But these
tactics are of little avail, as the fatal fence is at last reached, Where the
beater’s stick compels them to come forth, and then there is the
“bouquet,” to use the language of the battue, and the ‘‘ warm corner,”
where the long-tailed beauties rise by scores to fall again upon the sod,
to be carted off to the poulterer’s shop.

One day in August, on the other side of a narrow valley, we noted a
cock Pheasant on a stubble-field in a state of great agitation. He was
making a loud chuckling, was drawn up to his full height, and was
looking steadfastly towards one point. Turning our eyes in the same
direction we beheld a poaching cat stalking some dozen or more young
Pheasants which were feeding in the stubble a little distance beyond this
gallant cock-bird, who was evidently doing his best to warn them and to
divert the approaching enemy. We did not wait to see what would
happen, and hastened to the spot, but the cat had fled before we arrived
on the scene. Pheasants are sometimes embarrassing in their tameness.
We do not merely refer to the battue—where, posted at our corner outside
the cover, we have watched a score or more walking unconcernedly just
inside the fence, quite ignorant that it was expected of them to rise on

PHASIANID.A. 265

wing to be shot, and when at last the beaters compelled them to fly, it
required considerable hardening of the heart to lift our guns against them
—but to the conduct of tame reared birds on other occasions. We had one
splendid ring-necked cock, who, after fighting with and driving away all
the other cock-birds, took possession of the flower-garden, and at break-
fast time would come and peck at the window until he was admitted.
Taking up his station by the side of his mistress, he would stand, now and
then giving vent to a hoarse grunt, until the conclusion of the meal, when
he attended her wherever she went about the house, upstairs and down-
stairs, and if she went into the garden he would follow, sometimes in
playfulness pecking at her dress and hanging on to it behind by his beak.
Wishing to shake him off, refuge would be sought in the kitchen-garden,
and the door would be shut in his face; all of no use, as he immediately
flew over the wall, continuing his attentions as before. One Sunday he
actually accompanied us to church, a quarter of a mile away, running by
our side all down the avenue, and only leaving us as we entered the
churchyard gate.

Col. Mathew, who six or seven years since killed anumber of Pheasants
at big “ shoots” in East Devon, has informed us that the proportion of
red birds was full seventy-five per cent. of the entire bag, and states that
one morning on Captain Simcoe’s estate, near Honiton, he shot two very
fine red cocks, which were weighed when the party went into the house
for lunch, and scaled just nine pounds.

* Red-legged Partridge. Cuccadis vufa (Linn.).
[French Partridge. |

Introduced. A few have been shot from time to time in various parts
of the county. This species was most probably introduced within the last
fifty years, as Dr. E. Moore does not include it in his list of Devonshire
birds published in Trans. Plym. Inst. 1830, although in his appendix to
Rowe’s ‘Perambulation of Dartmoor,’ published in 1848, he says,
“Mr. Newton shot one of these on Broadbury Moor, near Bridestow,
which is now in his collection.” Bellamy, in his ‘ Natural History of
South Devon,’ published in 1539, does not mention it. We had in our
possession for some time one which was shot by the late Mr. Thos. Floud,
about 1844, on Waddle Down, near Whitstone Hill, a few miles from
Exeter (W. D’U.). Two occurred in North Devon in Jan. and Feb. 1856,

In the MS. notebooks of the late Mr. Bolitho, bird-stuffer, of Plymouth,
kindly lent us by Mr. J. Gatcombe, we find that he had received one of
these Partridges which had been shot by Capt. Roe at Worswell Farm,
on Dec. 4th, 1858. Another was met with on March 25th, 1862, at
‘Tamerton Foliot. Mr. Bolitho had other specimens of “* French Partridges ”
brought to him in October 1865, June and July 1867, and August 1872,
which were probably killed near Plymouth. One shot near the Start
Point in the winter of 1867 was the only example of the Red-legged

266 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

Partridge Mr. R. P. Nicholls has ever met with (R. P. N. and E. A. 8. E.).
We have seen some exposed for sale in the poulterers’ shops in Exeter,
which were brought from Wiltshire as we were informed. One which
we saw hanging up on Oct. 3rd, 1882, however, was said to have been
shot near Okehampton.

We learn from Mr. Edmund Elliot that Mr. Lucas of Stokeley, near
Kingsbridge, has recently attempted to introduce this bird on his land,
but that none have as yet been shot.

This species of Partridge, well-known to and little liked by the sports-
men of the Kastern Counties, is never likely to be more than an occasional
straggler in the West of England, where the climate is too damp to suit
the bird, and we believe all attempts to introduce it as a resident have
failed for this reason. We speak with a due warrant for this assertion,
as a friend of ours has repeatedly endeavoured to naturalize the Red-
legged Partridge on his ground in N. Pembrokeshire, where the climate
is similar in its humidity to that of Devonshire, and although he has
hatched, and in due course turned loose, fifty or sixty healthy Red-legged
Partridges at a time, they were nowhere to be found when the shooting-
season arrived, having deserted a country which was not congenial to
them. Nor were they met with anywhere else in the district, and we
have only in our notes the record of one example of this Partridge which
was ever obtained in Pembrokeshire, one shot by Mr. Moore, the head
keeper at Picton Castle. Many years ago Lord Cawdor attempted to
introduce the Red-legged Partridge on his Stackpole estate, and also
failed. In Somerset this Partridge is only an occasional visitor ; Mr. Cecil
Smith has recorded no instance of its occurrence, but we have heard of
several in the eastern portion of the county ; and Mr. Rodd states that in
September 1879 Mr. C. Edwards, of the Grove, Wrington, “‘shot a brace
on the manor of Compton Bishop, in East Somerset, where the keepers
informed him that others fed in the coverts with the Pheasants” (Rodd,
‘ Birds of Cornwall,’ p. 77). In hisown county Mr. Rodd says the Red-
legged Partridge is unknown. In Dorset Mr. Mansel-Pleydell informs us
that all attempts to establish this species as a resident have failed, as in
the instances we have mentioned above, and probably from the cause we
have assigned,

The Red-legged Partridge, or ‘‘ Frenchman,” as it is most commonly
called, was first introduced into England in 1770. In the first volume of
his ‘ birds of Norfolk,’ p. 413, Mr. Stevenson has recorded the curious fact
that there is now an emigration of this Partridge from the Eastern Coun-
ties to the Continent every spring, in the month of April, and gives very
interesting particulars of this movement on the part of the birds.

[ Observation.—The Barbary Partridge (Caccabis petrosa, Gray) recorded
by Mr. Rodd as having been shot near Falmouth was, without any doubt,
an escape. A lady of our acquaintance kept at that time in Falmouth

several tame Barbary Partridges in her aviary, and this we believe to
have been one of her birds. |

PHASIANIDA. 267

Partridge. Perdix cinerea, Lath.

Resident, generally distributed throughout the county, except the wilder
parts of Dartmoor, and in some years is fairly plentiful.

Owing to the improved farming, and the enclosure and ploughing up of
many commons and salt-marshes, during the last half-century, the Par-
tridge has largely increased in numbers in Devonshire, so much so that in
the Jubilee year (1887), which was a grand season for Partridges all over
England, we knew of fifty-brace bags having been obtained in North
Devon. In the September of that year six hundred Partridges were taken
off the Tawstock Court estate, close to Barnstaple—a large number for a
shooting in a part of the kingdom with so poor a reputation for Partridges.
In the Kingsbridge district, in the south of the county, as many as sixty-
five brace have been killed in a day.

The Partridge likes the neighbourhood of the sea, andis plentiful among
the ferns and grasses on the cliffs on many parts of the North Coast, and
here, directly the covey is flushed, it dips down over the sidling and takes
refuge on some inaccessible ledge. On the edges of Dartmoor we find a
very fine strain of Partridge; the birds are heavier and have brighter
plumage, take long and bold flights, and well repay the fag required to
bring a brace or two to bag.

Varieties of the Partridge are rather rare. We possessed a very pretty
silyer-grey bird, which was shot near Torrington about 1855.

In the collections of the Rev. W. 8S. Hore, at Barnstaple, Mr. Scott, of
Chudleigh, and in the Truro Museum, we have seen examples of a pecu-
larly dark Partridge, which we regarded as melanistic varieties; these
birds were slightly larger, apparently, than the ordinary bird, and darker
than the little dark Partridges one is familiar with on the Scotch moors,
Mr. Hore obtained these large and dark birds several seasons in succession
from Shebbear, and was disposed to consider them a cross between the
Common and the Red-legged Partridge, but there was nothing about them
to indicate any strain derived from the latter bird,

In the Report of the British Association, Exeter Meeting, 1869 (Trans.
of Section, p. 117), will be found a notice, by Dr. W. R. Scott, of supposed
hybrids between this species and the Red-legged Partridge, many of which
were obtained in the West of Devon between 1859 and 1863. The
plumage of these birds differed from that of ordinary individuals by being
of a darker and richer brown, uniformly spread over the whole body, in
having no grey markings, and in the entire absence of the horse-shoe on
the breast. They had also a black patch on each cheek extending back-
wards, with a tendency to form a gorget across the throat. Some had
white feathers on the breast. These were the birds we have already
mentioned above.

The variety ferrugineus, Gould, has occurred on several occasions near
Tavistock and Plymouth (Zool, 1861, p. 7544).

Col. Montagu mentions four pure white birds which were taken from
one covey at Powderham, Several white or cream-coloured specimens

268 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

have occurred near Kingsbridge (R. P. N., Zool. 1875, p. 4696). In 1877,
Mr. Webber, auctioneer, Silverton, showed us in the flesh a buff variety.
One perfectly white was shot at Drascombe Farm, near Drewsteignton,
Sept. 12,1881. A specimen with white quill-feathers occurred at Ply-
mouth, Oct. 27th, 1886 (J. G., Zool. 1887, p. 377). On Oct. 14th, 1886,
Mr. E. A. 8S. Elliot obtained a young female with white “ horse-shoe ” on
breast. Old females are frequently thus marked in the Kingsbridge
district.

It is singular that the further north one goes the smaller becomes the
Partridge, whereas with the Red Game the reverse is noted, the Red
Grouse of Yorkshire being less in size than the average tenants of the
Highland Moors.

Both Partridges and Red Grouse have from time to time been turned
down on Lundy Island, only to be devoured by the rats. On Skomer
Island, a very similar island to Lundy, and no very great distance from it,
there is an excellent head of Partridges, owing, no doubt, to the absence
of these vermin. On the Scilly Isles Partridges have occasionally been
introduced, but soon disappear.

It is well known how courageous the Partridge is in the nesting-season,
and in the defence of her young brood. We have seen a hen Partridge
sitting on her nest on a railway embankment within a foot or so of the
metals, and remaining undisturbed when the frequent trains rattled by.
Once, when driving in a lane, we came suddenly on a Partridge with her
lately-hatched chicks in the middle of the road; while these scuttled into
the herbage by the side of the hedge, their devoted parent confronted and
flew at our pony, and followed us some few yards in a most defiant
manner.

We were one day sailing on the Torridge, a short distance above Instow,
when a covey of Partridges suddenly flew off the land, and settled on the

water in front of our boat. The tide was high, and we were quite two
hundred yards from the shore. We actually bagged one of the birds
while it was floating on the water, as we had a gun, being after Duck at
the time. After our shot, the rest of the birds rose from the water and
returned to the land. We felt pretty certain that a Hawk had startled
the covey, and had occasioned this precipitate rush towards the river.

The Red-legged Partridge is said occasionally to perch on trees, but it
is quite foreign to the habits of the Grey Partridge to do so. One day,

however, when we were shooting on a precipitous hillside at Lee, near.

Ilfracombe, we saw a Partridge, one of a covey we had flushed, fly into
an oak and perch on one of the boughs, whence it was put out and shot.
A wet summer, when there are numerous thunderstorms throughout
June, is fatal to the young broods, which are either drowned or perish
from cramp occasioned by roosting and moving about in the wet herbage.
The manors will then be sadly bare of coveys when September arrives.
But it is wonderful how rapidly the stock recovers. Let there bea couple
of favourable hatching seasons, with warm sunshine, and the stubbles
will once more abound with this favourite bird. The most sought-for
food of the Partridge, from which in wet and cheerless summers it is

PHASIANIDA. 269

almost cut off, is the grasshopper, and of this insect it consumes great
numbers, and, according to Col. Montagu, finds in them a valuable physic
and tonic. Other insects, ants, and ants’ eggs in particular, the seeds of
various weeds and grasses, and grain, with the tender tops of various
plants, form its food. In the autumn the turnip-tields are its accustomed
resort; the high leaves afford it shelter and concealment, and beneath them
it picks up small beetles and insects in abundance. But in moorland
districts it is not often that the coveys are found among the turnips, the
birds preferring the rough grass and rushes of the moory fields and the
cover of the furze, and in these places they lie better throughout the
season; and long after it has been quite useless to attempt to approach
them in the remaining turnips on better cultivated lands, we have had
excellent sport in such places on the hills, making good bags quite up to
the end of January.

Early in the month one September we had the good fortune to account
for a whole covey of thirteen birds, in a small turnip-field in North Devon.
We were shooting over a magnificent young setter, only eleven months
old, so that it was his first season with the gun. He made a point directly
we entered the field, which was about five acres in extent, and we dropped
a brace. The remaining birds then scattered all over the field, and this
clever young dog, admirably broken to drop to shot, to wing, and, ata
sign, to draw on and to stand dead or crippled birds, made them in the
steadiest fashion. one after the other, and we got them all, the last bird
being the old cock of the covey seen by us, as the dog was standing him,
squatting beneath a turnip-leaf. He rose and did all he could in the
way of rapid flight, skimming low above the ground, but only to fall, and
to be in his turn drawn on and pointed as he lay dead upon the ground,
the last of his family, by this matchless dog, pure white all over, without
a single spot upon him, of the Laverack breed. We haye possessed many
a clever dog, both before and since, but this was the best performance we
ever witnessed.

After October Partridges acquire a musty hay-like flavour, from feeding,
we think, on the seeds of certain grasses, and are comparatively worthless
for the spit.

Quail. Coturnix communis, Bonnat.

A summer migrant, of irregular appearance, sometimes remaining
throughout the winter, but most frequently obtained in autumn. It
annually resorts to Lundy Island during the periods of migration, and in
1870 Mr. Heaven knew of thirteen or fourteen nests there. In the fol-
lowing autumn and winter Quail were unusually numerous throughout
the county (Zool. 1871, p. 2521).

A season seldom passes without a few Quail being noticed in the S.W.
of England, or without one or two being procured in the winter months,
and at irregular intervals a ‘Quail Year” comes round, when a larger
migration to this country takes place in the spring, and nests are then

270 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

numerous, and in the following shooting-season many a hevy is en-
countered by the sportsman. Such a “Quail Year” occurred in 1870,
when we knew of six nests having been detected in two adjoining fields
on a farm near Bridgwater. One of these nests was unfortunately cut
out, being placed among clover, and we were shown the eggs. In this
same year Mr. Rodd states that Quail were plentiful in Cornwall.

“Tn 1846 a Quail, on a nest with nine eggs, was killedtby a scythe in a field of Mr.
C. Prideaux’s at Dodbrook. Polwhele has seen the eggs also in the parish of Sher-
ford” (E. M., Rowe’s Peramb. Dartmoor, p. 251). Mr. Henry Nicholls, of Kingsbridge,
purchased the above-mentioned Quail and nest, mounting the bird as a memorial.
“Quails have bred in Devonshire near Crediton [and] in a cornfield on Staddon
Heights, where the eggs were taken on August Ist, 1850” (Morris, B. Birds, iii. p. 385).
A young one was caught by a boy near the Plymouth Cemetery in the autumn of 1862
(J. B. R., Trans. Plym. Inst. 1862-3, p. 68). A pair are said to have bred on Stoke
Hill, near Exeter, about 1860.

Quail have been met with in midwinter on numerous occasions. Dr. E. Moore
mentions having purchased one in Plymouth Market in January 1830, and two were
obtained in Devonport Market in January 1831, one of them, a male bird, having the
black crescent on the throat (Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837). One occurred at Dawlish in
January 1857; and one was seen in the garden at Newport, near Topsham, January
27th, 1864, by Lieut.-Gen. D’Urban, who was well acquainted with this bird. One
was shot by Mr. Walter Rogers at Halberton, December 3rd, 1870: this was a very
large specimen of a female, and is now in the A. M. M. Some of these birds occurred
at Plymouth in November 1852, November 1855, October 1856, September 1860, and
October 1861 (B., MS. Notes). One, August 25rd, 1885; and a male was observed in a
poulterer’s shop at Devonport, Sept. 5th, 1886 (J. G., Zool. 1885, p. 378, 1887, p. 377).
One was shot at Lifton on the Tamar, four miles from Launceston, September 1870
(Zool. 1871, p. 2521).

The Quail occurs almost every season near Kingsbridge, two or three specimens
being sometimes obtained (R. P. N., MS. Notes). Mr. E. A.S. Elliot saw five or six on
Burrough Farm, near Kingsbridge, October 17th, 1885, evidently migrating with a N.E,
wind. One was shot at Dartmouth by Mr. N. P. Oldreive in October 1891.

Three were obtained in the neighbourhood of Torquay at the following dates:
September 17th, October 19th, and November 3rd, 1870 (J. H. G., Zool. 1871, 2484).

“Found occasionally in the neighbourhood of Ashburton ” (T. & K.). Several were
shot at Cheriton Fitzpaine at the end of September 1854. One at Stoke Canon, near
Exeter, November 1869; and one at Whitstone, near Exeter, September 6th, 1871
(R.C.). One near Axminster, October 29th, 1883 (‘ Field’ for November 10th, 1883).
Some heard calling near Barnstaple on June 18th, 1868 (“ Phoenix” in ‘ Field’). Large
numbers have frequently been brought alive to Exeter from the Continent, and some
have been known to escape from the poulterers’ shops,

In North Devon, the “ Great Field” at Braunton, a large allotment-
ground, was a favourite resort of Quail, and we have known of many
having been shot there from time to time during the shooting-season. We
have heard of others having been shot at various places throughout the
northern part of the county, and have ourselves been present in North
Devon when several Quail, rising in company with Partridges, have been
mistaken for ‘* squeakers,” and allowed to fly off unshot at.

Lundy Island was once annually visited by Quail, and good bags have
been obtained in September, but some years have now passed since any
bred there.

Dr. Bullmore states that the Quail is not rare in the neighbourhood of

TETRAONIDA, 271

Falmouth, and says a bevy of sixteen were reared on Mr. Medlyn’s estate
at Lower Spargoe a few years since.

The Quail has been compared to a miniature Partridge, but it differs
from that bird in being sometimes polygamous. The male has a shrill,
whistling call-note, which is repeated three times in quick succession, hence
the specitic name “‘ dactylisonans” given it by Meyer. This note we have
frequently heard in the spring and early summer when walking about
Bishop’s Lydeard, in West Somerset. In a road passing through that
village a dead Quail was picked up in December, and it is not rare to meet
with examples of the Quail in the winter months. Such birds were
believed by Col. Montagu to belong to a late brood. Nests with eggs have
been occasionally found at the end of August, and the young birds which
would be produced from them could not be ready to depart with the
migrating birds at the end of September. Most of those obtained in
winter are in poor condition, and instances are not rare of single birds
being at that season found lying dead in the fields. In severe weather,
when snow is on the ground, Quail must be much pressed to find suffi-
cient sustenance; they then appear to cuddle together in the snow,
keeping in the same spot for days together, making no search for food.

We drove with a friend one day in Jate autumn to a farm on the coast,
near Bridgwater, where, in the course of a short afternoon, we secured
seven varieties of game: Partridge, Pheasant, Quail, Land-Rail, Snipe,
Hare, and Jtabbit; and if we could have had an hour longer to have gone
down to a small marsh, we should have probably added Teal and Wild
Duck to our bag.

The Quail is, with justice, regarded by the gourmet as the most delicious
of all the birds upon the game-list.

Family TETRAONIDA.
(Red Grouse. Lagopus scoticus (Lath.).

“A single specimen of this bird was shot on Dartmoor in October a
few years since by Mr. Newton, in whose collection it remains. I am
also informed by Mr. C. Prideaux, of Dodbrook, that a female of the same
species was shot near Stokenham a few years since by Mr. Case (on the
estate named France), in whose possession it now is” (E. M., Rowe’s
Peramb. Dartmoor, Ist ed. 1848, p. 231).

Ptarmigan. Laygopus mutus (Montin).

“ A single specimen of this bird, in summer plumage (!), was also shot
on Dartmoor in October by Mr. Newton, who still has it in his museum ”
(E. M., Rowe’s Peramb. Dartmoor, Ist ed. 1848, p. 231).

If no mistake was made, it is not a little remarkable that Mr. Newton,

zie THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

of Millaton, near Bridestow, who is credited with so many other rare
birds, should have shot single specimens of both the Red Grouse and
Ptarmigan, and both in the month of October. As the Red Grouse has
occurred on the Mendip in Somerset, and also in Wilts (Zool. 1885, pp. 66,
147), it is possible that the specimens above mentioned may have made
their way trom South Wales across the Bristol Channel to Exmoor, and
from thence to Dartmoor and the South Hams, perhaps driven from their
usual haunts by severe weather or heavy snow. The Editor of the
* Zoologist’ (1891, p. 235) states that about 1820-25 Mr. John Knight,
of Simonsbath (the father of Sir Frederic Knight, formerly M.P. for
Worcestershire), turned out several pairs of Red Grouse on Exmoor. He
did not, however, succeed in establishing the species there. Possibly the
specimens killed in Devonshire may have strayed from Exmoor. On
the other hand, they may have been only young Blackgame, and not Red
Grouse at all.

With regard to the Ptarmigan, it appears in the highest degree im-
probable that a bird which, in the British Islands, is found only on some
of the highest mountains in Scotland, should occur in this county, and the
above record is probably based on some error. |

Black Grouse. Tetrao tetrix, Linn.
[Moor Blackbird, Heath Poult: Dev.]

Resident. At the beginning of the present century this fine bird was
abundant on most of the moors of the county. Some still exist on Dart-
moor, on the Haldon and Blackdown Hills, on the high ground in the
extreme eastern corner of the county, and on the moorlands in the north.
A few are shot yearly on the southern and western parts of Dartmoor.
There are also a few scattered birds on the eastern side, but they are
extremely shy and very difficult to approach.

“Some few still remain on Dartmoor, where they breed in the turf
tyes. All attempts to preserve this beautiful bird are unsuccessful, the
great extent of the moor, while it is under the sole protection of a few
individuals, renders it impossible to defend them from the depredations of
the miners and turf-cutters who frequent the moor ” (T.J., Bray’s ‘ Tamar
and Tavy,’ Ist ed. 1836, i. p. 351).

The Blackcock is still a familiar bird on many of the moorlands
throughout Devonshire, his presence in the county being testified by the
«Heath Poult” Inns, one of them, on the road between Bampton and
South Molton, being a favourite fixture for the hounds. Throughout
North Devon, on almost all the moory hills, a few Blackgame may be
encountered, and they become numerous as the skirts of Exmoor are
approached. Between Barnstaple and the Forest they are to be found at
Bratton, Bray, Charles, North Molton, Parracombe, and in the neighbour-
hood of Lynmouth; also between Barnstaple and Ilfracombe, where we
have met with them in the parish of Bittadon, and one year knew of a

TETRAONID. 273

brood at Hartnoll. A few years since there were a brace or two on
Coddon Hill, close to Barnstaple.

We have occasionally flushed and shot Blackcocks in turnip-fields on
high ground in the centre of the county, as at Burrington, near Ashreigny.
On Dartmoor we saw some every season, meeting occasionally with small
packs late in the autumn, and frequently with single old cocks, but they
were always wild. One summer we knew of a brood close to Cranmere
Pool,

A stray bird, usually a Greyhen, is now and then shot in the Kings-
bridge district (R. P.N.). A pack of eleven was seen by the late Mr.
Bower Scott on Haldon in February 1882. In East Devon there are
Blackgame near Hemyock, on the Blackdown Hills, between Honiton and
Taunton, and also between Honiton and Uffculme. There used to be
packs of Blackgame on Trinity Hill, near Axminster, in the first quarter
of the present century (G. P. R. P., ‘ Book of the Axe’), <A few breed
on the high ground between Axminster and Lyme Regis (Beverly R.
Morris, Zool. 1848, p. 2352).

In Cornwall there are a few on the Bodmin Moors around the Jamaica
Inn, whence Mr. Rodd received hybrids between the Blackcock and the
Pheasant. Blackgame are found throughout Somerset. On the estates
of Sir Thomas Acland at Winsford, &c., they are numerous, and also on
Mr. Snow’s property at Oare, where we have heard of very good bags
haying been made. When fishing the beautiful Larle through the wouds
above Dulverton, we have once or twice seen Greyhens sitting on their
nests within a few yards of the stream. ‘These fine covers abound with the
whortleberry, whose berries are eagerly sought after and devoured by
Blackgame.

On the Quantocks there are a few Blackgame, and although they are
strictly preserved and sparingly shot, they do not increase. There are
some on the Blagdon Hills, and to the east of the county there are a few
on the northern skirts of the Mendip country. In Dorsetshire Blackgame
are extremely local, and do not multiply, and Mr. Manscl-Pleydell states
there are only a few districts which suit their habits.

We have several times had the good tortune to witness the curious
dancing parties or leks in which the Blackcocks indulge in the spring for
the purpose of showing themselves off to the Greyhens, Late one evening
in May we were driving over Winsford Hill on our return from a day's
fishing at Withypool, when on a small square patch of turf by the side of
the road, some way in front of us, we became aware of some black objects
symmetrically arranged in rows, and looking to us like large ninepins set
up for a game. As we approached we discovered them to be Blackcocks
engaged in dancing. Two were so busily performing as we passed that
they took no notice of us, although we could have well-nigh reached them
with our whip. ‘The birds, closely confronting each other, resembled two
young cockerels about to commence a fight, but they did not strike any
blows, merely bowing and scraping and jumping about, with trailing
wings and outspread tails, while other Blackcocks looked on, and the
ladies of the harem we considered to be watching from their ‘ boxes” in

At

274 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

the adjacent heather. Indeed, we saw the head and neck of one raised
from out a tump as we drove slowly by, greatly diverted by the scene.

At the end of August and in the beginning of September the young
birds are extremely tame and foolish, although fully grown. We have
seen a whole brood permit themselves to be taken up by the hand, one
after another, when the setters have been standing them in the heather.
Blackgame are also very fond of getting into standing corn, where they
willalso lie very close. The old Blackcocks are always shy and wary, and
keep apart by themselves, sometimes flying up into a thick-foliaged tree,
where they are perfectly concealed, and whence it is difficult to dislodge
them. Later in the season the birds pack and are so wild as to be un-
approachable except by stalking them, or by getting shots at them in the
covers.

Hybrids between the Black Grouse and the Pheasant have been ob-
tained near Plymouth and Tavistock (E. M., Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837).
Bellamy mentions three instances (Nat. Hist. 8. Devon, p. 209, note).
The Rev. W. 8. Hore had two handsome hybrids between the cock Pheasant
and Greyhen, which were purchased in the market at Devonport at
different dates (W.S. H. in litt., and Zool. 1861, p. 7545; cf. Yarrell’s
B. Birds, 4th ed. pp. 69-72). Mr. J. Gatcombe also obtained one
October 29th, 1878, in Plymouth Market, and another, a young male, in the
same place in October 1883 (Zool. 1879, p. 60, 1884, p. 54).

Order FULICARI.

Family RALLIDA.

THE RAILS.

The family of the Rails which, we are told, take their
name from the harshness of their notes, from the old
Dutch rallen, short for ratelen, to rattle, includes some
very familiar birds, such as the Land-Rail, Moor-hen,
and Coot—the two last resident throughout the year, and
to be seen on every pond and lake, and by every river and
stream, where there is sufficient cover of sedge, rush, or
bramble to afford them shelter and concealment; while
the first is a common spring migrant, whose harsh cry
sounds from the meadows nearly all day and night in the
early summer, and must have been heard by everyone who

RALLID®. 2i6

lives in the country. Besides these there is the Water-
Rail, which is partially resident, but does not often show
itself, and is therefore less generally known than the
Moor-hen. All the Rails are difficult to dislodge from
their hiding-places among the thick aquatic herbage, pre-
ferring to run, or dive, or skulk, rather than take wing ;
and, as Mr. Stevenson well observes, in his ‘ Birds of Nor-
folk,’ if this is to be said of the larger and more numerous
members of the family, we can well understand how much
more it applies to those minute Rails, such as the Svotted
Crake, Baillon’s Crake, and the Little Crake, all migrants
in spring and again in autumn to this country, some of
them occasionally residing with us throughout the year,
which are very seldom detected, and yet may be more
numerous than they are supposed to be. With their shy
and retiring habits, with the abundant facilities for con-
cealment provided by the lush aquatic herbage, and with
numerous rat-holes close at hand into which to pop and
lie perdu when the spaniel presses hard upon them, it is
no wonder that these smaller species are so seldom ob-
tained, and that some of them should continue to be
regarded as among our rarest birds. ‘The bodies of the
Rails are admirably adapted for the purpose of running
through the reeds and sedge, and for squeezing into the
smallest chinks when necessary, as they are narrow and
compressed ; their legs are somewhat long, and are pro-
vided with elongated prehensile feet. and claws, enabling
them to climb and grasp the stems of aquatic plants, or
to walk on the surface of the leaves which float upon the
water. ‘They are all expert and graceful swimmers, jerking
their tails with every motion as they advance. ‘They feed
on aquatic snails, on insects, worms, slugs, small frogs,
and various plants.

¢
Tt 2

ada THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

Water-Rail. Rallus aquaticus, Linn.

[Skiddy Cock, Skit-y-cock, Skip Cock, Skitty Cock, Grey Skit, Gutter
Cock, Ore Cock: Dev. |

Resident, and common in some parts of the county, and, it is said,
breeds in the neighbourhood of Dartmoor, and occasionally at Slapton Ley,
but it is most frequently seen at the end of September and beginning of
October. All that we have met with ourselves near Exeter occurred in
the autumn and winter. at which seasons there is certainly an immigration
from other places (W. D’U.). It breeds on Lundy Island (Trans. Devon.
Assoc. viii. p. 307), Individuals are frequently chopped by sporting dogs
in thick sedges and reeds, amongst which they become entangled when
closely pursued. They seem to offer an irresistible temptation to the
canine palate, no amount of punishment deterring a dog from eating them.
Mr. FE. A. 8. Elliot notices a great variation in size independent of sex,

The Water-Rail, or Skitty Cock, as it is commonly called, is a common
resident in North Devon, to be met with in almost every warm ditch,
where there is sufficient cover of tangled brambles, in sedgy dikes in
the marshes, in swampy bottoms of woods, and by the sides of streams,
where they are bordered with patches of furze, bramble, or other cover.
The bird skulks in the shelter such places afford, is rarely seen at any
distance from them in the open, and is not easy to flush, even with a
good dog. When pressed by a spaniel we have seen it climb up and perch
upon a bough, as a Moor-hen often does. We still possess eggs taken out
of a nest which was placed in a hedge by the side of a drain, near our
house in North Devon. When we resided in Wales, we had some Water-

Rails about our grounds which were semi-domesticated, and used to feed
on the lawn in front of our dining-room window, in company with the
Moor-hens. They were occasionally noticed running on the garden paths
at dusk, when they looked like large rats, In severe frosts these Rails
may be observed in the daytime feeding by the margin of warm drains,
running into the hedge, and effectually concealing themselves in an
instant, when any one approaches; and after a continuance of hard
weather strings of Water-Rails may be found hanging up in the game-
dealers’ shops, proving that the bird is more numerous than it is generally
supposed to be, Frozen out from their sanctuaries and half-starved, they
then become the spoil of every hedge-popper. The flesh of the Water-Rail.
is very sweet and toothsome, but there is so little of it that we have never
considered it worth while to lift our gun against the bird for the sake of
the spit. Although so common a bird, its shy and retiring habits prevent.
it from being generally known, so that we are often having specimens
brought to us as something very rare, and we once found one hanging up
in the bar of an hotel, waiting for some one to say what it was, and were
told that it had heen there already for several days, and no one could name
it, although there was a moor at the back of the hotel, intersected by’
sedgy drains, where Water-Rails were plentiful.

RALLID.E. Priel

Spotted Crake. Porzana maruetta (Leach).
[Silver Rail (on the Exe), Spotted Skitty (V.D.).]

A passing visitor in spring and autumn, being usually met with at the
latter season, 7. ¢. from August to the middle of November, very rarely
remaining until December. Montagu speaks of its occurrence in spring,
but there is no recorded instance since his time in South Devon; on the
Braunton Burrows it has been shot in February and March, and in our
own collection we have a pair which were shot near Sidmouth in June
(M. A. M.).

The Spotted Crake used to be not uncommon on the Exe in the reed-
beds near Topsham, where it was well known to the gunners as the
“Silver Rail,” and the late Mr. F. W. L. Ross records having had six
freshly-killed specimens at one time in September 1839 (MS. Journ, ii.
p. 112).

This pretty Crake is to be met with occasionally in suitable places in
North Devon during the autumn and winter. In September we have
flushed it in clover-tields on high ground when Partridge-shooting. We
have seen it on Braunton Marsh and on the Braunton Burrows during the
winter when Snipe-shooting, and have found it in those places in March.

In Cornwall Mr. Rodd speaks of the Spotted Crake as chiefly occurring
to Snipe-shooters during the winter. in Dorset, according to Mr. Mansel-
Pleydell, it is rarely seen, and only as a migrant in the spring and
autumn. From our own experience in Somerset the Spotted Crake is a
common bird in that county in many places, and we consider it to be a
resident there throughout the year. In the neighbourhood of Weston-
super-Mare we used to find young broods in sedgy ponds and ditches on
the level in July and August. We possessed a very clever setter at the
time, who caught the birds in the cover and brought them to our hand.
Only when they were very hard pressed did they ever take wing, and,
standing on the higher ground above the drain, we have watched them
threading their way through the sedge and rushes, running before our
dog like rats, and have had them run out from the drain and squat in a
little tuft of grass at our feet. Not wanting specimens, and knowing
them to be rank of flesh and unfit for the table, we did not molest them ;
but we have in earlier years fired at them and shot them when Snipe-
shooting near 'launton at the end of November, and when we were Sniping
on the peat-moors in Mid-Somerset we never went there at any time in
the winter without finding the Spotted Crake plentiful. On these moors
the bird is well known to the local shooters, the men who are always
prowling after Snipe and Duck to sell to the game-shops, as the
** Jackymo;” and as our dear old setter used always to drop when he was
close to his bird, we have walked up to him sometimes to find a
“Jackymo” sitting on the ground quite unconcernedly between his
outstretched fore legs. We have never wandered over the Somerset peat-
moors in May and June, but had we done so with our clever dog we feel

278 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

confident we should have come across nests and eggs of the Spotted Crake.
On the Dartmoor bogs we have never flushed any of these Crakes, the
country being too high and exposed for them.

Montagu says, ‘* We have obtained this species as early as 14th of March, and as late
in the year as 28rd October, in Devonshire, but, never in the winter months” (Orn.
Dict., Suppl.). Dr. E. Moore states it was ‘“ rather scarce, mostly obtained in autumn.
We have five or six specimens” (Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837). The Rey. R. A. Julian terms
it “very rare; is occasionally seen in the months of September and October in
Efford Marsh, where one specimen was obtained. The Rey. C. Bulteel also has a
specimen in his collection which he shot near Ermington” (‘ Naturalist,’ 1851, p. 87).
One was killed at Plymouth, November 10th, 1855, and others seen (J. G., Zool. 1856,
p. 4946). One at Bridestow, October Ist, 1862, and at Plymouth, November Ist,
1862 (B., MS. Notes). One was found dead on the railway near Tavistock, October
1863; one, October 13th, 1873, near Plymouth (J. G., Zool. 1863, p. 8852; 1873,
p- 8786). One was obtained from Plymouth Market, December 15th, 1884 (R. P. N.,
Zool. 1885, p. 69). Several have been shot in the Kingsbridge district. A male at
Kingsbridge, November 3rd, 1875 (R. P.N., Zool. 1875, p. 4763). One at Thurlestone
Ley, September 21st, 1878 (H. A. 8. E., MS. Notes).

Other places where the Spotted Crake has occurred are Dartington (T. & K.) and
the marshes near Newton (1. P., Trans. Devon. Assoc. viii. p. 289).

This Crake has frequently been obtained on the Exe, where we saw specimens on 5th
October, 1853, and 2Uth September, 1854, and shot one September 17th, 1855 (W. D'U.,
Zool. 1855, p. 4895). One was shot close to the Railway Station at Exmouth in
October 1890 (Seaward). One was seen November 19th, 1873, on the north coast of
Devon (M. A. M., Zool. 1874, p. 3826). Two in Braunton Marshes, September 1874,
and it was thought to be numerous there (G. F. M., Zool. 1874, p. 4253). Frequently
flushed in clover-fields in September, and on Braunton Burrowsin December, January,
and February (M. A. M., Zool. 1890, p. 94). It is an occasional visitor to Lundy
Island (Trans. Devon. Assoe. viii. p. 309).

[Baillon’s Crake. Porzana bailloni (Vieill.).

There is no properly guthenticated occurrence of this Crake in Devon.
All that have yet been recorded proved to belong to the next species.

We have never handled a Devonshire specimen of Baillon’s Crake.
The one recorded by us as having been shot on the Braunton Burrows on
February 4th, 1876, proved to be an adult male Little Crake. These
minute Crakes are almost impossible to flush, and rather than take wing
will run and conceal themselves in any convenient rat-hole, until the
danger threatening them has passed. We believe them to be more
numerous in England than is supposed; the majority of instances of their
occurrence are due to cats which have caught and brought them into houses,
and we consider that they sometimes nest and escape detection in the
thick aquatic herbage in quiet places. At the time Mr. Cecil Smith wrote
his book, he only knew of the Somersetshire specimen which had been
recorded by Mr. Yarrell (* British Birds,’ Ist ed. vol. iii. p. 21), an adult
female which was shot in September, 1840, near Weston-super-Mare, but
he became possessed subsequently of two specimens which were obtained
by the side of the Tone close to Taunton. We saw both of these birds in
the flesh, and were satisfied that they were birds of the year. The dates
when they were procured were in the first week of October, 1870, and
2’th September, 1875.

RALLID.E. 279

Mr. Rodd knew of four instances of the occurrence of Baillon’s Crake
in Cornwall; one of them, which was sent to Mr. Vingoe, at Penzance,
for preservation in July 1858, was an adult male. We can consider the
absence of this small species of Crake from the Devon list as only due to
the extreme difficulty of flushing and securing it, and think it possible it
may have been obtained occasionally without being identified, as there
seems no reason why it should not visit the county. It is not mentioned
in Mr, Mansel-Pleydell’s ‘ Birds of Dorsetshire.’

Baillon’s Crake has been detected nesting in Cambridgeshire and
Norfolk. In the summer-time this small species appears to be widely
distributed over the south of Europe. |

Little Crake. Porzana parva (Scop.).

A casual visitor, chiefly during the autumn and winter, and of rare
occurrence in the spring and summer months. The first example of this
species made known in Britain was shot near Ashburton in 1809, and
Col. Montagu received it from Dr. Tucker of that place*. It is now in
the gallery of British Birds at the South Kensington Natural History
Museum. This specimen was figured and described in the supplement
to the ‘ Ornithological Dictionary’ under the name of ‘ Little Gallinule,’

and appears to be a female, but the sex was not noted (Yarrell’s B. Birds,
2nd ed. iii. p. 101).

Another was obtained by Drew in August 1831 (E. M., Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837); and
under the name of ‘ Olivaceous Gallinule’ Moore states that “ one in the possession
of Mr. Drew was discovered fluttering against a house in the town of Devonport, and
was caught by some boys 13th May, 1829” (Trans. Plym. Inst. 1830, p. 332). He
also mentions that “ Mr. Newton shot this bird on the borders of a rivulet running
through the lawn at Millaton” (Rowe’s Peramb. Dartmoor, App. p. 234). A wounded
bird was picked up by some boys in the Willow Plat on the western Backway at
Kingsbridge, July 27th, 1855 (H. N., MS. Notes). One shot on Braunton Burrows,
February 4th, 1876, was recorded at the time as Baillon’s Crake (M. A. M., Zool.
1876, p. 4815; 1891, p. 94). It seems probable that this species occasionally breeds
in the county.

About the year 1850, Mr. Murray W. Mathew was accustomed fre-
quently to shoot Snipe on Frogmore, which was then a tract of swampy
moorland situated about seven miles to the north of Barnstaple on the
Ilfracombe road, but has since been almost enclosed. He then possessed
a very well broken “ dropper,” a cross between a setter and pointer, and
this dog was extremely fond of hunting and catching Water-Rails, Jack
Snipe, &ec., and one winter caught alive three specimens of the Little
Crake, Unfortunately, these birds were not properly preserved at the
time, and perished; but years after we saw a portion of the skin of one
of them, which proved a female Little Crake. Subsequently we ourselves
almost trod on a Little Crake one day by the side of a rushy ditch on the

* William Markwick seems to have met with a Little Crake in March 1791 in

Sussex, but failed to distinguish it from the Spotted Crake (Zool. 1890, pp. 544,
345).

280 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

Braunton Burrows, at the end of January; the bird, surprised by our
sudden approach, rose on wing and flew down the ditch just above the
water while we were waiting for it to get a sufficient distance away to
shoot without destroying it as a specimen, but it disappointed us by
dropping all at once and running into a hole, whence we were unable to
procure it, Some time afterwards, when Snipe-shooting near the same
spot with Mr. G. F. Mathew, we saw him shoot the adult male Little
Crake mentioned in our account of the preceding species, as it ran across
a patch of grass from one tump of rushes to the other. This was a very
perfect specimen, which is still in our collection,

Mr. Rodd knew of but one Cornish specimen of the Little Crake, de-
tected by Mr. Gatcombe on 21st March, 1878, in the shop of a bird-stuffer
at Stonehouse, which had been captured by a cat a few days previously,
at St. Dominick, in Cornwall. From Mr. Gatcombe’s description this
example was, evidently, an adult female. Mr. Mansel-Pleydell could only
record two Dorsetshire Little Crakes, both shot at Alderho]t Park, Ford-
ingbridge, and does not give the date. Mr. Cecil Smith mentions no
Somerset example ; but we know of one, an adult male shot near Bridg-
water, which was in the collection of Mr. Straddling, of Chilton Polden,
and, with the rest of his birds, came subsequently into the possession of
Mr. Henry Mathias, of Haverfordwest. Mr. Stevenson considered that
the Little Crake bred occasionally in Norfolk. This species is a summer
migrant to the south of Europe, nesting commonly in Italy, Spain, &c.,
and does not come far north.

Corn-Crake. Crex pratensis, Bechst.
[ Land-Rail. ]

A summer migrant, most frequently met with at the seasons of migra-
tion. Montagu states that it has been rarely known to breed in South
Devon (Orn. Dict.). Mr. R. P. Nicholls finds it breeding in the Kings-
bridge district, and it is noted as a “ constant breeder ” on Lundy Island
(Trans. Devon. Assoc. 1876, vii. p. 300). Mr. J. R. Chanter, however,
in his * History of Lundy Island,’ published in the Trans. Devon. Assoc,
tor 1871, makes no mention of its breeding there, though he includes it
amongst the “ summer visitants ” to the island.

The Corn-Crake arrives at the end of April, or in the first week in May,
and departs at the end of October, but a few are occasionally met with in
the winter months. It is sometimes plentiful in autumn, congregating
for a short time in fields near the sea-coast in September and October, and
was formerly especially abundant on Lundy Island for a few days in
September, during the autumnal migration. According to the Rev. H. G,
Heaven, it is now rarely seen on the island (M. A. M., Zool. 1877, p.388).
It is far more seldom seen in spring and summer than in autumn in the
south of the county.

The Rey. R. Holdsworth stated that he was present at the killing of as
many as thirteen couple in a single day in September in South Deyon

RALLID-E. 281

(Yarrell’s B. Birds, 2nd ed. ili. p. 95). The Rey. R. A. Julian relates that in
the month of October Land-Rails were found congregated by a farmer, re-
siding near Modbury, in one of his potato-felds, not far from the sea-coast.
He saw upwards of torty, and killed seventeen, and on going to try for them
again the following day, he found they had all disappeared (‘ Naturalist,’
1851, p. 87). The late Mr. John Elliot, of Kingsbridge, states, in his
annotated copy of Yarrell’s ‘ British Birds, that forty-two brace were
shot by two guns in one morning, September 23rd, 1861, in the parish of
Malborough,

This common and well-known bird varies considerably in numbers in
the West Country ; sometimes being very plentiful, so that its harsh
“crake, crake” may be heard in almost every meadow and cornfield ;
while in other seasons it is comparatively scarce, and the summer may
pass away with few being heard, and with only a chance one being met
with in the clover-buds in September. In North Devon, especially in the
moory hill farms, the Land-Rail is generally plentiful, and in such places
three or four couple are picked up by the Partridge-shooter in the course
of a day’s tramp through the turnips, rough grass, and clover-fields. The
nest and eggs of this Crake are frequently mown out in the haymaking
season, and the bird will then lay again, and may sometimes rear a second
brood, as we have caught with the hand in North Devon nestlings in mid-
September, still in their black down. ‘These late broods, no doubt,
provide the Land-Rails which are occasionally shot during the winter
months, and are to be seen hanging up in the game-dealers’ shops in
December; one in our collection was procured at Christmas-time. On
Dartmoor we have found Land-Rails on the most elevated bogs, such as
Raybarrow Mire, &c., in the autumn, sometimes encountering half a
dozen in a morning’s walk, when we have been after Snipe. We have
seen a Land-Rail, when the setter has been drawing on it, take to the
water, and swim gracefully across a stream, jerking its tail in the same
way as the Common Moor-hen. One summer a Land-Rail brought her
young brood into our kitchen-garden, which on one side was separated
from a meadow by iron railings only. As we were walking on one of the
paths, accompanied by a terrier, she suddenly darted out from the goose-
berry-bushes, and furiously attacked the dog, pecking at him, and, flying
up against him, fairly drove him away. When flushed in a clover-field
the Land-Kail flies slowly and laboriously low over the ground, with
dropping legs, and soon settles again in the cover, but we must not
estimate the bird’s power of wing from these, apparently, feeble efforts,
We one day saw a bird dart like a Hawk over a stubble-field, seeming
first to descend from a considerable height, and then settle ou the ground,
and going up, with much curiosity to ascertain what it was, were- much
surprised when it rose before us, and proved to be a Land-Rail. In the
summer-time, when these noisy birds are calling incessantly in the
mowing grass, we have, with a tooth-comb, succeeded in so closely
imitating their ery that after a few moments we have drawn them close
- up to us, and standing quite still have had them running between our
legs. At the time of their migration, at the end of September, we have

282 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

known Land-Rails appear in the streets of towns, and in the gardens and
squares, especially of towns upon the coast. The flesh of the Land-Rail
is deservedly held in high esteem, and we know of no more excellent pie
than one composed secundum artem entirely of these birds.

Land-Rails are numerous in wet bogs on Dartmoor in autumn, and were remarkably

so in August 1877 (M. A. M., Zool. 1877, p. 887). One of these birds occurred at
Plymouth, June 3rd, 1855. They were plentiful in Plymouth Market in September
1873, and on September 11th, 1874 (J. G., Zool. 1874, pp. 3784, 4853). One was ex-
posed for sale, December 18th, 1878 (Zool. 1879, p. 115). A young bird was killed by
flying agaist the Eddystone Lighthouse, August 1th, 1883 (J. G., Zool. 1883,
p. 422).
: The Corn-Crake is common in the Kingsbridge district, its note being heard every
summer in the grass-fields, and sometimes large numbers are met with in August and
September (R. P. N., MS. Notes). It has occurred as late as December 26th near
Kingsbridge (E. A. 8. E., MS. Notes).

One was picked up dead, having been killed by flying against a telegraph-wire on
the L. and 8.W. Railway at Lion's Holt, Exeter, May 19th, 1879. A specimen of a
dingy white colour was shot near Pinhee, Exeter, May 3rd, 1881, and is now in the
A. M. M. (W. D'U., Zool. 1881, p. 261). One was picked up dead on Southernhay,
Qxeter, May 7th, 1881. One near Exeter, November Ist, 1878. ‘here were some
for sale in Exeter in September and October 1879, September 1880, September and
October 1883, and seven September 4th, 1884. One at Crediton, December 6th, 1881
(‘ Field’ for December 10th, 1881).

[ Observations.—Three species of the genus Porphyrio have been found at
large in the United Kingdom, and require a brief notice. These are the
ys urple Gallinule (J -orphi yrio ceruleus); the Green-backed Gallinule
(Porphyrio chloronotus, Vieill.); and the Martinique Gallinule (Porphyrio
martinicus). The last, the smallest of the three, has only occurred once
in England (in Hampshire, in August 1563), and being a native of
Tropic: ‘al America is the least likely to have reached our islands by itself,
while many e xamples of the two other Purple Gallinules have now been
recorded from various parts of the kingdom. Some of these handsome
birds are occasionally imported alive into this country, and are kept on
ornamental waters, from whence they have been known to escape. Too
many specimens, however, have been obtained in unlooked-for parts of
the country to be accounted for by “ escapes,” and the explanation we are
disposed to give for the appearance of Purple Gallinules, and of many
other South European and North African birds, which are so frequen
being reported, is contained in two words, ‘ assisted passage”; the birds
having flown on board some homeward-bound vessel by which ‘they were
brought to our shores, sometimes as captives, and sometimes as voluntary
passengers perched in the rigging. The beautiful Purple Gallinule, some-
times called the Purple Coot, which has occurred some half-dozen times,
inhabits the marshes and the banks of rivers in the extreme south of
Europe and the north of Africa. It is a larger bird than our Common
Coot, and a very beautiful example was taken in Mid-Somerset some
years ago, which created in us so great an interest that we took a journey
expressly to see it. We found it at Tarnock, the residence of Mr. James
Burrows, in the parish of Badgworth, who kindly allowed us to examine
it, and gave us the particulars of its capture. The level pasture country

RALLID.Z. 283

around his house is intersected by numerous ditches, many of them
screened on either side by stiff blackthorn bushes, and it was in one of
these ditches that his old sheep-dog, a very clever retriever, caught the
bird alive, and brought it to him perfectly uninjured, on 25th August,
1875. He kept it alive for several days, when it died, presumably of
starvation, and was then forwarded to a Bristol bird-stuffer, who set it up
very cleverly. We could see no signs upon it of captivity ; its plumage
was perfect, none of the feathers being in the least abraded, and as there
are no ornamental pieces of water anywhere within a great many miles
where rare and valuable water-fowl are kept, we can only look upon this
specimen as having reached our coast through “an assisted passage.”
Another of these beautiful Gallinules, also without any marks of ever
having been in confinement, and in perfect plumage, which was shot many
years ago in Ireland, is in our collection, and may have arrived on the
Trish coast in a similar manner. It is singular that, as yet, none of these
Parple Gallinules have been reported from the South Devon Leys, which
might have been expected to attract any that had landed on the Cornish
coast, and might be straggling on eastwards.

The Green-backed Gallinule differs from the Purple Gallinule only in
having a green instead of a purple back, and is an African species, very
rarely noticed on the northern side of the Mediterranean. Ten examples
have now been recorded as having been met with at large in various
places in the United Kingdom, and a live one was brought to Mr. Gat-
combe, having been taken on board a ship, but in what latitude is not
known, and was brought into Plymouth two or three years before 1886
(J. H. G. Jnr., Zool. 1886, p. 71).]

Moor-hen. Gallinula chloropus (Linn.).
[ Water-hen. ]

Resident, generally distributed and abundant on ponds, in ditches, in
marshes, and in other suitable localities. Breeds.

The Moor-hen has increased in numbers to a marked extent in the valley
of the Axe (G. P. R. P., ‘Book of the Axe’). It is numerous in the
ditches in the Exminster marshes, where there are often only a few inches
of water at the bottom. When found by a dog on the bank of a ditch
the bird plunges into the shallow water, and its course, as it moves along
under the surface, can be distinctly traced, the air entangled in the plumage
surrounding the bird like a large bubble or silvery envelope, and the bird
is able to remain for some time under water. We have seen Moor-hens
killed witb stones when thus endeavouring to escape the pursuit of a dog,
and it was a common practice for boys to hunt them in this manner.
We fed our tame Falcons at one time almost entirely on Moor-hens, and
caught several with a butterfly net, after having marked them into their
hovers beneath a bank.

This common bird is to be met with frequently in a semi-domesticated

284 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

state. It is quite usual to see it feeding in farmyards together with the
poultry, where there is a brook, or an old pond, bordered by the tangle of
brambles, in which it loves to shelter close at hand, and we have found
flour-mills to be greatly affected by it on account of the heaps of husks
lying about, which it may be seen examining in company with fowls and
pigeons. We had always a number of Water-hens about our grounds,
teeding quite tamely on the lawn, and one summer counted seven nests
around our ponds, which were bordered with clumps of rhododendron,
affording the birds a quiet refuge. As soon as the young birds are able
to cater for themselves, the old birds drive them off and they disappear.
We have found our Moor-hens roosting on the lower branches of trees, and
have occasionally seen a nest placed in the fork of a tree some little height
above the water. We have heard anglers speak with impatience of the
Water-hen, and say that the birds ought to be destroyed upon trout-
streams, because of the manner they splash for some distance along the
surface of the water when they are flushed, thus disturbing and frighten-
ing the fish ; but we have never concurred in this sentiment, being at all
times glad to come across them in their haunts.

A brood of Moor-hens is a pretty sight, the little black chicks closely
attended by the two old birds, who are anxious and watchful parents,
and gently pushing aside the branches screening some quiet pool we have
looked through, and ourselves unseen have frequently enjoyed it. In
very severe weather the Moor-hens suffer greatly, and numbers fall a
prey to foxes, whose tracks may then be seen thick upon the snow at the
edges of the brooks,

Coot. § Fulica atra, Linn.
[Bald Coot. ]

Resident, but now almost entirely confined to Slapton, Thurlestone, and
Milton Leys, on the south-west coast of the county, and some other
ornamental waters where it is preserved and breeds freely.

The late Mr. F. W, L. Ross informed us that he remembered seeing
the water in the estuary of the Exe between Lympstone and Powderham
“literally black with Coots.” The introduction of punt-guns soon drove
them away, and now only occasional stragglers visit the Exe in severe
weather, when they have been frezen out of their usual haunts. Some
occurred on the Exe near Topsham in December 1855, and some early in
December 1890, near Exmouth. The Coot is rarely seen near Plymouth
(B., MS. Notes), and seldom visits the Tamar (T. J., Bray’s ‘Tamar and
Tavy,’ 1836, 1. p. 354). It was formerly found on the Teign and Dart,
but was not so common as the Moor-hen (T. & K.).

The North Devon trout-streams are clear and rapid, without any broad
fringes of sedge and rush; there are no large meres or leys, and the Coot,
in consequence, is only known in that part of the county as a winter
visitor, large flocks being sometimes seen in hard weather resting upon

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ay pose ‘

‘AUT NOLAUVWIS GNV SSOUOYOL

RALLID. 285

the mud-banks of the Barnstaple river. They are shy and -restless, and
not to be approached, and gunners after Wild Duck do not care to see
them, as they keep all other birds watchful and disturbed. In very
severe frosts our dogs have occasionally caught and brought to us a frozen-
out Coot found sheltering in an orchard ditch, which is also a very
favourite refuge for a Woodcock in similar weather,

At the far-famed Slapton Ley there used formerly to be an annual
battue, or public shoot, in the month of January, and the “ Ley Day,” as
it was called, was looked forward to with great delight by all the country-
side. Many years ago we took part in one of these exciting events. A
line of boats having been formed near the Sands Hotel, stretching all
across the ley from side to side, a boatman and two gunners being in each
boat, and each gunner being provided with a couple of double-barrelled
guns, at a concerted signal the whole line moved forward, sweeping the
Ley, and driving all the Coots, thickly covering the water, in front of them
towards the Torcross end. As the end of the Ley was approached, the
unfortunate Coots, being closely packed, and unable to go further, rose in
one dense mass, churning up the water with their wings, and affording
a spectacle long to be remembered by all who have been fortunate enough
to witness the sight. After rising, the whole mass of birds swept back
over the boats, being saluted with volleys from the gunners in the boats
and from the usual ‘crowd of loafers on the shores of the Ley, armed with
long duck-guns and every available variety of firearm. The execution
was great, and the water was soon covered with the dead and dying, and
wounded cripples, many of which afforded exciting chases and gave rise
to angry altercations between the rival gunners. Few birds besides Coots
were killed, as the great flocks of other wild-fowl, which are generally to
be seen on the Ley in winter, rose from the water at the first alarm and
flew out to sea, a few being dropped as they passed over the heads of the
people on the beach. For many years these public shoots were dis-
continued, but one day at the end of January 1891 Mr. Lucas, the lessee
of the Stokeley Estate, allowed shore-shooting as usual, when his party in
ten boats, with two gunners in each boat, some of whom had as many as
four guns each (with two boats employed to pick up drifted birds), drove
the Ley. On the first drive down from the Slapton end, nearly ail the
Wigeon, Ducks, &c. left before a shot was fired. Mr. Edmund A. 8,
Elliot, who kindly furnished us with these particulars, thinks there could
not have been far short of a thousand birds in the flock as they rose and
went off to sea. ‘The shooting was soon fast and furious at the Coots,
which seemed utterly unable to grasp the situation, after being left un-
disturbed for so many years, but they could bear thinning, as the water
looked black with them in the early morning before the shooting began.
As the result of this first drive before lunch, 669 Coots were gathered by
the boats, and 22 “ Wigeon ” of sorts. After lunch the same tactics were
gone through again, and the boats came in about 4 p.m. The Coots, when
counted, came to 612, and there were 12 Wigeon, &c. Some fine Tufted
Ducks, female Golden-eyes, Scaup, Pochards, Wigeon, Mallard and ‘Teal
were secured, and some male Golden-eyes and two male Smews got

286 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

away to sea. Along the shore there was a great deal of shooting, and
probably about 150 or 200 Coots were secured, some by those who shot
them, but as often as not by the swarm of grabbers who waded out after
birds fallen in the water, and many an amusing scene took place between
irate gunners and some of these gentry. At least 100 birds were picked
up by these same people on the western side of the Ley, where they had
no business to be; ard it was expected that from 100 to 150 birds would
be retrieved next day amongst the reeds, as the boats had not time to
gather them all. In all, Mr. Elliot calculated that there must have been
killed and gathered 1700 Coots, and about 50 Ducks of different species,
as the result of this day’s shoots. We learn that, notwithstanding the
slaughter on this occasion, the Coots are almost as numerous as ever on the
Ley, and the thinning out of the old stock has improved the health of the
survivors, as three years since great numbers died from epizodtic disease.
A large portion of the Coots at Slapton Ley are migratory, and those
found there in winter are mostly “ foreigners,” which arrive from other
parts in the autumn, and after severe weather their numbers always
increase (W. V. T.).

Order ALECTORIDES.
Family GRUIDA.
THE CRANES.

Formerly ornithologists placed the Cranes among the
Herons, but they differ from those birds, whose young are
hatched nearly naked, in having their nestlings covered with
down, and able to run about, when they leave the shell,
thus coming nearer to the Bustards and Plovers. They
also differ considerably in structure and in habits from
the Herons, and their eggs, instead of being blue, like
those of the Herons, are olive, as are those of the Bustards.
Besides the Common Crane, which is now-a-days a very
rare straggler to England, three other species of Crane,
the Demoiselle Crane (Grus virgo), the Balearic Crane
(Balearica pavonina),and the Siberian Crane (Grus leucoger-
anus), have been met with at large in the United Kingdom.
An example of the Demoiselle Crane was reported in the
‘Zoologist’ (1876, p. 4928) as having been picked up
dead on the banks of the river Cale, near Wincanton,

GRUIDA. 287

in Mid-Somerset, but the date is not given; and Mr. Cecil
Smith,who subsequently investigated this story, discovered
that it was all a mistake, the bird having been probably
only a Common Heron! But an undoubted specimen was
shot on May 14, 1863, near Deerness, Kirkwall, Orkney,
and the Common Crane has occurred more frequently of
late years in Orkney and Shetland than elsewhere in
Great Britain. The Northern line taken by some of the
Cranes on their migrations is not a little singular. The
single instance of the Balearic Crane, a native of Northern
and Western Africa, which occurred in the West of Scot-
land in Ayrshire was probably due to an ‘‘ escape” ; but,
perhaps, can better be accounted for by ‘‘ assisted passage.”
And then, in August 1891, an example of the Siberian
Crane, a large white species whose habitat is Northern
and Central Asia, was shot on Barra, in the Outer Hebrides.
This bird is supposed to have escaped from a gentleman’s
garden at Marlow in Bucks.

Crane. Grus communis, Bechstein.

A casual visitor, of exceedingly rare occurrence.

We must go back at least three centuries to find a period when a few
Cranes are reported to have nested on the great fen lands in the Eastern
counties of England; the extensive drainage of marshes, especially of the
Great Bedford Level, has long since so narrowed the area of any suitable
habitat in this kingdom for this most wary bird that it long ago became
what it is to-day, only a very rare occasional spring and winter visitor to
any part of the United Kingdom. ‘he fact that the Common Heron is
so frequently called the Crane has been the root of a considerable amount
of error with regard to the appearance of the real Crane in this country,
and in Devonshire the name ‘ Cranmere’ for a moorland tarn no longer
existing has been a trap to some of the early ornithologists, who fancied it
took its name from the Crane. But Cranmere has no connection either
with the true Crane or with the true Heron, which in our experience
seldom ascends to the more exposed and elevated bogs of Dartmoor, but
simply means ‘the reservoir of waters,” from two British words of that
signification,

In Devonshire there is only the record of the fine Crane which we have
admired in Mr. FE. H. Rodd’s collection, and of another which was observed,
but not obtained, near the Start; but in Somerset three examples have

288 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

been procured of late years, two in the west, and one in the centre of the
county. ‘The first of these was an immature bird, shot by Mr. C, Haddon,
of Taunton, in company with another gentleman,on 17th October, 1865, ata
place called Ham Sea Wall, half a mile west of Stolford, near Bridgwater.
This Crane was observed feeding in the centre of an extensive pasture in
company with some bullocks, and by keeping behind one of these, and
driving it gradually towards the bird, Mr. Haddon and his friend succeeded
in stalking and shooting it. Another, a very fine adult, was shot a little
distance from the same spot, at Country Sea Wall, one mile to the east of
Stolford, by Mr. Richard Chilcott, of Bridgwater, on 5th Dec., 1889 (Zool.
1890, p. 75). This was a very fine specimen, and was beautifully set up
by Mr. Bidgood, Curator of the Taunton Castle Museum, and is now in
the possession of Sir Alexander Acland Hood, Bart., at St. Audries. The
third Somerset Crane, also an adult, was shot in the parish of South Brent,
and we extract the note we communicated to the ‘ Zoologist’ respecting it
(Zool. 1879, p. 128) :—‘“ Having heard a report that a farmer living in the
flat had, not long since, shot a Crane, I called on him to gather what
information he could give on the matter. The Great Western Railway
runs through the Great Mid-Somerset level, and where it is crossed by
lanes, these approach it by artificially constructed mounds supporting the
bridges over the line, locally termed ‘tips.’ All the bridges, lanes, and
tips are precisely alike, and it was with some difficulty, and not till after
one or two blunders, that I at last obtained the ‘ correct tip,’ which
brought me to Wick Farm, in the parish of South Brent, the abode of Mr.
William Harris, who was reported to have shot the Crane. Finding him
at home, I received from him the following information :—One evening in
May, 1575, just as it was getting dusk, he saw a large bird alight in a
field near his house. He went home for his gun, and returning found the
bird in the same place, and succeeded in getting near enough to shoot it
It was very different from what we call the Common Crane, he said (meaning
the Common Heron), and was altogether a strange-looking bird. The top
of its head was red, and the feathers of its tail were like those of a cock ;
and he proceeded to give me a very good description of an adult Grus
communis. Asked what he had done with the bird, he replied that,
not knowing it was of any value, he had given it to his labourers, and that,
since then, some of his neighbours had very much blamed him for not
having had the bird preserved.”

A male was killed at Buckland Monachorum, on the borders of Dartmoor, in the
autumn of 1826, and was preserved in Drew’s collection at Plymouth (H. M., Trans.
Plym. Inst. 1880; Rowe's Peramb. Dartmoor, 1848, p. 231). Mr. E. H. Rodd says of
this bird :—* A solitary Crane which for some time frequented the banks of the river
Tamar, which divides Cornwall from Devon, was, after several ineffectual attempts to
secure it, at length shot on the Devonshire side of the river, near Buckland Mona-
chorum, ‘and i is preserved in my collection. This was in the autumn of 1826, since
which time I have not heard of the occurrence of any other example of this bird in
either Devon or Cornwall” (‘ Birds of Cornwall,’ p. 126). It is presumed that Mr. Rodd
obtained his specimen from Mr. Drew; but in the collection of the late Mr. Marsh-
Dunn, of Teignmouth, there isa Crane which was purchased at the sale of Mr. Bolitho,

OTIDIDZ. 289

of Plymouth, and was supposed to have been the one killed near Buckland Monachorum
(M. Marsh-Dunn in /itt. Aug. 21st, 1883). Mr. J. Gatcombe, however, states (in itt.
Sept. 3rd, 1885) that there is no doubt that Mr. Rodd’s specimen is the genuine one.

A Crane was seen for five or six days on the high level fields near the Start Light-
house in September 1869 (H. N., Zool. 1869, p. 1866; and J. H. G., Zool. 1871, p. 2683).
It was seen by Mr. Popplestone and others frequenting a large field on Start Farm,
keeping near the centre of the field out of gunshot (H. N., MS. Notes). ‘‘ Cranmere
Pool, on Dartmoor, is supposed by some to be so named from the resort of Cranes there
in ancient times” (E. M., Rowe’s Peramb. Dartmoor, p. 231). But this we have
already shown to be an error.

Mr. E. H. Rodd quotes Dr. Couch as his authority for one or two Cranes

having been procured in Cornwall. In Dorsetshire, Mr. Mansel-Pleydell
knew of three; the last of these was shot on the banks of the Wareham
river in May 1869.
' Vast flocks of Common Cranes pass northwards into Europe every year
in March, returning south again in October, flying in the formation of an
inverted Y very high in the air, uttering loud trumpet notes. They are
found during the summer on all the extensive marshes of Northern and
Central Europe, as high up as Norway and Lapland. Cauon Tristram has
recorded the numbers which pass over Palestine: ‘ clouds of these enor-
mous birds quite darkened the air towards evening” (Nat. Hist. of Bible,
p- 240).

Family OTIDIDA.

THE BUSTARDS.

The Bustards unite the Alectorides or Cranes with the
Limicole, or shore-frequenting birds, through the Stone-
Curlew, Thick-knee, or Norfolk Plover, and the true Plovers.
They are conspicuous for their rapid walking, and for the
speed with which they run over the level plains and downs
that are their usual haunts, seldom taking to wing even
when pursued.

We have three species, all of them, at the present day,
only occasional stragglers to this kingdom, although one
of them, the Great Bustard, used formerly to be indigenous
in some parts of the country, and was, perhaps, the noblest
of our native birds. ‘lhe increased cultivation of waste
lands, together with the constant persecution of the birds

and the destruction of their eggs, combined to remove them
U

290 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

from our native avifauna, and we now know them only as
rare visitors from the Continent. The Little Bustard
comes to us, at uncertain intervals, as a winter migrant,
and one specimen of the Asiatic Macqueen’s Bustard, one
of the ruffed species of this handsome genus, has occurred
in Lincolnshire.

Great Bustard. Otis tarda, Liun.

A casual visitor, of very rare occurrence in winter.

Even at the time when the Great Bustard wasstill an indigenous British
bird it could never have been more than a rare accidental visitor to the
S.W. of England, and was probably seen in Devonshire not more frequently
than it is at the present day. Anyone who knows the habits of this grand
bird would at once understand that our elevated Devonshire moorlands are
quite unsuited toit. The Great Bustard was never an abundant bird in
England, as is proved by its price in the reign of Queen Mary having been
ten shillings. There were a few on the Wiltshire Downs and in the counties
of Hants and Dorset, many more in the great strongholds of the birds
to be found in Suffolk, Norfolk, and parts of Cambridgeshire, and
a few also in Lincolnshire and on the Yorkshire Wolds. The appearance
of Great Bustards in other parts of the country was only accidental. Col.
Montagu considered that Bustards were not properly migratory, and that
they only left their usual haunts when the weather was very severe and
the ground covered with snow ; they then would wander in search of food
in small flocks (or ‘ droves,’ as they were called in Norfolk) into cultivated
grounds, occasionally moving off to some distance. He states that in the
winter of 1798 one was killed near Plymouth; two others were obtained
in Devonshire the following year, and in 1804 one brought into Plymouth
Market was sold for a shilling to a publican: this bird was cooked for
dinner for some “ commercials,” who, seeing that the flesh of the breast
was of two colours, a peculiarity with some of our most highly prized
game-birds, voted it unfit for food, and ordered it from the table. A fine
Great Bustard was shot by a farm labourer in the parish of Bratton
Clovelly, not far from the borders of Cornwall, on 31st Dec. 1851, and is
in the possession of Mr. Newton, Millaton House, Bridestow, who kindly
allowed us to see it. Itis a very beautiful specimen of a male bird, and
was acquired, so we were told, for five shillings. Towards the end of 1870
this country was visited by a small immigration of Great Bustards from the
Continent, and specimens were procured in many districts. In North Devon
a flock of seven or eight was observed in a field at Croyde, where two were
shot. The survivors then flew a little distance to the south, alighting in
a field on the boundary of the two parishes of West Down and Braunton,
where Mr. Wells, of West Down, fired at them, and wounded one of them,
which was afterwards secured. The flock, from which three had now

OTIDID.E. 291

been taken, next settled close to the small town of Braunton, near some
boys who were sliding on the ice, who at once began to pelt them with
stones, upon which the birds flew off and were seen no more. Some
Bustards reported to have been seen shortly afterwards at Holsworthy may
probably have been the remains of the flock which appeared first at Croyde.
Mr. Gatcombe was so interested in the occurrence of these Great Bustards
in North Devon that he visited the neighbourhood where they had been
met with in order to secure all the information he could, and wrote an
account of what he had heard to the ‘ Zoologist’ (1871, p. 2474). He states
that the country people considered the birds to have been wild Turkeys, and
gives an extract from the ‘ North Devon Journal’ :—* Wild Fowl. During
Christmas week a flock of eight wild Turkeys alighted in a field at Croyde.
They were seen by Mr. W. Quick, who followed and shot one, which
weighed upwards of 9 lbs., and was muchadmired. The others soon took
their flight to the west, and have not made a second appearance.” At
the Barnstaple Railway Station Mr. Gatcombe saw a man with some
feathers in his hat, who pointed to one of them, and said, “ This here, Sir,
belonged to one of them Turkey Buzzards.” Mr. James Rowe, gunsmith,
of Barnstaple, succeeded, after some difficulty, in obtaining the two Bustards
which had been shot at Croyde for preservation. Unfortunately, several
feathers had been plucked from their tails and wings for the hats of the
farmers’ daughters; however, in spite of their mauling they made very
good specimens, one of them being in our possession, while the other passed
into the collection of Mr. Cecil Smith. Both of these birds were young
females. It would appear that the bird wounded by Mr. Wells was subse-
quently obtained and eaten, as we heard from a gentleman who partook
of it, and who spoke of the excellence of the meat,

In addition to the Devonshire Great Bustards already enumerated we
can mention a fine female which was purchased many years ago at the
sale of Mr. Comyns’s collection at Starcross, Mr. Burt, the Curator of
the Torquay Museum, considered that this specimen had been procured in
the county.

In Cornwall, Dr. Bullmore states that a specimen of the Great Bustard
was brought to him for identification in January 1854, which had been
shot near St. Austell, and had been sent into Falmouth for preservation.
To this Cornish example we can add from Mr. Rodd’s list ‘‘ one observed in
March 1843 and afterwards captured, on the Goonhilly Downs, in the
Lizard district ; this proved to be a female, and is now preserved in a
private collection at Penzance.” A third Cornish Great Bustard was re-
ported to the ‘ Zoologist’ for 1880 (p. 25)by Mr. Gatcombe, who had received
particulars of its capture from Mr. Stephen Clogg of Looe, near which piace
it had been caught by a spaniel, and was brought alive to Mr. Clogg tor
identification. This was on Dec. 11th, 1879. This bird was in a half-
starved condition, and being badly injured by the dog, Mr. Clogg recom-
mended that it should be killed. It wasa female, and what became of it
subsequently we are not told.

In the county of Dorset Mr. Mansel-Pleydell, at the time he wrote his
book, knew of but one Great Bustard which had occurred in modern times,

UZ

292 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

a female, shot in a turnip-field on January 1st, 1880, at Handley, which
was sent to Mr. Hart, of Christchurch, for preservation. But subsequently
(Zool. 1888, p. 429) he was able to record another which in the summer of
1888 frequented the high land above Fontmell, near Shaftesbury, and went
off unharmed. On the authority of Rev. J. H. Austen, Mr. More (‘ Ibis,’
1865, p. 429) added Dorset to the list of counties in which he had ascer-
tained that the Great Bustard formerly nested.

Mr. Cecil Smith knew of no Somerset Great Bustard, but at the time
there were Bustards on the Wiltshire Downs some of them must
occasionally have visited the Mendip country, only a short flight to the
west, On Sept. 22nd, 1870, Mr. J. E. Harting had the good luck to see
a live Great Bustard on Shapwick peat-moor, as he was travelling on the
Somerset and Dorset Railway between Highbridge and Wells. The bird
was Close to the line, and Mr, Harting hada clear view of it (‘ Field,’ Jan.
14, 1871).

At the breeding-season adult male Great Bustards develop a singular
gular pouch, which they inflate with air, and so distend the throat to
an extraordinary size; this they do when showing themselves off to their
admiring harem, with drooping wings, with their tail expanded and turned
over their back in the manner of a Turkey Cock, and with all their feathers
ruffled out.

The Great Bustard usually frequents plains, large corn-fields, turnip-
fields, and downs, and, in this country, generally nested in fields of rye
and wheat. The last date for an English nest was 1833, and the place
Great Massingham Heath, in Norfolk. There are many memorials of the
former existence of the Great Bustard as an indigenous bird, in Bustard
Inns, Bustard Pools, &e. In the village of Martin, on the 8S.W. corner of
Salisbury Plain, a pond still goes by the name of the Bustard Pool, and
the tradition remains that the Bustards used to come to it to drink. Adult
males are magnificent birds and attain a great weight. One we received
from Seville scaled 28 lbs. in the meat.

Montagu says: ‘‘In the winter of 1798 one was killed near Plymouth in Devonshire,
and two others the following year in the same county” (Orn. Dict.) ; and “one of this
species shot in Devonshire in the year 1804, and taken to Plymouth Market, was
bought by a publican for a shilling” (Orn. Dict., Suppl. 1813). One at Houndale,
Dartmoor, 1799, Rey. S. Rowe (E. M., in Rowe’s Peramb. Dartmoor, App. p. 233).
This was probably one of those alluded to by Montagu. A specimen purchased
at the sale of the Rev. Kerr Vaughan’s collection by the late Mr. John Elliot
of Tresillian, Kingsbridge, is said to have been bought in Plymouth Market early
in the present century (E. A. S. E.). A Bustard was shot in the parish of Bratton
Clovelly, on 31st Dec. 1851 (J. G., ‘Naturalist, 1852, p. 33). Two, both females,
were shot and a third wounded out of a flock of seven or eight at Croyde and
Braunton on Dec. 31st, 1870; some were seen soon after at Holsworthy (Zool. 1871,
pp. 2474, 2475, 2510). Three Bustards, probably the survivors from this flock, were
seen on Salisbury Plain at the end of January 1871, and two were shot (Zool. 1871,
pp. 2477, 2510).

thn eli tl ee el As wal

bo
Cc
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OTIDID.X.

Little Bustard. O¢is tetrar, Linn.

A casual visitor, of somewhat rare occurrence, during the autumn and
winter months.

The Little Bustard is a common species in the south of Europe which
occasionally visits this country in the winter-time, December being the
month in which most specimeus have been obtained, and turnip-fields the
favourite localities. Hence, in some places, the bird bears the name of the
Turnip Duck.” Examples of males, in the handsome adult plumage, have
never been secured in the United Kingdom. At least ten Little Bustards,
all females or immature birds, have been recorded trom Devonshire ; one
of these, shot at Braunton, December 23rd, 1880, is in our collection.

A female was shot at Torrington, North Devon, in Dec. 1804, and was taken to
Plymouth Market; and another, also a female, was seen by Montagu in Oct. 1810 ina
turnip-field in Devonshire (Orn, Dict., Suppl.). One was shot on Creacombe Moor,
near Exmoor, in 1820 (E. M., Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837, p. 519); and one near Bigbury
(2d. Rowe’s Peramb. Dartmoor, App. p. 234); one at Ashburton (A. G. C. T.). Two
females occurred near Kingsbridge between 1840 and 1847 (H. N., Zool. 1847, p. 1695).
A female was shot by Lieut. Pearce, Feb. 5th, 1864, on the high open land adjoining
the sea-coast adjacent to the Start Lighthouse (H. N., MS. Notes, and Zool. 1864,
p. 9039). A female was killed in a turnip-field near North lawton, Dee. 6th; and
another female in the parish of Braunton, Dec. 25rd, 1880 (J. G., Zool. 1881, p. 53 ;
G. F. M., p. 58). It is very remarkable that specimens of both the Great and Little
Bustard should have been offered for salein Plymouth Market in the same year (1804).
Most, if not all, of the examples which have occurred in this county were females (or
perhaps immature birds), but in the ‘Synopsis of the Newcastle Museum,’ by George
Townshend Fox (1827), mention is made on the authority of Mr. Henry Mewburn, of
St. Germans, Cornwall, of a male that “ was bought in Plymouth Market, and dressed
at one of the inns there as a pheasant for the travellers’ tuble.” Montagu (1813) gives
a yersion of this story in connection with the Great Bustard killed in 1804, whilst of
the Little Bustard killed in the same year he distinctly says it was a female and “ was
sold for a female Black Grouse.”

In Cornwall Mr. Rodd reports a dozen Little Bustards, and remarks
that several occurred in various parts of the kingdom in 1875, showing
that a small immigration must have taken place. In the winter of 1853
several are stated by him to haye been brought into the market at
Penzance, and sold there as “‘ Silver Pheasants”! After this rather exten-
sive list from Devon and Cornwall, it is a little singular that we possess no
knowledge of a single Somerset specimen, and in Dorsetshire Mr. Mansel-
Pleydell knew of only one, which wasin his own collection, and was shot
Dec. 26th, 1853, on Fossil Common, Winfrith.

294 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

Order LIMICOL.

Family @DICNEMID.

Stone-Curlew. (€dicnemus scolopax (S. G. Gmelin).

[Great Plover, Norfolk Plover, Common Thick-knee, Thick-kneed
Bustard of Montagu. |

A casual visitor, of occasional occurrence, usually in the winter months,
z.e. October to February, and mostly on the South coast. It has oceurred
only once in the month of March (1867) and once in May (1889).
Mr. R. P. Nicholls had a specimen that was killed out of a flock in the
winter of 1889, but this bird generally occurs either singly or in pairs in
Devonshire.

The Stone-Curlew is a summer visitant in small numbers to some of our
Southern and Eastern counties, arriving at the end of April and leaving
again at Michaelmas, its presence being generally first announced by the
shrili cry of the male being heard in the evenings. It has not been found
in the summer months further west than Dorsetshire, in which county it
still nests in several places towards its eastern borders. In West Somerset,
Devon, and Cornwall it is only known as a winter visitor, that part of the
kingdom being apparently the extreme north of the bird’s winter range.
In North Devon we have seen single examples of this bird flying overhead
when we have been on the look-out for wild-fowlin severe weather during
the winter months, and we have known it to have been shot on the
Braunton Burrows in January. All the records of its occurrence in the
county of which we have knowledge are given below.

The Stone-Curlew is at all times a shy and suspicious bird, and very
difficult to approach. Not very many, in consequence, fall victims to the
gun; but in spite of this the bird is decreasing each year in all its English
haunts. This is due to the destruction of its eggs, which are very generally
deposited in wheat-fields, and are smashed by the heavy iron rollers used
for rolling the wheat. A great number of eggs are also devoured by Rooks,
which are constantly on the look-out for them. We have known the
Stone-Curlew to occur frequently on the Mendip, but have no knowledge
of a nest there, although it is a very likely place for one, and is only a
short flight from the Wiltshire Downs, where many breed; nor do we
know of a nest ever having been detected in Somerset. In the east
of that county we have met with Stone-Curlews singly in turnip-fields in
August, and have occasionally seen little flocks of ten or a dozen passing
overhead.

Like many of the Plovers, the Stone-Curlew will sometimes squat,
trusting to the protective colour of its plumage, which closely resembles

(EDICNEMID.£. 295

that of the ground it mostly frequents, and will thus succeed in escaping
notice; but it is sometimes betrayed by its bright eye. It is found
in large corn-fields, heaths, and warrens, and later in the season in
turnip-fields. Its two or three eggs are placed upon the ground, in
no nest, on a spot where stones and grey fliuts are lying about, to which
the eggs have a protective resemblance in their tints. We have been very
familiar with the Stone-Curlew in the Wiltshire-Down country when
Partridge-shooting in September. The bird, there called the “ Gurt
Curloo,” is generally to be found in turnip-fields ; but it is impossible to
approach it, as there is always one on the watch as sentinel, which
flies up with a shrill whistle on the first sign of danger, and then the
others rise singly all over the field, and the flock of a dozen or more make
off to some other feeding-ground.

Like the Plovers, the Stone-Curlew becomes noisy and restless at dusk,
and feeds chiefly late in the evening, beetles and moths which then emerge
forming a considerable portion of its menu; and should there be a moon,
it will go on seeking for worms, slugs, snails, &c. until daylight.

The Stone-Curlew derives its name of “ Thick-knee” trom the swollen
appearance of the upper end of the tarsus in the young birds,

Montagu mentions a female specimen killed near the Start Point at the beginning of
February 1807, and states that a male had been shot near the same place a fortnight
previously (Orn. Dict., Suppl.). Dr. Moore records one shot near Plymouth in the
winter of 1826, and mentions two others in collections there (Trans. Plym. Inst. 1830).
One, a female, was killed by Mr. F. Scoble Willesford on Dartmoor, October 5th, 1831
(I. J., Bray’s ‘Tamar and Tavy,’ i. p. 352). Another was supposed to have been
killed at Widdecombe-in-the-Moor a few days before (id., l. ¢.). One at Plymouth,
November 24th, 1855; one adult, November 10th, 1877; Bolitho had one shot on
St. John’s Lake by Mr, Wills of Tor Point (J. G., Zool. 1856, p. 4946; 1878, p. 54;
and MS. Notes).

Stone-Curlews are occasionally obtained near Kingsbridge (EH. M., Mag. Nat. Hist.
1837). Mr. Henry Nicholls has received many from that neighbourhood. One at
Prawle Point, February 5th, 1864, shot at the same time as a specimen of the Little
Bustard by Lieut. Pearce. One killed in Stokenham parish early in May 1859
(R.P. N.and E. A.S.E., MS. Notes). One from Kingsbridge is in the A. M. M. (R. C.).
Two from Paignton are in the Torquay Museum.

One was killed at Topsham before 1838 (F. W. L. R., MS. Journ. i. p. 145). One
near Exeter, January 1866. One on Dawlish Warren, March 22nd, 1867 (C.8., Zool.
1867, p. 760). One at Powderham, on the Exe, November 1868. A male shot by
Mr. R. Cockeram at Budleigh Salterton in 1836 is in the A. M. M. (F. W. L. R.).

One was shot on Braunton Burrows in January 1858 by Mr. G. Mathias of Ilfra-
combe (M. A. M., Zool. 1858, p. 6264).

Turton and Kingston speak of its breeding “in the neighbourhood of the moor”
[Dartmoor], laying its eggs on the bare ground. Others have reported it as breeding
there, but probably confusion has been made between this bird and the Common
Curlew.

296 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

Family GLAREOLIDA.

(Collared Pratincole. Glareola pratincola (Linn.).

An accidental visitor, of extremely rare occurrence. No specimens have
been actually obtained in the county, but it has been killed on several
occasions in Dorset, Somerset, and Cornwall, and therefore its reported
appearance on Dawlish Warren and in Flete Park is not improbable.

“On the 7th of September, 1851, my friend, W. W. Buller, Esq., saw two Collared
Pratincoles on the Warren, a large sand-bank at the mouth of the Exe, South Devon.
They appeared very tame, occasionally alighting on the sand, on which their move-
ments very much resembled those of the Ring-Dotterel. Their manner of flight was
very much like that of the Swallow.—T. L. Powys: Lilford Hall, Northants, October
9th, 1852.” (Zool. 1852, p. 8710.) The late Mr. F. W. L. Ross informed Mr. J. Gat-
combe that he had seen two specimens also on Dawlish Warren (J. B. R., Trans. Plym.
Inst. 1862-63, p. 70).

A single Pratineole is said to have been seen by a son of the Rev. G. C. Green, of
Modbury, near the banks of the Erme in Flete Park, on 14th August, 1885.

Mr. E. H. Rodd records two Cornish examples: the first was said to have
been obtained in September 1811 near Truro, and the second was killed
in the first week of June 1874 near the Lizard. ‘This bird [Mr. Rodd
examined it in the flesh | was observed by a boy who was out Coot shooting,
flying backwards and forwards like a Swallow over a large pool on the
Lizard Downs, and apparently hawking for insects. On its alighting on
the margin of the pool, he shot it.” (Rodd’s ‘ Birds of Cornwall,’ p. 84.)

In Somerset we know of but one instance of a Pratincole, which was
shot some years ago on the northern slope of the Mendip, not far from
Weston-super-Mare, and was for some time in the collection of Mr.
Straddling of Chilton Polden, near Bridgwater, passing subsequently into
the possession of Mr. H. Mathias, of Haverfordwest, in whose house we
have had the pleasure of seeing it. In Dorsetshire Mr. Mansel-Pleydell
speaks of three Pratincoles: one of them was shot during a very severe
winter on the banks of the Stour, when the river was frozen over, and is
in the Bryanston collection, and the other two were seen, but not
obtained—one of them on the eastern side of the county, near Christ-
church, and the other in November 1855 flying over the Weymouth
Backwater. Thus, in the 8.W. of England, four examples of this rare
visitor have been obtained, and as many as seven more (including two
others said to have been seen by Mr. Ross on Exmouth Warren) have
been seen, but not procured, between the months of June and December.

The Collared Pratincole runs with great swiftness on the ground, and
feeds on insects, for which it also hawks in the air like a Swallow. It is
an inhabitant of Southern Europe, Asia, and North Africa, and only rarely
strays as far north as the British Isles. A beautiful pair in our collection
were shot by Mr. G. F, Mathew, R.N., on the Plain of Troy, while flying
over one of the classic streams in company with a great number of the
same species, |

CHARADRIID. 297

Family CHARADRIIDA.
THE PLOVERS.

The first of the two predominant types of the Limicole,
or Plover-Snipe order, comprising the Pluvialine or Plover-
like birds, forms a large and well-marked group. ‘They
have usually but three toes, the hinder one being entirely
absent except in the Grey Plover and Lapwing. The bill
is something like that of a Pigeon, with a convex horny
terminal point, behind which it is contracted. ‘The wings
are usually long and pointed, reaching when folded to or
beyond the tip of the tail, and the bend is often spurred in
foreign species. About a dozen representatives of the
group have been met with in the British Isles, including
the aberrant Cream-coloured Courser and the Oyster-
catcher, each of which is placed by some authors in a
distinct family; and several of them are amongst our
commonest shore-birds and must be familiar to every one ;
but some, namely the Cream-coloured Courser, Eastern
Golden Plover, Kentish Plover, Little Ringed Plover,
Killdeer Plover, and Sociable Plover, are amongst our rarest
visitors from Southern Europe, Asia, Africa, and America,
‘They are mostly migratory, breeding on the tundras and
morasses of Northern Europe and Asia, though the Golden
Plover, Kentish Plover, Ringed Plover, Dotterel, Lapwing,
and Oyster-catcher breed in some parts of the British
Islands. The Golden Plover, the Dotterel, and the Lapwing
or Green Plover are well known to the epicure for their
delicate flesh ; but the rest of the species, feeding mainly
on muddy shores, are fishy in taste and are seldom eaten.
‘The eggs of the Lapwing are collected in great numbers
in the Kastern counties for sale, the semi-transparent white
aud the richly coloured yelk being the most delicious eating

998 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

when hard boiled. Although when looked at in the hand
a Lapwing is a bird of conspicuous colouring, on one occa-
sion, when watching a flock, feeding on a newly-ploughed
field, from behind a hedge not far off from the birds, we were
surprised at their sudden disappearance without our having
seen them fly away, and then discovered that in certain
positions relative to the light they were perfectly invisible
and remained so till they changed their place again.

Cream-coloured Courser. Cursorius gallicus (Gm.).

An accidental visitor, of very rare occurrence, in spring and autumn in
the north of the county.

The Cream-coloured Courser, as the colour of its plumage indicates,
belongs to the desert type, and is only found on the sandy wastes of North
Africa and Asia and on a desert island of the Canary Group. So closely
does it harmonize in the tints of its plumage with its surroundings that it
becomes quite invisible when it squats upon the ground, over which it
runs with great rapidity in search of insects, and is said to be particularly
fond of grasshoppers. It is nowhere numerous, and is a very wary bird,
difficult to approach. It very rarely comes north of the Mediterranean,
so that it is remarkable that so many examples of its occurrence, perhaps
thirty or more, should have been recorded from various parts of the United
Kingdom. Of these Devonshire and the West Country can lay claim to
a full share. In the last week of October 1856 we chanced to go into the
bird-stuffer’s shop in Barnstaple, and found lying on the counter a Cream-
coloured Courser in the flesh, which we ascertained had been sent in from

sraunton, where it had been shot by the Vicar, the Rev. J. W. R. Landon.
Another was in company with it, and this second bird was shot a few days
later by a farmer at Braunton, sent into Barnstaple for preservation, and
came into the bird-stuffer’s possession. We were informed that it was a
very beautiful specimen ; unfortunately, we had left North Devon, and so
missed seeing it. The bird-stuffer advertised it in the ‘ Field,” and
eventually sold it for £10 for the collection of the Prince of Wales. We
have, however, ascertained that this specimen does not now exist at
Sandringham. We carefully examined the first of these two Coursers, and
considered it to be an adult; the scutelle of the legs were very iridescent,
having somewhat the appearance of a snake’s skin; but this, as the
weather was extremely close at the time, may have been due to incipient
putrefaction. In March 1860 Mr. G. F. Mathew, R.N., was Snipe-
shooting on the Braunton Burrows, when he observed a pair of strange
birds in the air, flying round one of the large shallow ponds left by the
recent rains, which after a while settled on the margin of the pond, at a
distance from him of about three hundred yards; and he was greatly

ae

CHARADRIID.£. 299

surprised, on stalking the birds from behind a sand-hill, to see within a
hundred yards of him a fine pair of Cream-coloured Coursers—one,
seemingly, an adult male in splendid plumage, the other a female or young
bird. They were accompanied by a single Lapwing, which kept continually
getting up and flying over their heads screaming, which caused the birds to
be wild. Mr. Mathew waited about half an hour behind the sand-hill, in
the hope that the birds would walk within shot; but as they would not
do this, he attempted to approach them, when they rose directly on his
showing himself, settling again by another pond some distance oft. He
again followed them; but this time they rose wild and tlew right up into
the clouds out of sight, uttering a peculiar cry. He was quite certain as
to his identification of the birds. (M. A. M., Zool. 1857, p. 5346;
G. F. M., ‘ Naturalist, 1866, p. 359; J. G., Zool. 1871, p. 2475;
G. F. M., Zool. 1860, p. 6980.)

In Cornwall Mr. Rodd knew of no occurrence of this rare and beautiful
bird ; but since the publication of his hook one was reported by the late
Mr. Thomas Cornish, of Penzance, as having been obtained in December
1884 at Mawgan, near St. Colomb.

Mr. Cecil Smith knew of no Somerset example; but Mr. Brooking Rowe,
in his ‘ List of the Birds of Devon, mentions one which was procured in
that county, but gives no particulars about it. Mr. Mansel-Pleydell
states that Lord Digby, when following the hounds in 1853, observed a
Cream-coloured Courser on Batcombe Down; on the next day Lord
Iichester sent his keeper to look for it; the bird was found and shot,
and is now at Melbury.

The eggs of the Cream-coloured Courser were until quite recently among
the desiderata of oologists. But the birds have been detected nesting on
Fuerteventura, one of the Canary Islands; and during the last three
years a number of their eggs have been sent to England from this locality.
No nest is made, and the eggs are deposited on the bare, sandy, gritty soil,
and are very protective in their colour. Some, in our series, are exactly
like miniature eggs of the Stone-Curlew.

Golden Plover. Charadrius pluvialis, Linn.

A winter visitor, but sometimes remaining until late in the spring, and
stated to have been formerly resident in small numbers, a few, it was
supposed, breeding on Dartmoor and Exmoor. Flocks visit the marsh-
lands in the estuaries of the larger rivers in October and November,
at which time there is a considerable immigration from more northern
countries, and the numbers seen in winter are sometimes large, especially
in severe weather. Specimens in full breeding-plumage occasionally occur
near Exeter, Kingsbridge, and Plymouth in April and May.

The Golden Plover is chiefly known in Devonshire as a regular autumn
visitor from the North, flocks making their appearance at that time of the
year on all our moorlands, whence in severe frosts they descend into the
meadows, and are then also found upon the coasts. In the middle of the

500 THE BIRDS OF DEVON,

day, unless it be foggy weather, they are difficult to approach. The most
favourable time for stalking the *‘ trips” is just at daybreak, when they
will usually suffer the gunner to get within easy range. Or, by concealing
one’s self, and imitating their whistling call-note, the flocks passing over-
head may be decoyed within gunshot. They will be seen to pause uneasily
in the air, and will then make a downward swoop, and after a few wide
circles will sweep all at once close over the spot from whence the treacherous
whistle is issuing, when a fatal volley will lay numbers on the ground. We
have made good bags in this way on many occasions, and have obtained
them in the winter on Lundy Island by employing this artifice. The cry
of the Golden Plover is frequently to be heard at “night as the birds pass
over to their feeding-grounds, as this species is néetuenal in its habits.
When we used to visit the sallow blooms in the spring at night-time to
capture the moths feeding on them, we have had passing flocks of Golden
Plover attracted by our lights, and have heard the “swish” of their

wings, and their wailing cry, as they have flown low over our heads in
the dark.

The Golden Plover was very plentiful near Plymouth in the autumn of 1872, and
again in October 1873 (J. G.. Zool. 1873, pp. 3396, 3786). It is common in some
sii s, both on the uplands and lowlands, during snow near Kingsbridge (R. P. N. and

A. 8. E., MS. Notes). Flocks visit the Exminster marshes and Dawlish Warren
— autumn and winter. One was killed at Topsham, May 14th, 1844, and one in
adult summer plumage at Crediton, April 18th, 1877. The Kev. Thos. Johnes says :—
“The natives assured me that the Golden Plover bred in Fur Tor Mire, which is a
vast and dismal swamp on Dartmoor ” (Bray’s ‘Tamar and Tavy, 2nd edit. i. p. 307).
Dr. E. Moore records that a brood of six was obtained on the banks of the Tamar in
1827 ; and two young ones were found on Roborough Down in 1829 (Trans. Plym.
Inst. 1850). Common on Dartmoor and the neighbouring heaths in summer (T. & K.,
1830). At present Golden Plovers are by no means common at any season of the
year on the northern side of Dartmoor (M. A. M.).

The Golden Plover is reported to have nested formerly on Dartmoor,
but there is no record that we know of in recent years that either the eggs
or nestling birds have been procured, and we ourselves do not believe that
at the present time this bird nests anywhere in the South-western counties,
or anywhere further to the south than perhaps on the Breconshire moun-
tains in South Wales. birds in their full breeding-plumage have been shot
late in the spring, but this is no proof that they were nesting in the county.

The eggs of the Golden Plover are singularly beautiful, and their
blotches of madder and dark russet on a rich olive ground render them
very similar in their tints to the peaty soil and its vegetation on which
they are placed. They are of large size, pear-shaped, like all eggs of
Plovers and Sandpipers, and are arranged on the ground with their points
inwards, so that the bird may be able to cover them.

The excellence of the Golden Plover as a bird for the table is well
known. The pure white lining of the wings and axillaries, together with
the absence of the hind toe, will always distinguish this species from the
Grey Plover.

[ Observation.—Another species of Golden Plover, Charadrius fulvus,

CHARADRIID-E. 501

J. F. Gmelin, with smoke-grey axillaries, inhabiting Asia, Australia, and
the Pacific Islands, has occurred twice—once in the East of England and
once in the Orkney Islands. A form of this species inhabiting North
America, and now known as Ch. dominicus, Miller, has also been obtained
from Leadenhall Market, and once in Perthshire. |

Grey Plover, Sguatarola helvetica (Linn.).
[Silver Plover. ]

A casual visitor to the estuaries of our larger rivers in the south of the
county in autumn and winter, and rarely in spring; but a regular winter
visitor to North Devon. Specimens in full summer plumage have been
occasionally obtained.

The Grey Plover is a regular autumn visitor to the British shores from
the far north, but is never numerous. In North Devon we generally saw
it singly, sometimes in pairs, and rarely in small flocks of from a dozen to
twenty birds. We have succeeded in whistling these small flocks within
range where we have had tall rush clumps at hand in which to conceal
ourselves, and have also frequently stalked and shot single birds. One day
in the middle of May we watched from behind a bank near Instow a flock
cf about a score of these beautiful birds in their full summer livery, as
they were running on the sand only twenty yards away. The sun was
shining on their silver backs, and the pretty contrast between their polls
and thighs (which seemed dazzlingly white, like fresh-fallen snow) and
their glossy black underparts made a beautiful picture. We gazed and
admired, and, not wanting a specimen, left them unmolested.

The eggs of the Grey Plover, which closely resemble those of the
Golden Plover, were almost unknown until the birds were detected breeding
by Messrs. Harvie-Brown and Seebohm, in the summer of 1875, on the
tundras of the Petchora river in Northern Russia. From its feeding on
the oozes on the shore, the flesh of the Grey Plover is rank and valueless
for the table.

Mr. Elford, of Bickham, near Roborough Down, informed Polwhele that he had met
with only two specimens of this bird. Moore says that Drew, Pincombe, and himself
all had examples in summer and winter plumage (Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837, p. 319).

At Plymouth one occurred, January 5th, 1854(B., MS. Notes). One was killed and
others were seen on the Breakwater, November 1873; some, November and December
1878, October 1881, January 1882; and one in nearly full summer dress, May 19th,
1882. It is very rarely found at Plymouth so late in the spring (J. G., Zool. 1874,
p. 2837 ; 1879, pp. 112, 115; 1882, pp. 65, 456, 458).

On the Kingsbridge estuary this Plover often occurs in autumn on the mud, and
Mr. H. Nicholls has one that was killed in the spring with a black breast. Mr. Elliot
shot one, August 12th, 1889 (R. P. N. and EH. A. 8. ., MS. Notes).

Mr. Cecil Smith says that he saw some young birds at Teignmouth in November
(year not mentioned) in the poulterers’ shops (* Birds of Somerset,’ p. 335).

On the Exe estuary one occurred September 28th, 1839 (F, W. L. R., MS. Journ.
iii. p.25). One was brought to us in the flesh shot near Topsham, October 24th, 1851,
Dr. W. R. Scott and Mr. R. Cumming had specimens from Dawlish Warren. Mr. W.
Tombs also had some in summer and winter plumage, presumably from the Exe.

302 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

An immature bird occurred at Exmouth in the autumn of 1890, and another in
January 1891.

The Grey Plover is included amongst occasional visitors to Lundy Island (Trans.
Devon. Assoc. viii. p. 309).

In Cornwall, according to Mr. E. H. Rodd, it is a spring and autumn
migrant, most frequently seen at the latter season after storms. In
Dorsetshire it regularly visits Poole Harbour at the period of its migrations,
being commoner in autumn than in spring, and a few are sometimes met
with on the coast in winter (‘ Birds of Dorset’). Mr. Cecil Smith terms
it a rather numerous winter visitor to the muddy shores of Somerset-
shire. In some parts of the kingdom this bird is known as the “ Mud
Plover.”

Kentish Plover, Zyialitis cantiana (Lath.).

A casual visitor, of extremely rare occurrence.

A pair occurred on Plymouth Breakwater on May 7th, 1861; the
female was shot, and is now in Mr. F. C. Hingston’s collection (J. G.,
MS. Notes; J. B. R., Trans. Plym. Inst. 1862-63); and besides these we
know of only one other Devonshire specimen, one in immature plumage
that was obtained in the Hamoaze in the autumn of 1875 (J. G., Zool.
1876, p. 4719).

Although a regular spring visitant in small numbers to the South-east
coast of England, where it arrives about the end of April—a few pairs
still, perhaps, nesting on the least disturbed parts of the Kentish and
Sussex shores,—this extremely pretty little Plover is very rare indeed in
the South-west counties ; so much so that Col. Montagu appears never to
have come across a specimen, and concluded, from descriptions of it
furnished him by friends, that it was no more than an accidental variety
of the common Ringed Plover, Had that excellent naturalist been
supplied with a few examples, he would have readily detected its specific
distinctions ; for in all stages of plumage its dark-coloured legs and
smaller size make it easily distinguishable from the two Ringed Plovers,
which have either bright-yellow or flesh-coloured legs, according to age.
Considering that the Kentish Plover is not uncommon in the summer-time
in the Channel Islands, it is singular that its westward range does not
oftener include Devonshire. But it has never been our good fortune to
come across an example of this species ourselves in the West of England,
and it is only due to its occurrence on two occasions at Plymouth that we
are able to mention it as a Devon bird, It is equally rare in Cornwall,
where Mr. Rodd knew of only three examples, which had, at different
times, been procured in the neighbourhood of Penzance. In Dorsetshire
Mr. Mansel-Pleydell states that, although it had doubtless occurred, he was
not aware that it had ever been identified. We ourselves know of a single
Somerset example, although Mr. Cecil Smith was unable to include the
species in his book. Mr. Filleul, of Biddisham, shot a small Plover on the
coast near Burnham, which he at once saw to be distinct from the Ringed
Plover, and, on examining some Sussex specimens which we were able to

———

ee

CHARADRIID#. 5303

show him, at once identified his bird as a young Kentish Plover. The
adult male of this little Plover has a bright chestnut patch on the crown
of the head, which fades away almost entirely in birds which have been
any time preserved,

The Kentish Plover lays its three eggs on the shingle just above high-
water mark; and from their grey colour, spotted with black, they
harmonize so well with the tints of the surrounding pebbles that they are
very difficult to find,

Ringed Plover. Ayialitis hiaticula (Linn.).

[Catpoll, Cathead (Hwe); Sea Lark, Sand Lark, Ring Dotterel, Dul-
willy, Curwilly, from its cry. ]

Resident and numerous in the estuaries of the larger rivers, both in
North and South Devon, but most abundant in the winter. Two young
ones were captured on Dawlish Warren in August 1854 by the late Charles
Hall, of Topsham, and we found four eggs on the shingle there in July
1887. Major H. C. Adams, of Exmouth, informs us that he has often
found the eggs there also. A few breed on the sands between Torcross
and Start Lighthouse (R. P. N.). The Ringed Plover is an occasional
breeder on Lundy Island (Trans. Devon. Assoc, viii. p. 308),

The eccentric gestures of this small Plover must be familiar to most
visitors to the sea-side, where it is to be met with throughout the year,
who have watched it running over the sands or shingle, suddenly bringing
itself to a stop, as it throws its head up into the air with a jerk sufficient,
one would think, to dislocate its neck, then running briskly on for a few
more yards, when again comes the sudden stop and quick jerk, and then,
perhaps, the bird will stand motionless for a moment or two before pro-
ceeding with its performance as before. So closely does the back of the
Ringed Plover resemble the grey shingle in colour that often one may
nearly tread upon it before it is observed, when it will start up with
a shrill whistle, and flitting on a short distance, settle again on the
shingle and at once become invisible. The Ringed Plover breeds all
round the coast wherever there is a pebbly beach ; the Northam Burrows,
in North Devon, are a favourite nesting-place, and the four eggs laid in a
little hollow scratched out by the bird are of a stone-buff, spotted with
black, and from their protective resemblance to their environment are most
difficult to find; but still harder to detect are the little grey puffs of
down which represent the young birds, on which we have again and again
nearly set our feet when we have been peering for them with all our
eyes, and have had the two old birds trailing their wings and feigning
lameness within a few inches, in order to tempt us away from the
cherished spot. In the winter-time our breeding-birds receive large
reinforcements from the north, and then large flocks may be seen on the
sands or flying along their edges when the tide is flowing in.

The cheerful pipe of this lively little Plover is one of the familiar
sounds of the shore which we love to hear.

304 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

We have seen flocks of Ringed Plovers sometimes many miles inland,
and have been told by a keeper, who recognized the bird in our collection,
that they nest in places on the Wiltshire Downs, scratching little holes in
the turf in which to deposit their eggs.

There is a smaller race of Ringed Plover (by some ornithologists termed
Atyialitis intermedia, as by Ménétriés), which arrives on our coasts in
the spring, and is well known to the shore-shooters, who say that its call
is different from that of the larger bird. We possess examples in all stages
of plumage, and it was an immature bird of this smaller race shot by us
on the sands of the Taw which we once erroneously recorded as a specimen
of the Continental Little Ringed Plover (4yialitis euronica, J. F. Gmelin)
(Zool. 1859, p. 6762), of which we have seen but one example which
had been obtained in the 8.W. of England. This was in the collection of
Mr. E. H. Rodd, and had been received by him from Tresco, in the
Scilly Islands, where it had been shot on October 23rd, 1863, by his nephew,
Mr. F. R. Rodd, who detected it to be a stranger by its single sharp
whistle, ditfering from the cry of the common Ringed Plover. The Little

tinged Plover appears to prefer inland waters to the coast, being chiefly
observed on the Continent by the sides of rivers and freshwater lakes. It
has occurred only about four times in the South of England.

[ Observation. — Kintprrr Prover (2gialitis vocifera, Gould). This
Plover is one of the numerous American species which have appeared as
stragglers at the extreme south-west of the kingdom. American birds on
their migration, which have lost their reckoning in coming westwards by
way of Northern Asia and Europe, in working south again come down
the western coasts of Scotland and England, and, passing through the Irish
Channel, strike the North Devon coast, or, continuing a little further, land
at last in the Land’s End district of Cornwall, some few of them reaching
the Scilly Islands. It was at Tresco, on the Scilly Islands, that an example
of the Killdeer Plover was secured on 15th January, 1885 (T. Cornish,
Zool. 1885, p. 113). It was shot by Mr. Jenkinson, who was attracted
by its peculiar ery, and described it as “a large Ringed Plover with ash-
coloured legs, tail-coverts chestnut-coloured, and tail very long.” A
specimen of this Plover had already occurred in England, one having
been shot near Christchurch, in Hampshire, in April 1857. The Killdeer
Plover is a very common species throughout the United States, resident,
and nesting almost everywhere. |

Dotterel. Ludromias morinellus (Linn.).

A casual visitor, of rare occurrence, in spring and autumn.

If at any time the Dotterel nested on any of our Devonshire moorlands,
as it probably did not, being a bird of the Alpine type, or on the Mendip
plateau in Somerset, it certainly does so no longer, and is at the present
time only occasionally seen on its passage in the spring and autumn,
Until recently a few used to nest on the mountains of the Lake District,

CIIARADRIID, 305

and a pair or two stil] breed on the most lonely and inaccessible spots in
the Scotch Highlands. ‘A person of credit” informed Col, Montagu that
he had taken the eggs of the Dotterel upon the Mendip. The Colonel
adds that young birds used to be shot there early in September (but there
is no proof in this that they had been bred there), and was of opinion that
the bird whose nest was taken there in the summer was probably a
Golden Plover, or, as we rather imagine, a Stone-Curlew. Even as a
straggler, the Dotterel is very rare in Deyonshire. At the end of September
1863, the Rev. Marcus Rickards saw and shot a single Dotterel on the
mud-flat at West Appledore, after a long chase, the bird running on in
frout of him and feigning lameness. On the 22nd of October, 1875,
Mr. J. Gatcombe was rewarded, after ascending the Great Hangman Hill,
near Combe Martin, by finding a Dotterel upon the top. “ On our gaining
the summit of this great hill, I at once caught sight of a Dotterel, which
almost immediately took wing, uttering a rather low or feeble note,
sounding to me something between that of the Purre and Ringed Plover.
It did not, however, fly far, but alighted again within a short distance,
giving me a good opportunity of examining it with my glass, noting its
actions, and making several sketches of its attitudes, It afterwards
became very tame, moving slowly about, now and then stopping suddenly
to look round, listen, or pick up something, and finally allowing my
approach to within fifteen yards. It was altogether prettily marked, and
the white band above the eye was very conspicuous. The top of Great
Hangman has rather a wild aspect, reminding one of Dartmoor, being
covered with stones, heath, and low gorse, and is, I should think, just the
place where Dotterels might be found on their first arrival in spring.
The view from it is truly magnificent, but the sight of the Dotterel alone,
the first I had ever met with in a wild state, far more than repaid me for
a rather hot walk of altogether full twenty miles” (Zool. 1875, p. 4717).

Montagu says of the Dotterel: “It is very rare so far west as Devonshire ; at least
one only has come to our notice in many years” (Orn, Dict., Suppl.). Several were
seen by the Rey. 8. Rowe on Chittaford Down, Dartmoor, in September 1828; many
specimens were shot on Dartmoor in April 1840 (BE. M., Rowe’s Peramb. Dartmoor,
p. 231). A pair shot at Sewer Farm, near the Bolt Head, December 22nd, 1851, are
in the collection of the late Mr. J. Elliot of Kingsbridge. One was shot by the late
Mr. Thos. Floud in the autumn of 1852 on Whitstone Hill, near Exeter, and was given
to us in the flesh. One was seen in January 1867 on Dawlish Warren by the late
Major George Woods, and three others have occurred in that locality at various times.
Two immature birds were killed on the Exe in Aagust 1870. A trip was seen, and
three were shot, at the end of May 1879 near Barnstaple (M. A. M., Zool. 1879, p. 490).
Mr. Gatcombe records an example purchased in Plymouth Market, December 12th,
1886 (Zool. 1887, p. 379). One was picked up on Salcombe road, killed by flying
against the telegraph wire, in May 1885 (B. A. 8. E.). Mr. Henry Nicholls has a
specimen in summer plumage from the Sewers, near Bolt Head.

A few Dotterel have occurred at rare intervals in the immediate neighbourhood of
Barnstaple, and we have received from that town specimens both of adults and of
immature birds; but more have been observed and obtained in the south of the
county, about the southern slopes of Dartmoor.

The Dotterel is equally rare in Cornwall and Dorset, while in Somerset
it occurs with no greater frequency than it does in Devonshire, We have
Xx

9

306 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

known it to be shot occasionally in the spring and autumn on the Mendip,
and a single Dotterel shot on the Steep Holm early in May 1869, and
sent into Weston-super-Mare for preservation, was seen by us in the
flesh. About the middle of May in the same year, a small trip alighted
on the cricket-field just outside that town, and were so tame that they
continued there all day, taking no heed of the players. A few days later,
we ourselves saw a single Dotterel on the sands near Sand Point, a few
miles to the east of Weston-super-Mare. Mr. F. D. Power states that on
1st May, this same year, he obtained five Dotterels which had been shot
on the previous day on the Mendip close to Wells. Out of a small flock
of nine or ten seven were killed. On 21st August, 1870, he reports that
two more were obtained near the spot where this massacre took place.

Mr. H. P. Hart (Zool. 1851, p. 64) has recorded that two Dotterels were
shot by one of the keepers of the lighthouses on the Lizard on 28th April,
1880, between two and three o'clock a.m., as they were hovering around
the lantern, attracted by the electric light. Mr. J. Gatcombe (Zool. 1885,
p 21) reports that five Dotterels, killed out of a trip of eight in the month
of May in Dorsetshire, were sent to Plymouth for preservation. It is a
little singular that in the last of the interesting notes communicated
by our friend to the ‘ Zoologist ’ (1887, p. 379) he should mention his
haying purchased, on 12th December, a young Dotterel which had been
sent into Plymouth Market from Dartmoor,where it had been shot, adding
‘this is the first local specimen I remember to have met with.”

Lapwing. Vanellus vulgaris, Bechst.

| Lapwink, Horniwink, Northam Hornywink (JV. D.); Peewit, Green
Plover. |

Resident in part, generally distributed and very abundant in winter.

This is one of the birds that are annually increasing in number. It
breeds on Dartmoor, at Huish Ley and Thurlestone Ley, Haldon, Wood-
bury, and other wild marshy and uncultivated moorland tracts ; formerly
also on large open fields near the south coast. Immense flocks assemble
on the estuarine marshes and mud-banks of our larger rivers in winter,
when there is an extensive immigration from the east. It is found
on fallow-lands in spring, on moorlands in summer, and on mud-
banks and marshes in winter, appearing on the estuaries at the end
of October or early in November. During the severe weather in February
1873, we saw great numbers flying around the houses at Holcombe
(between Dawlish and Teignmouth) like Pigeons, and very tame, many
also flying out to sea. Lapwings were extremely numerous in January
1882 at Plymouth (J. G., Zool. 1882, p. 456). Very large flocks
frequented the Exe estuary below Topsham during the winter of 1889-90
from November to February. Lapwings were seen arriving from the
eastward by thousands, and the whole country was covered with them
after the snow-storm of December 20th, 1890; they remained only a few
weeks.

CHARADRIID.%. 307

In North Devon the Lapwing breeds very commonly on the Braunton
Burrows, on some marshy fields on the Instow side of the river Taw, and on
all the high moory country to the east and west of the county. Numbers
frequent Exmoor, and the moors bordering on that forest, throughout the
summer. In the winter-time the flocks collect and come down to the
marshes, and should the weather be severe they are then found in water-
meadows searching for food. After long-continued snows and black
frosts numbers perish of starvation, so that frozen Peewits are then to be
seen lying on the ground by the side of the “splashets,” where they have
made their last feeble efforts to obtain sustenance. In one severe winter
several Peewits, together with one or two Golden Plovers, frequented our
garden for some time, but would not touch the food we prepared for them,
which we put for their notice in various places on the lawn. It was
pitiable to see the Peewits running a foot or two on the frozen ground,
and then stopping abruptly to listen (as a Thrush does) all in vain for
any sound of a worm moving below the hard-bound soil.

Turnstone. Strepsilas interpres (Linn.).

A passing visitor, met with usually in small parties on the sea-
coast, and in the estuaries of our larger rivers in spring and autumn.
Only one instance of its occurrence in winter in the south of the county is
known to us, though a few remain on the north coast during that season,
and, according to Mr. Cecil Smith, it is a winter visitor to Somerset.
Specimens in full breeding-plumage are occasionally obtained late in the
spring in South Devon.

Next to the Purre and the Ringed Plover, the Turnstone is the com-
monest and the best known of the smaller birds which frequent the
British shores. A lover of the shingly beaches and seaweed-covered
pebbles, the Turnstone may be noticed with his curious awl-shaped beak,
busily engaged in turning over the small stones and refuse cast up by
the tide, in search of the small marine animals concealed beneath. Little
parties of five or six, consisting of the old birds and the year’s brood,
appear on the North Devon shores from the north at the beginning of
August, and, on their first arrival, are singularly tame and confiding. We
have seen them on the sands at Weston-super-Mare in the very midst of
the bathing machines, at the busy hour of the day, when hundreds of
people are there assembled either to bathe or to look at the bathers, hardiy
taking the trouble to run out of the way of the numerous passers to and
fro. When walking on the beach at Instow, in North Devon, we have
had a little flock fly straight towards us and settle at our feet. Sometimes
the Turnstones are found consorting with Knots and Ringed Plovers, but
it is more usual to find them by themselves. As they rise on wing they
utter a clear whistle, and hearing this we have often distinguished them
in the flocks of birds sweeping by the water’s edge. The greater number
of those reaching us from higher latitudes in the autumn, after spending
a few days on our coast, continue their journey further south, but a few

X 2

303 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

are to be met with on the rocks and shingles all through the winter. In
April and May large flocks make their appearance for a day or two on
their passage to their northern breeding-stations. The birds are then wild
and difficult to approach, and the males are in their singularly beautiful
breeding-plumage, which consists of vivid alternations of bright chestnut,
black, and white. Some very perfect specimens in the complete spring
dress in our collection were obtained on the sands at Weston-super-Mare.

Although there is no record of the Turnstone’s nest ever having been
detected in the United Kingdom, it may probably have bred in Scotland,
and a pair which were unfortunately shot on Lundy Island on 28th May,
a few years since, may have had a nest.

There is hardly any part of the world in which the Turnstone has not
been observed. On the N.W. coast of America, another species, of a
more sombre plumage, is met with.

At Plymouth specimens were obtained on 15th and 17th September, 1853, and three
on September 9th, 1856 (B., MS. Notes); several nearly completely moulted, Sep-
tember 1882, and one in the market on December 28th following (J. G., Zool. 1883,
pp- 165, 166).

The Turnstone occurs in small numbers in mcst springs near Kingsbridge, and is
abundant there in the autumn. In May 1889, Mr. E. A. 8S. Elliot found a small
flock about the rocks outside the harbour at Kingsbridge, and shot some, which proved
to be all old males (R. P. N. and E. A. 8. E., MS. Notes), A female was procured on
the Exe in August 1839 (F. W. L. R., MS. Journ. ii. p. 55). Two were seen by us
just below Topsham, April 24th, 1856. Some on the Exe estuary, August 1870. One
was shot below Topsham, August 23rd, 1876. Other specimens have occurred on the
Exe estuary and at Exmouth, but the dates were not recorded. We have also seen
Turnstones on the sea-beach near Teignmouth, and they have occurred on the Teign
(Trans. Devon. Assoe. vi. p. 711), but these birds appear to be more plentiful on the
northern than on the southern coast of the county. Very large flocks occurred at
Instow, September 14th, 1871 (J. H. G., Zool. 1871, p. 2845), and family parties of
five or seven were numerous in September 1874 (G. F. M., Zool. 1874. p. 4251).
Four were seen on Braunton Burrows, August 21st, 1886 (O. V. A., Zool. 1887, p. 71).
The Turnstone is only an occasional visitor to Lundy Island (Trans. Devon. Assoc. viii.
p. 309), where Mr. Howard Saunders saw a pair on May 28th, 1861 (Yarrell’s B.
Birds, 4th ed. ti. p. 290).

Oyster-catcher. Mwmatopus ostralegus, Linn.
[Sea Pie.]

Partially resident, but principally only a passing visitor in spring and
autumn. It formerly bred amongst the rocks near Start Point (E. A. 8. E.).
Some remain allthe year, especially on the north coast, and a few breed on
Lundy Island (Trans. Devon. Assoc. viii. p. 307). It is rarely common at
any time on the south coast, but is most frequently met with in small
parties from August to October, on the sea-shore and in the river
estuaries, and is then sometimes in adult winter plumage, but more
generally the specimens met with at that season are immature birds.

The whistle of the Sea Pie is one of the familiar sounds of the coast,
and at all times of the year the bird may be met with on its favourite
haunts upon the shingly beach, or on the mussel-beds when these have
been left bare by the retreating tide. It is not so often seen upon shores

CHARADRIIDA. 309

composed exclusively of sand or ooze. A few pairs remain in the west of
England, to nest on such places as Lundy Island, on Steart [sland at the
mouth of the Bridgwater river, on the Scilly Isles, and on the Dorsetshire
coast near Poole; but the greater number go north, returning in large flocks
in the autumn. Early in August little parties consisting of old birds and
their broods, which have been reared perhaps at no great distance, make
their appearance at Instow, in North Devon, and are then very tame, and
the young birds we have found to be excellent for the table. In the
winter-time we have seen enormous flocks of Sea Pies off the Northam
Burrows, but these great gatherings, comprising many hundreds, admit
of no approach. Their shrill, chattering ery can be heard at a great
distance. Col. Montagu has remarked that the Sea Pie never leaves the
coast, but had he travelled much in Scotland he would have found the
Sea Pie in the breeding-season not rare many miles inland, feeding in
meadows in company with Jackdaws and Hoodies, and nesting on the
pebbly margins of rivers and lochs.

We have found the nest of this bird placed on the top of islands off
the Pembrokeshire coast among the fern, and, standing close to some
newly-hatched young ones, have had the two old nied: flying low and
anxiously above our heads, when we greatly admired the handsomely
contrasted plumage of pure white and jetty black with the bright orange
bill and pink-coloured legs, effectively seen against a background of the
purest blue sky.

At Plymouth Dr. E. Moore found the Sea Pie not uncommon near the sea-shore in
small flocks in winter (Trans. Plym. Lust. 1880, p. 322). One was killed in 1854, and
two September 9th, 1855 (B., MS. Notes). Nine were seen on May 16th, and several
young birds on August 25th, 1873; nine were killed on the Breakwater, September
8th ; and several in Derember 1876. Some occurred along the coast in September
1879 and in October 1881. Sea Pies were plentiful at the end of August 1882, when
a flock of thirteen was seen on the Tamar. A curious variety, with a narrow white
streak running from the base of the under mandible down the throat, was killed in
December 1882 (J. G., Zool. 1878, pp. 3629, 8719; 1876, p. 5045; 1877, p. 47; 1880,

p. 47; 1882, pp. 65, 459; 1883, p. 166).

' “Tt is not very common on the coast near Kingsbridge. Some undoubtedly bred
amongst the rocks near Start Point some years ago, on the evidence of Mr. Holdsworth,
but the colony was entirely destroyed by some miscreant staying at the time at ‘Tor-
cross, who shot the whole lot. I have seen them a few times on the coast, but only
once in the estuary. A pair were killed at Thurlestone in the autuinn of 1876, and
two were seen at Bantham, August 50th, 1879. A bird kept alive at Plymouth made
an interesting pet, and was remarkably tame and playful” (. A. 8. E., MS. Notes).

On the Exe a Sea Pie was killed in September 1845, and one shot there in the
summer of 1851 had a sharp-pointed bill (F. W. L. R., MS. Journ. ii. p. 152). Mr. W.
H. Beadon brought us a female which he saw struck down and killed by a Great
Black-backed Gull on the mud-banks below Topsham on February 24th, 1853. Tt had
a very large wound in the side, and the Gull attempted to carry it off in its bill, but
dropped it after taking it up abont twenty feet in the air. Mr. Ross possessed a
specimen that was nearly all black, obtained in the spring of 1855. Two were shot in
August, and one with a white throat on September 4th, 1876, We saw another
specimen with a white throat for sale in Exeter on October 5th, 1880. Four were
seen at Exmouth, September 8th, 1882; two or three occurred there in September 185%),
and several were obtained in September 1890. We saw one on the beach on May
15th, and one was killed at the end of August 1891.

Mr. Cecil Smith saw one in Torbay in August 1875. Two were seen by us near
Teignmouth, August 25rd, 1876.

310 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

Family SCOLOPACIDZ.

THE SANDPIPERS AND SNIPES.

The great family of the Scolopacide includes a number
of interesting birds, whose haunts are moors and marshes,
the edges of inland pools and streams, and the sand-flats
and oozes of the coast. Among them are included such
familiar birds as those favourites of the sportsman, the
Woodcock and the Snipe. Few of them are ever to be
seen unless they are sought for in the special localities
they frequent, highly cultivated land being avoided by
them as affording little prospect of their needed fcod.
They are nearly all migrants to our country from high
latitudes, and some of them seek such distant nesting-
quarters that their eggs are still almost unknown. Although
this family has been for years the object of our special
search, and we have wandered far and wide after them,
over many a mile of marsh and by many a shore, vet we
have gained more knowledge into their habits from a few
visits to the Fish House at the Zoological Gardens than
we could ever have acquired from only flushing and
shooting them in their wild state. A few examples of
the rarer Sandpipers visiting our country have been kept
alive at various times at the Zoological Gardens, and by
watching them we have had revealed to our eyes many a
secret—e. g., what the Ruff does, when he feeds and drinks,
with his seemingly inconvenient excess of neck-feathers ;
how the Godwits and Avocets work their long and strange-
shaped beaks in procuring food, and so on; even the
Knots and Common Sandpipers, when studied at the
distance of a few inches, became better known to us than
they had been before. Most of the birds of this family
have more or less elongated legs and toes, which bear them

SCOLOPACID.&. atl.

up as they tread and run daintily over the soft oozes where
they feed, and long beaks for probing the ground for
worms. . They all of them lay comparatively large pear-
shaped eggs upon the ground, usually four in number,
which are invariably arranged with the tapering ends
pointing inwards; and all their eggs are beautifully
coloured with different shades of green and russet, and are
thus protected from easy discovery owing to their har-
mouizing with the tints of the surrounding ground. ‘They
are all somewhat wary and “sporting ’-looking birds,
flying with great swiftness when flushed, and, from their
connection with moor and bog, sandy shores, and wild
scenery, are objects of interest to the sportsman and
naturalist alike. Their young when hatched are covered
with down, and a few hours after emerging from the shell
they are able to run about and feed themselves. Devonshire
and Cornwall are remarkable for the number of American
representatives of this family which have visited these two
counties. These are nine* in number, as against three
recorded by Mr. Stevenson for the great county of Norfolk,

* Pectoral Sandpiper, Tringa maculata. Devon (North), Cornwall, and Seil'y
Isles.

Bonaparte’s Sandpiper, Tringa fuscicollis. Devon (North), Cornwall, and Scilly
Isles,

American Stint, Tringa minutilla. Devon (North) and Cornwall.

Bulf-breasted Sandpiper, TZryngites rufescens. Devon (North, Lundy) and
Cornwall.

Bartram’s Sandpiper, Actiturus longicauda. Cornwall and Somerset.

Solitary Sandpiper, Totanus solitarius. Cornwall, Scilly Isles.

Yellowshank, Totanus flavipes. Cornwall.

Red-breasted Snipe, Macrorhamphus griseus. Devon (South) and Cornwall, Scilly
Isles.

Esquimaux Curlew, Numenius Lorealis. Cornwall, Scilly Isles,

The Spotted Sandpiper, Tringoides macularius (Linn.), another American species, is
mentioned by Dr. Moore, on the authority of Mr. Newton, as having been obtained on
Dartmoor (Rowe’s Peramb. Dartmoor). ‘The species is not admitted into the British
List by Mr. Howard Saunders, and there is no well-authenticated instance of its
occurrence in the British Islands. It is closely allied to our Common Sandpiper or
Summer Snipe. The Yellowshank mentioned by the late Mr. Ross in his MS.
Journal of Occurrences in Natural History, vol. iii. p. 52, shot on the Exe in 1840,
was probably a young Redshank.

312 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

perhaps the richest in all the kingdom in its list of
Waders.
We shall remark on the Phalaropes further on.

[ Observation.—There is a small Sandpiper, less in size than a Jack Snipe,
included in the British list, the Broad-billed Sandpiper, Limicola platy-
rhyncha, which has not yet been obtained in the 8. W. of England, and has
only occurred four or five times in the Eastern Counties, and once in
Ireland. This species is to be readily distinguished by its broad beak,
which gives it its name. Its summer-quarters come as close to us as
Sweden and Norway, so that it is singular it does not oftener visit this
country. In its breeding-plumage it has dark feathers on the back, edged
with yellow and rufous, and in its winter dress it is grey like the
Dunlin. |

Avocet. Recurvirostra avocetta, Linn.

A casual visitor, of rare occurrence, in autumn, winter, and spring.

In former days this singular-looking bird was a regular summer visitor
to the fenlands in the eastern counties, where it nested commonly. It is
now only a rare occasional straggler to this country, and has been but
seldom seen in Devonshire.

Polwhele mentions a specimen obtained on the Dart (Hist. of Devon). Dr. E.
Moore says that Avocets had been often seen on the Exe, from whence Mr. Comyns
obtained the two in his collection. One in the possession of Mr. Tripe was shot on the
Tamar (Trans. Plym. Inst. 1830, p. 331). He also mentions Avocets obtained on the
Tavy and the Kingsbridge estuary (Rowe’s Peramb. Dartmoor, p. 234). These pro-
bably comprised the four mentioned by Yarrell as having been obtained in Devonshire
(B. Birds, 2nd ed. ii. p. 625). One near Plymouth in Noy. 1854 (J. G., ‘ Naturalist,’
1855, p. 72; Morris, B. Birds, iv. p. 225).

An Avocet was shot by Mr. Prettijohn, of Charleton, on the Kingsbridge estuary, in
the autumn of 1839 (H. N., Zool. 1847, p. 1694: and MS. Notes). Three, a maleand
two females, were shot in the same locality early in October 1880; two of these, a
male and female, on 5th and 18th of the month, fell to the gun of Mr. E. A. 8. Elliot.
The male, the largest, measured 17 inches in length, and weighed 103 oz. The
females were 15% inches long, and weighed 9 oz. each (H. N., Zool. 1880, p. 486; and
E. A. S. E., MS. Notes).

One was shot on the Dart, September 1874 (G. F. M., Zool. 1874, p. 4250). A
fiock cf six was seen on the Exe estuary in November 1837 (F. W. L. R., MS. Journ.
i. p. 44). One killed on Dawlish Warren, in December 1844, is now in the A. M. M.
(W.R.S., Zool. 1845, p. 983). One obtained on the Exe estuary, October 6th, 1855,
was nearly entirely white in plumage, having very little black on it (W. D’U., Zool. 1854,

. 4895). We believe this specimen was in Mr. Byne’s collection. One shot on the
Exe, March 20, 1867, is in the A. M. M. ‘Two were obtained at the end of October
1888, at Exmouth.

In the winter of 1855, a small flock frequented the estuary of the Taw and Torridge,
and three were shot near Bideford. Many years had to pass before another Avocet
could be recorded from North Devon, and it was not until the month of November
(15th) 1888, that one was obtained near Instow, which is now in the Museum of the
Westward Ho! College. Another was shot on the Barnstaple river on the following
day,

SCOLOPACID®. ala

In Cornwall the Avocet is also very rare, as Mr. Rodd could mention
only two; one of these, shot close to the Land’s End, 13th Sept.,
1847, he examined in the flesh. Since the publication of his book, a third
Cornish example has been recorded by Mr. H. P. Hart (Zool. 1880,
p. 487), which was shot on the river Fal, near Truro, August 21st, 1880.
We are not aware of any Somerset Avocet; but in Dorsetshire a few have
occurred, the most recent one mentioned by Mr. Mansel-Pleydell having
been obtained at Poole in 1869.

Avocets appear to be nowhere numerous on the Continent, except in the
marshes of Southern Russia. The long recurved beak of the bird is used
for the purpose of scooping the mud in search of worms; zigzag lines will
be found traced on the sand and ooze wherever any Avocets have been
feeding. A flock of Avocets is very noisy, and in old times the birds were
called “Yelpers” by the fenmen, on account of their vociferous cries.
The birds employ their long legs in wading deep into the water, and it
is said that they also swim with ease, the toes being webbed.

Black-winged Stilt. Himantopus candidus, Bonnat.

An accidental visitor, of extremely rare occurrence. No specimen has
been obtained in Devonshire within the last half-century.

Two are recorded by Dr. E. Moore; one occurred at Slapton Ley, according to Mr,
Gosling, and the other was in the possession of Mr. Comyns (Trans. Plym. Inst. 185.),
p. 331; and Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837, p. 322). Dr. A. G. C. Tucker includes the Black-
winged Stilt in his list of some rare birds discovered near Ashburton. A Mr. Stephens
assured Mr. Walter Moyle that one of these birds (Himantopus) had been shot at
“Brampton [guery Braunton] on the North Sea, in Devonshire” (The works of
Walter Moyle, Esq., in two vols. London, 1726, fide Harting, in Rodd’s ‘ Birds of
Cornwall,’ Introduction, p. xxx).

This curious bird, which derives its name from the extreme and
seemingly disproportionate length of its legs, is only a summer visitor to
the southern counties of Europe, from Asia and Northern Africa, very
rarely indeed straying so far north as England. With the exception of
the one referred to by Mr. Moyle, the only Devonshire occurrences belong
to the south of the county. In Cornwall five were once killed at a shot
near Penzance, about the year 1720 (Rodd, ‘ Birds of Cornwall,’ p. xxx) ;
but the only specimen Mr. Rodd knew of recent years was one which was
shot at the Swanpool, near Falmouth, and recorded by Mr. Cocks (¢ Natu-
ralist,’ 1851, p. 114).

We have seen one from Somerset, which was shot near Bridgwater many
years ago, and was first in the collection of Mr. Straddling, of Chilton
Polden, but now belongs to Mr. H. Mathias, of Haverfordwest. On the
authority of Mr. W. Thompson, Mr, Mansel-Pleydell has recorded a Black-
winged Stilt, which was shot at Lodmoor, in Dorset, in 1837.

514 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

THE PHALAROPES.

The Phalaropes are very graceful birds, lobe-footed, and
elegant swimmers, and of the two European species the
Red-necked Phalarope, which is the smaller, breeds annu-
ally in a few places in Scotland and in the Hebrides, while
the Grey Phalarope is an autumn visitor to our coasts from
the far north. ‘They are both remarkable for the changes
in their plumage, which in the summer dress has more or
less red about it, and in the autumn has the red replaced
by grey. ‘The same changes are also characteristic of most
of the Sandpipers. The Grey Phalarope is more nume-
rous as a species, and after severe autumn gales is occa-
sionally driven into the English and Bristol Channels in
large flocks. In the first edition of Yarrell’s ‘ British Birds,’
we find the Phalaropes placed between the Rails and the
Geese; but they are now regarded as members of the
Sandpiper family, with which they have more affinity in
their habits, colour of their eggs, long secondaries of the
Wings, structure of the tail, &c., than they have with
the Coots, which they only resemble in their lobed feet.
Their true position, however, in our opinion, is near the
Gulls and ‘Terns, birds they resemble in their marine
habits, the buoyancy with which they swim in the rough-
est sea, the facility with which they can rise from the
surface of the water, the manner in which they cross the tips
of their wings over their backs when swimming, the
texture and the delicate grey and white colour of their
plumage (in winter), and the great variability of their eggs.

Red-necked Phalarope. Phalaropus hyperboreus
(Linn.).

A casual visitor, of very rare occurrence.
An immature example was obtained at Plymouth in 1831 (J.G.), An
adult, in summer plumage, was killed on the Hamoaze just off Torpoint,

SCOLOPACID. B15

June 7th, 1869 (J. G., Zool. 1869, p. 1920). Mr. J. H. Gurney received
this bird from Mr. Gatcombe and (ells us it is a perfect specimen. In an
annotated copy of Dr. E. Moore’s List of Devonshire Birds, lent to us by
Mr. Gatcombe, we found the following entry concerning this species :—
* Bolitho had a specimen in winter plumage, shot near Bovisand.” This
must have been the example obtained in 1831 mentioned above, and
appears to have been killed in the autumn.

In September 1881, a Red-necked Phalarope, in winter plumage, was
shot on Dosmare Pool, on the Bodmin Moors. Mr. J. Gatcombe saw this
bird in a bird-stuffer’s shop at Liskeard (Zool. 1881, p. 197). In the
Truro Museum we saw one almost in complete summer plumage, which
had been received from Looe. The Red-necked Phalarope has been ob-
tained on other occasions in Cornwall, and on the Scilly Isles, generally in
October. We have no record of one from Somerset, and in Dorset it
occurs very rarely in company with flocks of the Grey Phalarope.

The Red-necked Phalarope is described as being an exceedingly tame
and confiding bird, utterly fearless of man, and as swimming with ease
and grace, resembling a miniature duck. On the Orkney Islands it is said
to have been exterminated to satisfy the greed of collectors; but in the
Hebrides, where it is still permitted to survive, it places its cup-shaped
nest, composed of grass and a fine kind of reed, close to the edge of some
pond or lake. In Mr. Dresser’s beautifully illustrated ‘ Birds of Europe,’
vol. vil., there is a very pretty picture of a pair of Red-necked Phalaropes,
attended by their freshly-hatched young. Mr. W. Theobald, late Deputy
Superintendent, Geological Survey of India, kindly informed us that this
species was obtained in Madras in 1854,

Grey Phalarope. Phalaropus fulicarius (Linn.).
{Coot-footed Sandpiper. |

A passing visitor, usually in autumn, appearing about the middle or
end of September and in October, remaining occasionally til! December or
January. ‘This Phalarope is seldom seen in spring, and is generally met
with on, or near, the coast, rarely far inland.

A slightly larger and more northern species, and going by the name of
the Grey Phalarope, because it is usually observed on our coasts in its
grey winter plumage, this species might well be termed the Red Phalarope,
if we named it in accordance with its dress in summer, As hardly an
autumn passes without a few being noticed it might almost be considered
a regular visitant, and in some years, when violent south-westerly gales
blow in September or October, the migrating flocks on their passage south
are driven into the English and Bristo] Channels, and are noticed in great
numbers along the sea-shore. These pretty little tempest-tossed wan-
derers meet with the usual hospitality accorded to “rare birds,” and are
shot down, or stoned to death, while they are vainly seeking shelter on
the beach. We have frequently had the pleasure of seeing them on the
Barnstaple river in September and October, either single birds or two or

316 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

three together, and this in tranquil weather when there had been no
previous gales to send them to our coasts.

One day when sailing from Barnstaple to Instow, we passed quite close
to two swimming like tiny ducks upon the water. We have one in our
collection which was shot at Instow in January, which is in perfect
winter plumage. Several which we have seen obtained in the autumn
had still traces of the summer plumage in the yellow and rufous edges to
some of the feathers. These Phalaropes present a good instance of the
method by which a change of colour is accomplished in the plumage ot
various birds—not by shedding the feathers, but by the wearing off of
their margins and the growth of the feathers outwards. The autumn of
1866 was memorable for the great number of Phalaropes which appeared
upon our southern coasts after a great storm. Numbers were reported
both from North and South Devon, as well as from the Cornish and
Dorset coasts; and the Bristol Channel shared in the visitation, as
some were procured at Weston-super-Mare. A few were driven far
inland, appearing in strange places, one having been actually caught
inside the railway-station at Bishop’s Lydeard. The violent southerly
gale of October 12th and 13th, 1891, again compelled a vast number of
Grey Phalaropes to seek the shelter of our southern coasts. Flocks of a
hundred or more were noticed at Weymouth, as many as had been seen in
Poole Harbour on a former visitation, and there was not a locality on the
sea-board of the S.W. counties from which Grey Phalaropes were not
reported. Mr. G. F. Mathew, R.N., twice crossed the Bay of Biscay in
H.M.S. ‘ Tyne’ during that stormy month, and informs us that on the 4th,
in the middle of the Bay, the ship passed through several small flocks of
Grey Phalaropes; and on 28th, on their return from Malta, the birds
were encountered again about the same spot. A strong Nor’-easter was
blowing, and the Grey Phalaropes were sitting very buoyantly on the
water, and were so tame that they would hardly get out of the way of
the ship. They were in little flocks of five or seven.

The Grey Phalaropes obtained on ovr shores are almost always in immature or
winter plumage, but Mr. Gatecombe shot a female in September 1866, strongly stained
with red on the under surface (Zool. 1866, p. 500). Mr. Henry Nicholls, of Kings-
bridge, killed a fine male in summer plumage in May 1844; it was swimmirg
between the quays off Pindar Lodge (H. N., MS. Notes). One in moult, with some
orange-brown feathers of the breeding-plumage still remaining, was captured alive by
a boy in Stonehouse Creek, on August Sth, 1876 (J. G., Zool. 1876, p. 5U83). A speci-
men, in full summer plumage, which was in the collection of the late Mr. Bond, was
said to have been obtained in Devonshire. Phalaropes are rarely seen after October,
and winter occurrences are not frequent. One was seen in December 1872, and one on
January 10th, 1873, at Plymouth, and these were the only two instances known to
Mr. Gatcombe in thirty years up to 1873. One occurred at Kingsbridge, Decem-
ber 17th, 1875, and one at Devil's Point, Stonehouse, December 5th, 1876 (J. G., 1868,
p- 3445; 1877, p. 46; and in “itt.). One at Bantham, November 27th, and another
at the same place December 4th, 1880 (KE. A.S. E.). There appears to be a large form
which is occasionally met with. One obtained on Northam Burrows on September 24th,
1869, measured 10 inches in length (Zool. 1870, p. 2025); and one at Plymouth in
October 1870, was nine inches long (Zool. 1871, p. 2442). (The length of a female,
which is slightly larger than the male, is given as eight and a quarter inches in the
4th ed. of Yarrell, vol. iii. p. 314.) The contents of the stomachs of various Grey

SCOLOPACID.2. al7

Phalaropes examined by Mr. J. Gatcombe, in October 1886, consisted of the bodies
and wings of sinail brown beetles, one valve of a very thin and minute marine shell,
and many fragments of decayed seaweeds (Zool. 1887, p. 377).

In October 1831, great numbers of Phalaropes accompanied a large dead Rorqual
floating in the Channel, which was brought into Plymouth Sound (4. M., Mag. Nat.
Hist, 1837, p. 322).

Great flights visited the south coast of Devon in October 1845 and October 1846.
In the latter year we had the pleasure of watching a flock of seven which remained for
several days swimming about in our marsh at Newport, near Topsham, which was flooded
at the time. They swam briskly about, always changing direction together exactly at
the same inoment, and looked like miniature ducks. They were all shot, and several
of them are in the A.M. M. The late Dr. W, R. Scott relates that several were
killed on the quay at Exeter in October 1845. Large flocks visited the south coast at
that time, and they appeared to have had a long flight and to be quite worn out, so
much so, that many were caught with the hand, others knocked down with sticks, and
large numbers were shot as they sat till very closely approached (Zool. 1849, p. 2384).
In September 1866, large numbers visited the county, being most numerous on the
south coast. Two were obtained as far inland as Tiverton. In September, October, and
November 1870, large flocks appeared on both the north and south coast (Zool. 1871,
pp. 2423, 2442), and this bird was again numerous in September and October 1875
(Zool. 1875, pp. 4717, 4739) and October 1891. An interesting account of the last
visitation to the S.W. coast of the county was communicated by Mr. Edmund Elliot
to the ‘ Field,’ October 17th, 1891. Hundreds visited Torbay (W. E.). We saw a few
at Exmouth between the 14th and 18th October, and ten were shot there. They were
very tame, and allowed us to approach quite close to them as they swam about
amongst the rocks, incessantly dipping their bills in the water,

In North Devon the Rev. Marcus Rickards saw and procured many
specimens of the Grey Phalarope in different years on the Northam Bur-
rows. Some were met with swimming on ponds in the middle of the
Lurrows, and one was noticed on a little stream in company with some
ducks, A large flock occurred on these Burrows in 1866, and other flocks
were seen after the great gales of October 1891. Grey Phalaropes run
upon the ground as lightly and gracefully as the Common Sandpiper.

The records of the occurrences of the Grey Phalarope in Devon are
very numerous, We find that some were obtained in each of the follow-
ing years, those marked with an asterisk being remarkable for large
flights, viz. :—1821, -28, -31*, —40, -44, -45*, -46*, —49, -53, -56, —57,
—66*, —67, -68, -69, —-70*, —72, -73, -74, -75*, -76, -77, -80, -81, —82,
-86, -89, -91*.

The Grey Phalarope spends the summer in the far North, nesting
commonly in Greenland and other circumpolar regions,

Mr. J. H. Gurney says that “ observations show that the North Sea is
not in the line of route which the main body of Grey Phalaropes take in
autumn, and this, it may be, is because they come from Greenland ”
(‘ Field,’ Nov. 14th, 1891), The greater portion probably pass south to
the west of Ireland. This accounts for their being so much more nume-
rous in the 8.W. counties after southerly gales than they are on the east
coast of England; and on the return migration in spring they probably
follow the same line, hence they are not often met with at that season on
our shores, as they keep far out at sea, Some few find their way by the
Khine and Rhone valleys to the Mediterranean, and even to the Arabian
sea, stragglers reaching Bombay. One specimen was obtained by Mr. E,

318 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

Blyth in the Calcutta Bazaar. We have seen either this species or
Wilson’s Phalarope, or perhaps both kinds, very numerous in small parties
at sea off the coast of California in October, but they were rather wild.

Woodcock. Scolopax rusticula, Linn.
[Muff-cock (VY. Dev.). |

A resident in small numbers, but principally a winter visitor.

The mild and humid climate of Devonshire, with the numerous covers
abounding in warm springs that extend on either side of its sheltered
valleys, make it a favourite resort of Woodcocks, which are generally
plentiful, and in severe winters, when a large part of the kingdom is
deeply covered with snow, they flock into it from all quarters, being then
especially abundant in covers near the coast. The Devonshire Wood-
cocks, like most of those obtained on the western side of the kingdom,
belong almost exclusively to the red race ; specimens of the grey eastern
form are very rarely seen. Extra large birds go by the name of ‘“ Muft-
cocks ” in North Devon.

Very large arrivals. of Woodcocks take place at Bindon and Dowlands, near
Axmouth, on moonlight nights in October (G. P. R. P., ‘Book of the Axe,’ p. 25).
Forty-two couples were shot in Shute Park in the season of 1883-84, as we learn from
Mr. T. Clode, steward to Sir W. E. Pole. Woodcocks are sometimes plentiful in
Woodleigh Woods, near Kingsbridge (HK. A. 8. E.). In November and December
1890, at a time of severe frost, they were very numerous in many parts of the
county. Woodeocks very rarely strike the lantern of the Start Lighthouse, and have
not been reported from the Eddystone.

This bird is sometimes met with in South Devon in August and September. Two
were killed near Bovey, September 25th, 1864. One was seen on Wooda Farm,
Stratton, in Cornwall, just over the border of Devon, early in August 1890 (‘Exeter
Gazette’), but no more were seen until 10th November following. It has often been
obtained about 6th October, but the 10th October is generally considered the average
date of the first arrival, the main body seldom appearing before the middle of that
month, and many continue to arrive up to the middle of December. The time of
departure is the beginning of March. On Lundy Island Woodcocks have been seen
as late as May and as early as August (H. G. Heaven, Trans. Devon. Assoc. viii.
p- 808). Several instances of Woodcocks breeding in Devon are known. Polwhele
says it breeds on Dartmoor, and Dr. E. Moore records a young bird which was shot at
Cann Down, near Bickleigh Vale, in May 1850 (Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837, p. 319; Rowe's
Peramb. Dartmoor, p. 251). Bellamy also says ‘‘it has been known to breed here”
(Nat. Hist. $8. Devon, p. 211). In 1853 a nest with four eggs was found in the parish
of Whitstone, near Exeter. The young were hatched on April 23rd, as we were
informed by the late Mr. Thomas Floud, on whose property the nest was found
(W. D’U.). Three Woodecocks were flushed early in April 1891, near Stockleigh
(‘ Exeter Gazette’ for April 6th, 1891). Woodcocks bred in France Wood, near
Stokeley, in 1591, several being seen during the summer months (W. V. T.).

We knew of a Woodcock being caught among some brambles in a small cover close
to Barnstaple in July, and years before any discussion on the subject had appeared,
either in the ‘Field’ or in the ‘Zoologist,’ we were told by a farmer who resided at
the top of a large wood, a very good Woodcock-cover, about midway between Barn-
staple and Ifracombe, in the parish of Bittadon, that he had seen the old Wood-
cocks in the spring carrying their young ones down to the “splashets” to feed. We
think that some of the ‘ early Woodcocks ” recorded in the autumn are most probably
birds which haye been hatched in the county.

SCOLOPACID&. 319

As most sportsmen are aware, Woodcocks vary greatly in weight, and we have put
numbers into the scales, our lightest having been 8}0z., and our heaviest exactly
double that weight, 17 0z. We have always considered a 12-oz. bird a good Cock.
Young birds of the year shot early in the season would average 10} oz. ; the heaviest
birds are met with after Christmas, our 17-0z. Woodcock was killed in North Devon
early in February.

White and cream-coloured varieties have been obtained and are not very rare.
Montagu had a cream-coloured specimen presented to him by Mr. Bulteel, of Flete ;
another was purchased in the Exeter Market by Mr. Comyns, who had also a white
variety shot by the Hon. Newton Fellowes at Exmouth (4. M., Trans. Plym. Inst.
1830, p. 326). One with white feathers in the wings was shot in 1837 on the manor
of Monkleigh, near Tiverton, having frequented the same spot for five years (Yarrell,
B. Birds, 2nd ed. iii. p. 16). A similar specimen occurred in North Devon in October
18389. Mr. T. Clode shot a buff-coloured Woodcock at Waitchcombe, near Honiton,
which was preserved by Mr. Anning, bird-stuffer, Honiton, for Mr. W. Baines, who
was at the time residing at Shute Park. A buff-coloured one, with white wings,
occurred to us in North Devon, anda white one was shot at Portledge that had been
seen in the covers for several seasons in succession.

Mr. J. Gatvombe has described a very pretty variety which was sent into Plymouth
from Cornwall, that had a pure white patch on the top of its head, a ring round
the neck taking in part of the chest, and white wing-coverts, the bases of the pri-
maries being also tinged with the same; the other parts were of the usual colour, or
perhaps a shade lighter, the whole plumage strongly reminding him of that of the
Snow-Bunting in winter ; its legs appeared to have been nearly of the usual tint, with
the exception of a pure white claw on one toe of each foot. In the same note he
mentions a singular way in which the boys of Looe and Polperro capture Woodcocks,
“with bent pins attached to a short string, one end fastened to a peg, which is
Griven into the ground, the pin baited with a worm. I have this year heard for
the first time of five Woodcocks having been taken by that method” (Zool. 1881,
pp. J6, 97).

At the beginning of the present century Woodcocks do not appear to
have been more numerous in the county than they are at the present day,
if Col. Montagu’s game-lists, kept by him at the time he resided at Kings-
bridge, are to be considered as any evidence. From some of these in our
possession (which we received from the Rey. J. Hellins), it would appear
that Col. Montagu took great interest in the pursuit of Woodcocks, as
they are chiefly recorded, to the exclusion of other game, the number
flushed each day, the number fired at, and those brought to bag being
carefully set down, as well as the various woods which were tried. The
commonest entry is “4 flushed, 2 killed,” and 13 was the greatest
number seen by the Colonel in any one day during the period covered by
these lists. We consider that the system of Pheasant-preserving and the
battue have largely contributed of recent years to the increase of the
Woodcock all over England. When a great cover is shot through it is
quite common for the Woodcocks when flushed, as we have frequently
noticed, to fly back over the beaters’ heads, or if they come towards the
guns to fly so low, about the height of a man’s shoulders, as to offer a
very dangerous shot which few would venture to take, and thus at the
end of the day not many appear in the bag. Probably this cover is only
shot once or twice again at the outside, the majority of the Woodcocks
escaping as before, and is then, for the sake of the Pheasants, kept quiet
until the following season. Being thus practically undisturbed in many
a large wood, more and more Woodcocks every year remain in the south

320 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

of England to nest, and the stock throughout the kingdom is largely
increased. We generally saw the first Woodcock on 7th or 8th October,
on Dartmoor, The bird would usually flip up from the heather at some
spot where it was least expected, not unfrequently when we were sitting
by the side of a big stone eating our lunch, and, disappearing at once
over a rounded hillock, would be lost ere we could mark it down. We
never found many Woodcocks on the open moor, but sometimes they
would be plentiful in the small covers on its edges. During heavy snow
we have known upwards of twenty couple of Woodcocks to have been
shot in one day on the Braunton Burrows, and in similar weather large
bags are made in the woods at Lynmouth. In one famous cock-cover in
North Devon we have been told of thirty-five and a half couple having
been shot in a day’s beat. In former days, before the island had become
cultivated, great numbers used to resort to Lundy in severe winters, such
as that of 1860, when we had the good luck to be visiting there. A
heavy fall of snow brought us at once a large flight of Woodcocks, which
made their appearance all over the island, one being actually found in
the kennel squatting in a corner, and another in the “ garden,”* hiding
behind the stump of a cabbage. On the first day we went after them we
made a bag of ninety-three head, Cock and Snipe, but the greater part
consisted of Cock. The birds would be frequently noticed either running
over the snow in front of the dogs, or squatting two together by the
side of a tump of grass or small tuft of furze, their bills resting on the
snow, and their tails overlapping, offering, when flushed, a very easy
double shot. As the snow and frost continued for three weeks, we had
constant fresh arrivals of Woodcocks, single birds being noticed in the
daytime coming down from a height and pitching on the ground, and we
had excellent sport every day we went out. Occasionally, when a Wood-
cock was flushed, it uttered a chattering cry, very similar to that of the
Fieldfare, and we do not remember to have heard this ery anywhere else.
Sometimes a Cock, shot at the edge of the sidlings, fell over into the sea
below, where it was instantly seized and devoured by Gulls. Most
sportsmen who have shot Woodcocks must have had instances in their
experience of birds dropping as if dead to the shot, and then rising again
and going off as if completely uninjured when an attempt was made to
pick them up. In the game-larder at Lundy we had many couple of Cock
deposited on the shelves which had been shot on Christmas Eve, and
none being wanted for the next day, the door was not opened until the
morning of the 26th, when we heard screams proceeding from its neighbour-
hood, and found they came from the cook, who, on entering the larder,
had discovered four or five of the Woodcocks *‘ come to life again” and
running about on the floor! Sometimes Woodcocks may be seen in
strange places. Calling one day on a friend, we flushed one by his hall-
door which was squatting by the side of the scraper ; the bird disappeared
in the shrubbery. We were once ferreting with a keeper on the bare top

* The garden at Lundy is only a large square pit dug out of the ground, in which

a few vegetables are raised. The violent winds would uproot and sweep out to sea
anything planted on the unprotected surface of the ground,

SCOLOPACID.Z. BAL

of a hillin the Dartmoor country. The rabbits were bolting badly, and
the ferrets were lying up in an earth, where we were tediously kept for
upwards of an hour. The ground round the earth was quite bare, save
for one little tump of furze close at hand. We were stretched on the
ground listening at the holes in turn for any intimation of the ferret’s
whereabouts, and we chanced accidentally to give this tump of furze a
kick, when up sprang a Woodcock which had been lying close in it all
the time. We jumped up, seized our gun, and cocking a barrel fired
rather hastily at the bird, striking it, but not sufficiently to bring it
down, as it flew on over the plantations, and was finally lost to view
when heading in the direction of the house, half a mile distant in the
valley below. The next morning, while we were at breakfast, some one
opened the hall-door, and we heard an exclamation, and on going to see
what was the matter, found on one of the steps a Woodcock fluttering
with a broken wing—our bird, we thought, of the previous afternoon.
Our next story has referance to a Woodcock’s feigning death. It was
told us by a friend who used to shoot in a very favourite Woodcock-cover
in Cornwall. One day, having had good sport, bagging several couple,
he called at the house of an old lady who owned the wood, as he was on
his way home, to leave her a present. He rang the front-door bell ;
the servant came: ‘‘ My compliments to your mistress, and I wish to
give her a couple of Cocks ;” and then his man took one out of the bag
and handed it to the servant; but, on taking out the second, as he re-
laxed his grasp to put it into the servant’s hands, the bird gave a sudden
start and tlew away! My friend had his gun loaded, and fired at the
Cock as it was going over the house, dropping it en the roof. ‘ There!”
said he to the servant, “you will find the other wp on the leads.” Our
own Woodcock-covers are very furzy and full of brambles, and in working
through them we were continually losing our silk pocket-handkerchiefs,
which were dragged from our pockets by the thorns. These we some-
times found on going subsequently the same beats. One frosty morning
we perceived a small white patch shining like silver in the sun on the
other side of a narrow valley, and crossing over discovered it to be one of
our white silk handkerchiefs frozen stiff as a board and covered with
hoar-frost. It was resting on the tops of some dwarf furze, and as we
lifted it up we flushed a fine Cock which was squatting beneath it, which
we marked into the cover and bagged.

On Lundy Island we saw a Woodcock shot when it was sitting on the
top of a stone wall, and once in a cover in North Devon a Woodcock
which had been flushed several times alighted on a limb of a large Scotch
fir some ten feet above the ground,

Woodcocks lie very dead in the covers, and are often passed both by
the beaters and by the spaniels. We had a small strip of plantation
which invariably held a Cock, and we went to it one day with a spaniel
we had on trial. The dog worked it up and down, and nothing rose, and
we then went and tapped an accustomed bush with our gun-barrel, when
immediately a Cock was flushed, which we shot. We have often detected
a Woodcock on the ground—not an easy thing to do, as the plumage of

Y

Boe THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

the bird so exactly resembles in its tints and markings the fallen leaves
and twigs amongst which it is crouching, and the instant the bird’s eye
has caught ours, and it has perceived that it has been seen, it has risen
on wing. Sometimes, instead of flying up, Woodcocks will run on a little
through the cover and crouch in another shelter, and when we have been
standing in a ride cover-shooting we have seen two or three run across
one after the other. The cleverest cocking dog we ever possessed was a
black-and-white fox-terrier. This little animal used to find more Cocks
than our whole pack of spaniels, and when she came to a rhododendron
bush, beneath which a Cock was harbouring, she would prick her ears,
looking steadfastly forward in the direction of the bird, standing for a
few seconds pointing with one fore leg raised, generally giving us time to
come up before her pounce into the bush flushed the bird. She was also
an excellent retriever, finding and bringing us the Cocks from the densest
tangle, or from the streams into which they were sometimes dropped ; and,
in our opinion, the picking up and bringing to the bag a dead Cock is, in
a difficult cover, quite as meritorious an act, and to be counted as far
towards the attainment of the bird, as the mere shooting of it. In spite
of good retrievers Cocks are very frequently lost, especially in furzy covers
intersected by small streams, as the birds, falling into the water, are
carried down and deposited under some tangled growth of furze and
bramble, where it is impossible to discover them. In very hard frosts
the thick orchard hedges, which generally have warm ditches by their
sides, are in North Devon a very favourite harbour for Woodcocks, and
many are shot from them. They are then also found by the banks of
little streams, where they will sometimes be flushed in company with
Snipe.

Woodcocks are extremely impatient of a high wind, leaving the ex-
posed covers, and crossing the valley to the sheltered sides. The best
Woodcock-covers will prove almost blank if they are tried when a cold
rough wind has been for a day or two blowing directly into them ; and,
like Snipe, Woodcocks are continually shifting about with the various
changes of the weather. One afternoon, when the season was far ad-
vanced, finding a dozen or more Cocks in one corner of a small cover, we
sent to a friend, who we knew would be very pleased to have a few shots
at them, to come and shoot with us the following day, but he came only
to find that they had all passed on elsewhere during the night.

At the end of October Woodcocks are not unseldom flushed in turnip-
fields ; they are fond of thick furze-brakes on hill-sides, and in covers
which have been largely planted with rhododendrons it is found that the
Woodcocks gladly shelter beneath the clumps. Woods with plenty of
oak-serub are also favourite resorts, and the first sharp frost sends all the
birds down to the alder-beds in the bottoms. It is well known that in
most districts where Woodcocks are plentiful there is some favourite spot
where the first Woodcock of the season is certain to be met with year
atter year, just as there are in every cover some particular dingles or
bushes where a Woodcock may be always flushed, and where if one be
shot another will soon take its place. The Woodcock is a solitary bird ;

SCOLOPACID &. ae

in mild weather it does not often happen that more than one is flushed at
a time, but in hard frosts the birds collect around some favourite
warm spring, and we have seen twenty or more put up from such places
together. In open weather the Woodcock dozes throughout the day
beneath his chosen shelter, and at dusk flies like a Hawk a few times up
and down the glades of the wood, or about its outskirts, before settling
down to feed on the splashets. When the birds alight on a favourite
soft place it is said that they proceed to bore a number of holes with
their bills, and then jump and stamp with their feet upon the ground
as hard as they can until worms issue from these holes, which they
immediately devour ; and Snipe are said to employ the same tactics. In
old days it was customary to hang up nets across the rides in the woods,
to catch the Woodcocks when they were ‘‘ roding ” at ‘ cock-shoot time,”
and covers where this was successfully done are still called ‘* cock-shoots;”
we have a cover with that name on our own property. We have known
many Woodcocks taken in North Devon, as well as Snipe, in osier springes,
and an old gardener of our acquaintance regularly in the winter-time had
his small gins set among the cabbage-plants for Woodcocks, and frequently
caught them. (Gardens, especially those with high walls round them, and
not far distant from woods, are much fayoured by Woodcocks, and having
such a garden of our own, in which we have repeatedly flushed Cocks
among the gooseberry bushes, among clumps of Jerusalem artichokes, &c.,
we speak from experience. In October, when shooting on the Barnstaple
river, we have more than once flushed a Woodcock on the bare sand-flats,
probably resting there after a long flight.

The Woodcock hollows out with her breast a little cup in the moss on
which she deposits her four eggs, which closely harmonize in their colour
with the dead leaves lying around.

The Woodcock has been detected nesting both in Cornwall and Dorset.
Large flights occasionally visit the Land’s End district and the Scilly
Islands, and great bags are made. Mr. Cecil Smith records no instance
of a Woodcock’s nest in Somerset, but it must surely breed in some of the
tine covers which fringe Exmoor and the Quantock Hills.

Mr. J. Gatcombe purchased in Plymouth Market a Woodcock which
had five toes on one of its feet; the hinder toe had another quite perfect
one growing from it (Zool. 1885, p. 21).

Great Snipe. (Gallinayo major (Gm.).
[Double Snipe. }

A casual visitor, occasionally met with in autumn on the moors. In
September and October 1868 no less than seyen specimens were obtained
in Devonshire.

This fine Snipe is only an occasional visitor from the North of Europe,
appearing more frequently in the eastern parts of the kingdom than it
does in any of the south-western counties. We have ourselves twice come
across it when Snipe-shooting, once on Dartmoor and once in Somerset.

YZ

324 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

The bird we found on Dartmoor was flushed wild, and marked down
among some big stones and furze on a dry hill-side, and could not be
moved again; but a few days later we were passing near the spot (this
was on 29th September), when we started it from a small wet patch, and
succeeded in bagging it, although an equinoctial gale was blowing at the
time, and the Snipe was caught up and drifted from us like a leaf. .The
one we found near Weston-super-Mare, in Somerset, lay as dead as a
Jack Snipe, and neither of the Great Snipes we have mentioned uttered
any cry when flushed.

The examples of the Great Snipe obtained in this country in the autumn
are invariably young birds, so that we feel confident that the ‘ adult”
reported as having been shot on Dartmoor on 23rd August, which we
include in our list of the occurrences of the bird within the county given
below, was a mistake. We have handled a great many British-killed
Great Snipes, and never saw one in the unmistakable adult plumage, and
we believe there is only a single instance on record of one having been
secured in this country in the spring in the complete mature dress.

In November 1846 a Great Snipe was killed on Dartmoor (E. M., Rowe’s Peramb.
Dartmoor, p. 231). One on Shaugh Moor, September 7th, 1850(R. A. T., ‘ Naturalist,’
1851, p. 142). One at Ashburton, October 7th, 1854. One at Plymouth, October 4th,
1856 (B., MS. Notes). Another at the same place, November 13th, 1858 (J. G., Zool.
1859, p. 6377). One at Stoke Canon, near Exeter, October 6th, 1868, now in the A.M.M.
One on Dartmoor, September 29th, 1868, and one at Witheridge, North Devon, in
the same month (M. A. M., Zool. 1868, p.1461). Four at Parracombe, North Devon,
in September and October 1868 (G. F. M., Zool. 1868, pp. 1460, 1464). One at
Morley, September 16th, 1871 (‘Field’ for September 30th, 1871). An adult on ~
Dartmoor, August 28rd, 1876; one weighing 740z., killed on Dartmoor, in October
1886 (J. G., Zool. 1876, p. 5126 ; 1887, p. 577). Several others have occurred. One
was killed on Lundy Island.

There is no instance of the nest of the Great Snipe having been found
anywhere in the United Kingdom. In the ‘ Ibis’ for 1861, p. 88, are
some very interesting notes respecting the breeding of this species at
Bodé, in Norway, by the Messrs. Godman, who, in May 1857, found ten
or fifteen pairs of the Great Snipe nesting together in a marsh near that
place, the birds apparently being sociable at the breeding-season. The
sitting bird conceals her eggs, and sometimes herself, with moss, which
she plucks off the ground around the nest and draws over her back with
her beak.

The Great Snipe has occurred several times both in Cornwall and
Dorset during the autumn. The weight of the bird is given as from
7 to 8 oz.

Common Snipe. Gallinago celestis (Frenzel).
[Full Snipe, Whole Snipe, Heather-bleater. ]

Resident locally, breeding in -small numbers on Dartmoor and its
neighbouring commons; in some places on the south-west coast; on all
the moors and in many marshy meadows in North Devon; also on

SCOLOPACID_E. 3295

Exmoor. The Snipe is, however, mainly a winter visitor, arriving con-
tinually from the end of August throughout the autumn and winter, and
remaining until the end of March or middle of April; the great bulk of
the foreign birds appearing early in October, and being followed by suc-
cessive smaller flights. Mr. F. W. L. Ross records three killed on the
Exe, August 6th, 1839, and we have on several occasions known a few
to occur on the Exe and on Haldon in August (1854, 1855, 1863,
1876), but these probably came from Dartmoor. Mr. E. A. 8. Elliot
rose two Snipe on Milton Ley, August 2nd, 1878, and young birds unable
to fly were seen there in 1890 (R. P.N.). On September 17th, 1853, we
saw about twenty Snipe flying singly up the estuary of the Exe in the
evening, evidently just arriving (W. D’U.).

In mild weather in the winter Snipe are plentiful on the bogs on
Dartmoor, and on their first arrival in the estuarine marshes of our
larger rivers and in marshy spots near the coasts. Severe frost also
brings them to the marsh-lands in considerable numbers. Very large
specimens occur on the Exe, as well as near Kingsbridge, on Dartmoor,
onthe Blackdown Hills, and elsewhere in the county. We have ourselves
shot several on the Exe which appear to belong to the variety russata of
Gould. These large Snipe le very much closer than the ordinary birds
usually do, and we have found it very difficult to flush them, as they
allowed us to almost tread on them before they would rise. One of this
variety shot on Dartmoor in December 1861 weighed 7} oz. (cf. a note
by Mr. Gatcombe in the ‘Zoologist,’ 1862, p. 7938; and one by Mr. J.
brooking Rowe, Zool. 1866, p. 97). There is a fine example in the
A. M. M., shot by Mr. W. H. Beadon on Blackdown in January 1853.
On the Exe this large race was known to gunners as the ‘* Double Snipe,”
the ordinary form being called ‘* Whole Snipe” or “ Full Snipe,’ and the
Jack Snipe was termed “‘ Half Snipe.”

A Snipe in the A. M. M. derived from Mr. Ross’s collection, but with
its place of occurrence unknown, was submitted to the late Mr. John
Gould, and cousidered by him “a variety of the Common Snipe, connect-
ing Sabine’s Snipe with the Ruddy Snipe” (cn lité.). There is also in
the same museum a curious melanistic variety of the male shot in 1830,
aud presented by the late Mr, Ralph Sanders. Mr. Henry Nicholls, of
Kingsbridge, has a similar specimen in his collection.

In the ‘ Zoologist’ for 1861, p. 7434, is an interesting account of a
tame Snipe kept by Mr. J. C. Upham, of Starcross, Devon. A Snipe
caught by a large mastiff in a marsh near Topsham became tame, running
about the kitchen of Newport House for some time. The dog brought it
up to the house in his mouth without injuring it.

The Common Snipe used to be an abundant bird in Devonshire, and
the very great diminution in its numbers during the last half-century is
one of the characteristic changes in our ornis which the enclosure and
drainage of moorlands, salt-marshes, and wet highland farms have helped
to bring about, the increased number of guns pointed at the birds being
also taken into account. Many a moor on which Snipes once nested
numerously has disappeared to give place to corn- and turnip-fields,

326 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

Many a meadow, formerly ornamented all over with rushes and full of
soft splashets, is now through subsoil drainage sound and dry, with not
an inch of ground left which could attract a Snipe. In old days there
was uot a warm ditch by the side of a hedge which did not harbour in
the winter-time some half-dozen Snipe, and excellent shooting could be
had without going to the moors and marshes, where the birds would be
expected mostly to congregate. At the time to which our memory carries
us back, twenty-five or twenty-six couple could be had in a day on the
Braunton Marsh, and we knew of one sportsman and good Snipe-shot
who used to get his six hundred couple in the course of the season on
Bursdon Moor and the adjoining commons in the north-west corner of the
county around the ‘* West Country ” Inn. We have ourselves occasionally
found Snipe swarming in peaty turnip-fields on high ground in the late
autumn, so that we have killed them in firing at Partridges without
intending it, a Snipe coming accidentally in line with the Partridge we
were shooting at. On Dartmoor we have enjoyed many years of Snipe-
shooting, and never found the birds numerous on the northern and north-
eastern portions of the Forest, which were the chief scenes of our rambles.
It required straight shooting, and a good amount of walking, to make a
bag of six or seven couple; but in the month of September, before the
bogs became too wet, and when the weather was generally bright and
fine, the delightful scenery of the moor, and the pure elastic air, made
the walks most enjoyable, and we did not grumble if the bag was not
great. Later on in the season any one who pursues Snipe on Dartmoor
must be prepared for a wetting, tor even when it is fine below, directly
the elevated grounds are reached, they will be found occupied by dense
rolling mists and drizzling rain, so that shooting is rendered difficult, and
it is sometimes not easy, especially if the sportsman is without a compass,
to find the way off the moor when it is time to return homewards, After
heavy rains the Snipe leave the bogs, and pass the day on the tops of the
hills, squatting by the sides of the small furze-tumps. We have some-
times seen flocks of a hundred or more passing overhead, and a tract of
the moor which might one day be quite destitute of Snipe, will be found
the next, should there have been some change in the wind or weather,
tenanted by scores of the “ scaping long-bills.” In hard frosts, or in deep
snows, the Snipe, almost to a bird, leave the moor and descend to the
warm drains in the marshes beneath. In walking over the moor at the
end of April we have encountered numerous pairs of nesting-birds, and
have had the Snipe drumming in the air all round us. On nearly all the
rough moorlands in the north of the county Snipe still nest in greater or
less numbers, although there is not a tithe at the present day either of
the resident birds or of the migrating strangers arriving in the autumn
in comparison with the numbers of bygone years. We have occasionally
come across varieties of the Common Snipe, having shot the large red-
coloured Snipe, called by Mr, Gould Scolopax russata, close to Barnstaple,
and one day shot one with a white head, and with a good many small
white spots powdered over the back and shoulders. We have never come
across the melanistic variety, formerly called Sabine’s Snipe, but know of

SCOLOPACID.E. Teng

one shot near Honiton, which was in the collection of our late friend
Mr. John Marshall, of Belmont, Taunton. We have two in our collection,
but not obtained in Devonshire, and we have others almost pure white,
and a very pretty golden-buff one. Both the eggs and the newly-hatched
young of the Snipe correspond in colour with the tints of the peaty
ground and bog herbage where they are to be met with, and when the
nestlings crouch close to the ground, as the young of all the Scolopacide,
Plovers, Galline, &c. do instinctively on the sign of any danger, it is
almost impossible to see them, and we have repeatedly all but trodden
upon them, although the actions of the old birds indicated that they were
close at hand, before we have discovered them.

There is a very singular district in the West of England where we
have often shot Snipe—the Mid-Somerset peat-moors, where occasionally
a great number of the birds assemble. The peat is cut out and stacked
fur burning in squares, and the hollow pieces of ground which remain
when it has been removed soon fill in again with half liquid peaty earth,
which becomes covered over with rushes and other vegetation, affording
plenty of harbour for Snipe, and sometimes Teal. Numerous wide ditches
intersect the ground in all directions, many of them fringed with aquatic
plants. The shooter either has to cross these with the aid of a leaping-
pole, or has some one with him to carry a plank, or, as a dernier ressort,
has to trust to his Jumping powers in order to clear them. We never
went to these moors after Snipe without taking a carpet-hag containing
a complete change, aud there was never an occasion when it was not
reyuired. One day, when we were in company with a friend, we simul-
taneously fell into ditches at some little distance from each other, and
our friend, emerging first, looked in the direction from which we had
just fired, and stated afterwards that he could see nothing beyond our
hat floating on the top ot the water! We had dropped a couple of Snipe
to a right and left, the birds had fallen on the other side of one of the
ditches, and when we attempted to jump it the treacherous bank on the
far side gave way, and we tumbled backwards into the water! Nearly
the whole time one is shooting on these peat-grounds continual jumping
is required trom tussock to tussock, as the hollow grounds in the winter-
time have generally plenty of water upon them, and if the footing on one
of these tussocks is missed, a plunge into nearly knee-deep mud and
water is the uncomfortable result. The Snipe are wild, generally spring-
ing at a forty-yard rise, so that the keeper’s words proved true enough :
** Gentlemen as looks down to see where they are going don’t get many
Snipe.” But not all the grounds were as bad as this ; still it was, on the
whole, a difficult country to negotiate, and the bunch of Snipe we carried
off at the end of our day was well earned. We have, after heavy rains
in July, occasionally seen swarms of Snipe on the peat-moors at the
beginning of August, at which time of the year, as all sportsmen know,
the flesh of the birds is rank and dark-coloured, and it would be a shame
to shoot them. We have seen Snipe alight on the bare ground by the
side of a little ditch, and run at once into cover, and have often been
astonished at the small tuft of grass behind which the bird is able to

28 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

(Sh)

crouch and conceal itself. The average weight of Snipe shot at the
beginning of the season is 4 0z.; adult birds, where there is good feeding
for them, will scale 5 oz., and a 6-oz. Snipe is not very rare, but is ex-
ceptionally fine. There are some examples of very large Snipe in the
Albert Museum at Exeter which we have gazed upon with wonder, which
must have scaled 6 0z., and, perhaps, over. The very fine Common Snipe
reported as having weighed 73 0z., would hardly have been credited by
us had not that remarkable weight been vouched for by our late friend
Mr. J. Gatcombe, whose carefulness and accuracy we well know to have
been beyond impeachment ; otherwise we should have thought there had
been a mistake in identification, and that this very heavy Suipe must have
been a fine example of Scolopar major. We do not consider that Snipe
are fit for the spit until there has been a frost or two, when the flesh
hecomes white and sweet.

In very hard frosts, if a Snipe be shot at the side of some unfrozen
spring or warm drain, another will be found on the same spot in a short
time, and having had such a place just outside our garden-wall we
have visited it and bagged three or four Snipe from it in the course of
the day. This proves that the hungry birds, as they are flying high
overhead in search of some possible feeding-ground, are cither possessed
of very quick sight or of some marvellous instinct which guides them to
the suitable spot.

We once saw a Snipe which we had fired at perch upon a bough of a
tall ash-tree, and Mr. Mansel-Pleydell has recorded a similar circumstance.
We have several times killed two Snipe, which chanced to be crossing
each other, with the same shot, and once when we fired at a Snipe it flew
on a few hundred yards before it dropped dead on the ground, and as it
flew it was accompanied by another one which settled on the ground
by its side, and walking up we flushed this second bird and bagged it as
well.

Both Woodcock and Snipe arrive continually from the beginning of
their autumn migration throughout the whole of the autumn and winter.
Not only are there successive appearances of fresh birds from abroad, but
those within the country are for ever shifting their position. It is owing
to this that the Snipe-shooter who has the range over a likely bog is
never without sport. He may kill every bird on his beat one day, but
the next time he goes out he will find as many, perhaps more, and so on
the time after, and da capo as long as the season lasts; a little bog of
three or four acres has thus yielded us upwards of sixty couple between
September and February.

In very severe frosts we have occasionally found Snipe frozen by
their bills to the ground.

9
iS)
jie)

SCOLOPACID.E.

Jack Snipe. Limnocryptes gullinula (Linn.).
(Jack, Half Snipe, Atterflitter (1. D.).]

A winter visitor, numerous in suitable localities.

This diminutive and prettily-marked Snipe is a winter visitor to this
country from the north of Kurope, and although we have shot it in Scot-
land as early as 28th of August, the 2nd of September is the earliest date
on which we have met with it in North Devon. On the Dartmoor bogs
we generally expected to see it by the 10th September, and we remember
six anda half couple of “Jacks”? having been bagged on Raybarrow
Mire on the 12th September, which was also the date when we used to
find the first ‘ Jacks” in the drains on the level in the neighbourhood of
Weston-super-Mare. On the Exe, however, none are seen before October,
the earliest date known to us being Oct. 5th, 1855; and Mr. Ross men-
tions one killed Oct. 7th, 1839, in very fine plumage (MS. Journ. ii.
p- 124). The Jacks generally appear on our estuaries early in November.
They linger longer on Dartmoor than elsewhere in South Devon, and we
have seen them there as late as March (‘Zoologist,’ 1872). In North
Devon they remain occasionally till the middle of April.

Mr. Ross gives an account of a Jack Snipe which he kept alive for a
month, and which became quite tame. It was fed on worms, which it would
take from the hand, chopped raw beef, and a portion of boiled rice, and
required three meals a day, the last late at night (Zool. 1846, p. 1331).

We haye many times seen this little Snipe seated on the side of a ditch
with its beak pointed downwards towards the water, which seemed to be
its usual position. When we shot over Dartmoor we had a team of three
very handsome Gordon setters, all admirable Snipe dogs, and we can re-
member one of these dogs one day coming to a point with the other two
“backing” at a little distance, and, on walking up to the setting dog,
seeing a Jack Snipe crouched before his nose, which refused to rise until
we gently touched its back with the muzzle of our gun! One of our
setters used to catch these little birds and bring them to our hand perfectly
uninjured. We once were on the point of taking a Jack from the dog’s
mouth when, directly it relaxed its jaws, the little Snipe made off with
its butterfly flight, and, crossing a broad ditch, settled in safety beyond our
reach. Occasionally we have heard a wounded “ Jack” make a mouse-like
squeak as we have picked it up, the only sound we have ever heard pro-
ceed from the bird. Although usually solitary, Jack Snipe sometimes
congregate, and we once put up twelve or fourteen from a small patch of
floating vegetation which formed an island in the middle of a cattle-pond.
The old pointer we had with us was actually standing these birds, as she
was “ treading water,” after swimming part of the distance between tho
bank and the little island which contained all the Snipe, every one of them
being bagged by us subsequently in detail. We have seen Jack Snipe us
late as April 16th on the Somerset peat-moors, and a few days later on
the Northam Burrows in North Devon, where we one day came across a
considerable number among some high clumps of spiked rush on perfectly

350 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

dry ground, and imagined they had assembled there previous to migrating.
The Somerset and Dorset Railway runs through the peat-moor country,
and both Jack and full Snipe are frequently picked up dead, having flown
against the telegraph wires. This must be at night, as a Jack Snipe
never flies by day with sufficient velocity to injury itself if it came in
co'lision with anything.

The nest of the Jack Snipe has never been detected in the United
Kingdom. This small species breeds in Lapland, Finmark, and other
countries in the north of Europe, and its eggs are of gigantic size when
viewed in their proportion to the bulk of the bird’s body. ‘* While the
bird weighs two ounces, its four eggs weigh more than an ounce and a
half” (Dresser).

The Jack Snipe is a most toothsome morsel, and when served up on its
appropriate toast can be devoured every bit, bones and all!

At the nesting-season the Jack Snipe makes a curious sound while
flying high in the air, as the common Snipe does when “ drumming,”
which Mr. Wolley compared to “ the cantering of a horse in the distance
over a hard, dry road.”

Pectoral Sandpiper. Zringa maculata, Vieill.

An accidental visitor, of extremely rare occurrence.

The plumage of this Sandpiper somewhat resembles that of a Sky-Lark
in its tints. It is well known as an autumn visitor from the extreme
north to many parts of America, and is found either singly or in pairs on
grassy plains where there are small pools, and as it lies well to dogs is
much sought after by sportsmen. On very similar ground a pair were
shot by the Rev. Marcus Rickards, on 12th September, 1871, on the
Braunton Burrows in North Devon. We quote Mr. Rickards’s account of
this interesting occurrence from the ‘ Zoologist’ (1871, p. 2808):—* I
discovered them on the margin of a large fresh-water pool in a marshy
field, and, as they allowed of a near approach, had ample opportunities of
observing their movements before putting them up. They presented a
peculiar and interesting appearance as they marched about the grass with
a very measured and stately walk, occasionally elevating the feathers on
the top of the head into the form of a crest, much after the fashion of a
Skylark, of gigantic {large, we should prefer to say] specimens of which
bird their whole appearance was, strange to say, at a little distance,
strikingly suggestive, the markings on the breast and general coloration
of the plumage helping to complete the similarity. When they rose they
uttered a peculiar note, rather weak and feeble for the size of the bird,
and reminding me more of the note of the Curlew Sandpiper than that of
any other species that I have heard. When flying one was mobbed and
pursued by the Swallows which frequented the pond. ‘They never flew to
any great distance, and after the female was shot the male described a
circle round her, and pitched a short distance off, rising and repeating the
evolution as I approached within range.” Mr. Rickards ascertained the

SCOLOPACID. 331

weight of the female to be 23 oz., and that of the male 33 0z.; the female
measured 87 in., and the male 93 in. This pair of Pectoral Sandpipers,
still in beautiful condition, are now in our collection, and we also possess
another, shot some years ago out of a flock of Purres on the Northumber-
land Coast (M. A. M.).

We know of no other Devonshire examples of this American species,
with the exception of some mentioned by Bellamy (Nat. Hist. 8. Devon,
p. 323, note) as shot onthe Tamar and preserved by Pincombe, but
on the Scilly Isles two were seen, and one obtained, in May 1840;
another, a few years later, occurred at Gyllyngvase East, near Falmouth ;
and in the month of September, 187U, Mr. Rodd received three from the
Scilly Isles, which had been obtained on different days, and thought that
this Sandpiper might be a more frequent autumn visitor to our shores
than it is supposed to be, its inconspicuous plumage leading to its being
overlooked. . And since the publication of Mr. Rodd’s book another
Pectoral Sandpiper from the Scilly Isles has been recorded by Mr. Cornish,
which was obtained in the autumn of 1883 (Zool. 1883, p. 495).

The Pectoral Sandpiper’s nesting-habitat is unknown, and no collection
possesses its eggs.

Bonaparte’s Sandpiper. Tringa fuscicoliis, Vieill.

An accidental visitor, of very rare occurrence.

This is another American species, bearing some resemblance to the
Dunlin, from which it can, however, be at all times distinguished owing to
its upper tail-coverts being white, which, in common with the Pectoral
Sandpiper, has contrived as yet to maintain its nesting-quarters a secret
from egg-collectors. It is seen commonly in flocks in the autumn on
sands and mud-flats in America on its passage south from the extreme
north, and its occurrences in this country are about equal in number to
those of the preceding species. In North Devon four were shot on the
‘Taw, near Instow, in November 1870, three were preserved, and one was
too much injured to make into a specimen, There appears to have beeen
a small immigration of this Sandpiper about that time, as Mr. Rodd
records one which had been shot at the Lizard, as well as one from the
Scilly Jsles, and another was reported from Kastbourne. Mr. KE. H. Rodd
had in his collection two adults, male and female, which were shot near
Hayle, in 1846. Although he calls them Schinz’s Sandpiper, a name
given by Brehm to a small race of the Dunlin, the full description he
gives of their plumage makes it evident that his birds were Bonaparte’s
Sandpiper. In October 1854, he was able to mention another of these
Sandpipers which had been shot at Tresco in the Scilly Isles,

= fe THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

Sy)

Dunlin. Tringa alpina, Linn.
[Sanderling, Purre, Sea Lark, Summer Lark CV. D.).]

Partially resident, probably breeding in small numbers on Dartmoor,
where we saw a male in full plumage in June 1866, and Dr. E. Moore
states that the nest has been found there (Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837, p. 322).
The Dunlin frequents the estuaries of our larger rivers in considerable
flocks nearly all the year round, but especially in spring and early autumn,
when large numbers arrive from other parts. Flocks of small dark-
coloured birds are then found feeding on the ooze high up the estuary of
the Exe, but in winter the flocks, which are at that time composed of
larger and lighter-coloured birds, keep to the sea-shore and more sandy
banks near the mouth of the river. On the Kingsbridge estuary, accord-
ing to Mr, E. A. 8. Elliot, the larger grey form arrives in the autumn, and
remains during the winter, leaving in spring about the middle or end of
March; this form is seldom obtained in summer plumage, but when it
does occur it is noticed in pairs, or in twos and threes in April; these are
not birds that have remained all the winter, but are new comers. The
smaller dark form arrives in May, in companies of from twelve to twenty,
and remains some time; early in July this race again appears retaining
their summer plumage, and birds may be obtained right on to October,
but the greater portion have by that time left, to be replaced by the larger
race from higher latitudes.

On one of the days in the last week of July we generally used to see
little parties of half a dozen Dunlin, consisting of the two old birds and
their brood, on the sands of the Barnstaple river, and they were then so
tame that they would not rise on wing when approached, only running on
in front. We have seen boys pelting them with stones, without their
flying off. Standing quite still we have had them come close to our feet
when feeding, and one actually probed the sand and mud which were
clinging to the boots of a friend of ours as he was watching them by the
water’s edge. These little parties soon unite and form small tiocks, and
as the season advances the flocks combine, so that an enormous multitude
may be seen onthe mud-flats, and when these hundreds of birds rise on
wing they present a beautiful sight as they skim along over the sands, at
one instant presenting all their pure white underparts to view, and in the
next, with a simultaneous twist, giving themselves a more sombre appear-
ance as they disclose their darker backs and upper wing-coverts. We
believe the greater number, if not all, of the Dunlin which are first seen
in July and August on the coast continue their migration to the south,
being seen again on their way northwards to their breeding-stations in
April and May. ‘They are then in their full summer livery, very bright
russet above, with very black breast-markings, and are well-known to the
Instow boatmen in North Devon by the name of “Summer Larks.”
The Dunlin we have with us in the winter belong to a larger race, with
longer beaks, and have reached us from the far north, some of them,
possibly, from North America. We know of no Dunlin actually nesting

SCOLOPACID.E£. Boo

anywhere in Devonshire at the present time, and the o1ly place where
the birds have, without any doubt, bred of recent years in the south-
west of England is on the Bodmin Moors in Cornwall, not far from the
Jamaica Inn, and near Dosmare Pool. Here several nests were found by
Mr, Francis Rodd, of Trebartha, on July 8th, 1868. At the end of Juiy
1876 we visited this locality, and found several Dunlin still on the ground,
but were, of course, too late for the nests. In the West of Scotland, as
well as on the Hebrides and other islands, Dunlin breed numerously in
company with Golden Plover, and are called for this reason “ Plover’s
pages.” The Rey. Charles Swainson derives the word Dunlin from the
dun colour (presumably) of the winter plumage.

A few specimens of the small race named Zringa schinzii by Brehm
were killed at Plymouth in August 1876 (J. G., Zool. 1876, p. 5109).

Little Stint. § Zringa minuta, Leisler.

A passing visitor, of occasional occurrence in May, and more frequently
seen in August, September, and October. Flocks of considerable size are
sometimes noticed both on the North and South Coast, wherever the shores
are sandy. One killed at Plymouth, Dec. 9th, 1875, in full winter plumage
is the only specimen known to have occurred so late in the year (Zool.
1876, p. 4784).

This minute species of Sandpiper makes its appearance on our shores
early in the autumn from the extreme north of Europe. Its nesting-
habitat was unknown until the summer of 1875, when Messrs. Seebohm
and Harvie-Brown detected it breeding on the “ tundras,” or marshy flats,
near the mouth of the Petchora river in North Russia—a wonderful sum-
mer home for our rarer Tringz, as there was reason to suppose that,
besides the Little Stint, other species, whose eggs are almost unknown to
collectors, such as the Sanderling and Curlew Sandpiper, also nested either
on the marshes or on some of the islands in the river. The eggs of the
Little Stint are said to resemble those of the Dunlin in miniature,
Besides the eggs of this small Sandpiper, Mr. Harvie-Brown also pro-
cured some of its young in down, and in Mr. Dresser’s ‘ Birds of Europe’
(vol. viii.) is a pretty illustration representing the young of the Little Stint,
Temminck’s Stint, and the Common Dunlin, all very much alike. We
have so often encountered the Little Stint in September and October on
the sands of the Barnstaple river, either in little Hocks of ten or a dozen, or
else singly or in pairs among flocks of Curlew Sandpipers and Dunlin, that
we consider it almost a regular autumn visitor to North Devon. The

tev. Marcus Rickards shot one by the same pond on the Braunton Burrows
where he obtained the Pectoral Sandpipers, and a pair on the mud-flat at
West Appledore, and noticed others on the sands at Instow. We never
saw any Little Stints after the middle of October, by which time they had
all gone off further to the south, and one in the winter plumage obtained
in the 8.W. of England we have never seen, although we have speci-
mens from Brighton. Nor have we ever seen a Little Stint in the spring

334 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

plumage from North Devon; those we have secured in the neighbourhood
of Barnstaple in September have all been young birds in immature dress,

At Plymouth the Little Stint seems to be generally rare. Dr. E. Moore states that
small flocks of five or six are occasionally observed on the Laira (Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837,
p- 319). The Rev. W. 8. Hore, with his friend Mr. Gutch, saw from forty to fifty on
the Laira mud-banks, near Plymouth, in Oct. 1840, and shot ten or twelve of them
(Yarrell, B. Birds, 2nd ed. iii. p. 67). Some occurred at the same place on 15th and
17th Sept. 1853 (B., MS. Notes).

One was shot at Thurlestone by Mr. Geo. Balkwill in 1876 (H. N., Zool. 1876,
p. 5179); and several were obtained near Kingsbridge, at the end of August 1890
(R. P. N., in litt.). Mr. H. Nicholls has had three or four specimens (E. A. S. E.).

Dr. R. C. R. Jordan shot one on the Teign estuary (Trans. Devon. Assoc. iv,

yeti) F
' oat the A. M. M. was shot on the Exe on Sept. 50th, 1841, and Mr. Ross states
that this was the only specimen he ever obtained, and that the Little Stint was scarce
at that time, though formerly many were seen with Sanderlings and Purres (MS.
Journ. iii. p. 10). There were some examples in Mr. Byne’s collection said to have
come from the Exe, and others were shot on Exmouth beach in 1887, and in the
middle of October 1890.

When in company with the late Mr. W. Brodrick in May 1866, we saw many which
had been shot near Budleigh Salterton, and were being hawked about for sale in the
streets of that town.

One was obtained on the sand-flats at Barnstaple, August 22nd, 1856, and one or two
flocks occurred there in the autumn of 1859 (M.A. M., Zool. 1857, p. 5347 ; 1849,
p- 6762). Some on Northam Burrows, Sept. 29th, 1869, and a pair Sept. 14th, 1870
(M.S. C. R., Zool. 1870, pp. 2025, 2387).

Many occurred on the sands of the Taw in October 1874.

In Cornwall Mr. Rodd states that the Little Stint is occasionally seen
both in the spring and autumn. Mr, Cecil Smith did not know of any
Somerset Little Stint, neither do we, although it doubtless is sometimes
to be met with on the sand-flats on the north coast.

In Dorsetshire it is recorded as a visitor both in spring and autumn,
and is said to be not uncommon about Poole, where a flock of thirty was
once noted.

The Little Stint has a great range. Large flocks are met with in the
winter-time in Northern India, and Dr. Jerdon states that these little
birds are considered excellent eating.

Temminck’s Stint. Zringa temmincki, Leisler.

A casual visitor, of very rare occurrence. Col. Montagu’s example of
this species was killed in Devonshire (Yarrell, B, Birds, 2nd ed. iii. p. 71).
Two were shot on June 28th, 1837, near Stonehouse Bridge, and were in
Bolitho’s collection when Dr. E. Moore wrote his Catalogue of the Wading
Birds of Devonshire (Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837, p. 320).

About the same size as the preceding species, this small species of Sand-
piper is easily to be known by the prevailing grey tints of its plumage.
If the Little Stint may be regarded as a miniature Dunlin, Temminck’s
Stint might well be described as a small edition of the Common Sandpiper,
It has some of its breeding-stations much further to the south than the
Little Stint, and is a regular spring and autumn migrant to the south-

SCOLOPACIDA. 339

eastern coasts of England, but is only a very rare visitor to the south-
western counties. It is fonder of inland streams and pools, by the banks
of which it may be met with, than of the sands and oozes of the shore.
In North Devon we have never secured an example, although we are
certain that we have twice seen a Temminck’s Stint when we have been
Snipe-shooting in the winter-time by the side of a small pond on the
Braunton Burrows. On each occasion we were so close to the little bird
that we nearly trod upon it, and failed to shoot it owing to the violence
of the wind, which swept it off out of range before we could take any aim.
One or two examples have been secured in the south of the county, and
in Cornwall Mr. Rodd mentions the marsh at Marazion and the Scilly
Islands as having produced one or two Temminck’s Stints, adding that it is
much rarer than the Little Stint. In Somerset the only one Mr. Cecil
Smith knew of at the time he wrote his book was the “ Little Sandpiper ”
Col. Montagu received in Sept. 1805, from his friend Mr. Anstice of
Bridgwater, who shot four of this Stint one day at the mouth of the river
Brue, and sent one for the Colonel’s collection. In the ‘ Zoologist’ for
1875, p. 4334, he was able to record another which had been shot on the
14th November in the previous year on North Curry moor. From the
description Col. Montagu gives of his bird it was evidently a Tem-
minck’s Stint, as was also another which was shot on the south coast
of Devon on a salt-marsh near the sea in November, and brought to
him, which was supposed to have been a Jack Snipe when flushed. Col.
Montagu says this small Sandpiper ‘‘is about the size of a Hedge-Sparrow,
the length between five and six inches.”

Temminck’s Stint has been shot at Weymouth in September, according
to Mr, Mansel-Pleydell, who says it is “‘ by no means common ” in Dorset.
All our specimens came from the south-eastern counties, and one we have
in perfect summer plumage, when there is a good deal of dark brown with
pale rufous edgings to the feathers upon the back, was shot at Lewes.

The American Stint. Zringa minutilla, Vieill.

An accidental visitor, of extremely rare occurrence,

This small species is much darker in its plumage than the two Stints
we have already described, and is a very rare straggler to this country
from the New World; the only two which have been obtained have both
come from the south-western counties—one from the north of Devon, and
the other from Cornwall. The Rev. Marcus Rickards, Vicar of Twigworth,
Gloucester, who was extremely fortunate in meeting with rare species of
Sandpipers in the years when he was accustomed to shoot at Instow and
Northam, secured the first of these two American Stints on the 22nd
Sept. 1869, on the salt-marsh adjoining the Northam Burrows. It was
solitary, was very wild, and had been observed for several days before an
opportunity occurred to shoot it. ‘ When it rose it always repeated a
short hurried note, similar to that of the two other species, though perhaps
rather shriller, and more frequently reiterated. Its flight was strong and

36 THE BIRDS OF DEVON,

O95

rapid for so-small a bird, and struck me as being something like that of
the Common Sandpiper, which bird (except as regards the vibratory
motion of the body peculiar to that species) it somewhat resembled in its
movements when on the ground. It always flew away across the water
out of sight and at a great height, but it invariably returned to the same
spot where I had first observed it” (Zool. 1869, p. 1920; 1870, p. 2025).
We have frequently seen and examined this specimen of the American
Stint, which we believe to be now in the collection of the Hon. W. Roth- -
schild. Mr. Rickards states that south-westerly gales had been prevailing
about the time he shot the bird. Mr. Gould supposed this specimen to be
Tringa wilson, but it was identified as 7’. minutilla by Mr. Harting
(Handbook of B. birds, p. 143). The Cornish example was shot by
Mr. Vingoe, the well-known bird-stuffer of Penzance, in Mount’s Bay, on
October 10th, 1853. It was solitary when found on a piece of wet grass-
land adjoining the sea-shore, and rose without any note, and was at once
submitted to Mr. Rodd, who has carefully described the points of difference
it presents from the other two species of Stint.

The American Stint breeds plentifully in Labrador, where it goes by
the name of “ Peep,” and is the smallest of the three species of Stint
which have been met with in this kingdom.

Curlew Sandpiper. Zringa subarquata (Giild.).
[Pigmy Curlew. |

A passing visitor in spring and autumn, of frequent occurrence at the
latter season on the mud-banks in the estuaries of our larger rivers and
on the sandy shores of the sea-coast, both in the north and south of the
county. It is not uncommon in September in the Exe estuary, and is,
or was, especially numerous in that of the Taw.

Next to the Dunlin this elegant Sandpiper is the most numerous species
in the Barnstaple river in the autumn, where a few arrive at the end of
July and during August, while numbers appear in September, and by the
middle of October all have left to pursue their way further to the south.
When feeding on the sands in company with other Zringe, the Curlew
Sandpiper may be recognized by its longer legs and more upright
carriage ; and when it takes wing its white upper tail-coverts at once
make its presence apparent. On the West-Appledore flats we have seen
flocks of a hundred or more of these birds; and the Rev. Marcus Rickards
has informed us of a great concourse he once met in the same locality,
when he thought there must have been well-nigh a thousand assembled
together. One of these Sandpipers shot by us on the Taw, close to Barn-
staple, on August 14th, 1856, was in almost complete summer plumage,
and others we have obtained at the beginning of September had still patches
of red upon the breast, with rufous margins to the scapularies ; but by far
the greater number seen in the autumn were birds of the year, with their
underparts of a buffy white, and their upper parts grey with semicircular
white edgings to the feathers. Mr. Spencer Heaven one year shot a pair

SCOLOPACIDA. Ba1

on Lundy Island in June in the bright red summer dress, in which plumage
Col. Mathew has seen a few at the end of May by the side of the Bude
reservoir. The Curlew Sandpiper is rarely obtained in the West of England
in the winter plumage, and the only specimen we have ever been able
to secure was shot on a moor close to Taunton, a singular locality to meet
with one. It was solitary when it was observed, and had the underparts
pure white, the upper parts were ash-grey, chequered on the shoulders and
upper wing-coverts with spots of white, giving a hoary appearance, some-
what resembling the summer plumage of the Wood-Sandpiper.

Specimens in full breeding-plumage have been frequently obtained. Two are in the
A. M. M. shot on the Exe on September 18th, 1841, and in May 1867. Two in summer
plumage, shot on the estuary of the Exe, were in Mr. Byne’s collection: one of them
was killed in 1870. Two or three have been obtained in breeding-plumage at Plymouth,
where this species is not very rare in September and October, and is met with occasionally
throughout the winter in small numbers (R. A. J., ‘Naturalist,’ 1851, pp. 44, 59).
The Curlew Sandpiper was first obtained in the Kingsbridge district in 1875; and in
1878 many occurred on the estuary there and at Bantham. Since then none were met
with till August 1890, when it was unusually plentiful on the Kingsbridge estuary, and
continued so up to the middle of October (H. A. 8S. E., MS. Notes).

In Cornwall, and also in Dorsetshire, the Curlew Sandpiper is not
uncommon, being frequently obtained among flocks of Dunlin in the
autumn; and the same may be stated respecting it on the north coast of
Somerset, in which county our experience does not accord with Mr. Cecil
Smith’s statement that this Sandpiper is only a winter visitor, as we have
neyer seen but one example of it in the winter plumage—the one we have
already described.

The Curlew Sandpiper doubtless breeds in the north of Russia and in
the far north in Asia; but up to the present time its nesting-habits and
its eggs are quite unknown.

Purple Sandpiper. Zringa striata, Linn.

A winter visitor in small parties, frequenting the rocky parts of the
south coast, arriving annually in October or the beginning of November,
and remaining until rather late in the spring, though Mr. Gatcombe never
met with a specimen in breeding-plumage (Zool. 1882, p.457). It is rare
on the north coast.

The Purple Sandpiper is a winter visitor to our coasts from the north,
preferring a rocky to a sandy shore, and throughout our south-west counties
it is not uncommon in places suited to its habits, and may be seen running
about among the seaweed near the water’s edge in search of marine insects.
On the sandy and muddy estuaries of the North Devon rivers it is only
oceasionally met with among the Dunlin and other 7'’ringe ; and the Rey.
Mareus Rickards has informed us that he once came across a small flock
on the Northam Burrows. We had one which was shot as it rose, like a
Snipe, on a salt-marsh close to Barnstaple.

At Plymouth it is common amongst the Purres in winter, and has been shot there
Z

338 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

in May (E. M., Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837). One there in November 1861; many in the
winter of 1865-66, Mr. Gatcombe meeting with several flocks on the Breakwater; four
March 24th, 1866; two on the rocks at Longroom, November 2nd, 1871; three seen
on the rocks under Plymouth Hoe, December 2nd, 1872; some seen February 25th,
1873; one shot on the Breakwater, October 23rd, 1874; rather plentiful on the rocky
coast in 1875; one killed out of a small flock on the rocks of Drake’s Island, March
3rd, 1882 (J. G., Zool. 1866, p. 97; 1872, p. 2984; 1873, p. 3443; 1874, p. 4253 ;
1875, p. 4719; 1876, p. 4783; 1882, p. 451; ‘ Field’ for Nov. 25th, 1865; and MS.
Notes). Several were shot on Kingsbridge estuary, January 7th, 1867. Some are met
with every autumn about the rocks at Prawle, according to Sir H. Hewett; five shot
there in November 1886 (E. A. S. E., MS. Notes). Mr. Elliot has seen flocks as late
as May outside Kingsbridge Harbour.

Several were killed at Exmouth, November 22nd, 1866 (C. S., Zool. 1867, p. 562).
One shot on the Exe, October 27th, 1870. Some on Dawlish Warren, November 1872
(‘ Field’ for Noy. 16th, 1872). One at Exmouth in the winter of 1887-88. There
were several specimens from the Exe in Mr. Byne’s collection.

The Purple Sandpiper is an occasional visitor to Lundy Island (Trans. Devon.
Assoc. viii. p. 309).

On the Cornish coast it is common, Dr. Bullmore declaring that it is
the most numerous of all the Sandpipers in the neighbourhood of
Falmouth, and it is not rare on the Somerset and Dorset shores. This
species takes its name from its winter plumage of purplish grey, and when
the birds are living or have only been recently shot there is a pretty gloss
upon the feathers which quickly fades in stuffed specimens. In the
summer plumage the feathers on the back and scapulars are edged with
yellowish rufous, and in this dress the birds are not often obtained in the
South of England, but we have seen one from Looe in the Truro Museum.

The Purple Sandpiper may, perhaps, have nested occasionally on the
Farne Islands off the Northumberland coast, and on the Hebrides and
Shetland Islands ; but its summer home is much further to the north, in
Iceland, Greenland, &c., and it is also a common species in North
America.

Knot. Tringa canutus, Linn.
[Silver Plover, on the Exe. ]

A passing visitor in spring and autumn, most numerous at the latter
season, when flocks visit our estuaries from August to October, and
occasionally remain throughout the winter.

This very interesting Sandpiper is chiefly seen on our Devonshire shores
as an autumn migrant, remaining a short time, and then leaving for the
south. It is rare to see one either in the rich red dress assumed in
spring or in the grey winter plumage in the south-western counties,
while along the eastern coast it is almost equally numerous both in
spring and autumn, remaining all the winter, with great: reinforcements
to its numbers in severe weather. On the sands of the North Devon
estuaries the Knot usually arrives about 20th August, and by the end of
September it is useless to go in search of them, as by that time the flocks
will all have departed. When they first arrive the birds are singularly

SCOLOPACIDA. 339

fearless ; flying low over the water, they will, with misplaced confidence,
settle on the ooze at the gunner’s feet, and when fired at will hardly
trouble to rise on wing to seek safety. As the flocks are noticed crossing
the sands it is easy, by running, to intercept their line of flight; there
will be no change made in its direction, and the heedless birds will
advance securely to their fate. These autumn flocks appear to be com-
posed chiefly of immature birds in a silvery-grey plumage with buff-
coloured breast and grey backs, with semicircular edgings of white
to the feathers; the few old birds among them may be distinguished
by the faint tinge of salmon-colour still remaining on the breast. Being
very good birds for the table, Knots are greatly persecuted by the shore-
shooters, and their numbers become less every year on our North Devon
sands.

The Knot seeks very high latitudes for its breeding-stations, and has
been closely associated with the search for the North-west Passage. It
was known that this Sandpiper placed its nest in some regions further to
the north than had yet been explored, and it was certain that wherever
the bird could breed there must be open water, land on which it could set
its feet, and plenty of food supplied either by the water or by the land, or
by both, for the maintenance of itself and its offspring. Onits way north
the bird passed Iceland and Greenland; and it would hardly leave those
countries, which offer a breeding-station to countless hordes of wild-fowl, in
preference for another more sterile and worse off as regards supply of food.
The inference was, there was still a country to be discovered near to the
Pole with an open sea and comparatively genial climate; and it was
mainly through reliance on this argument that the ‘ Discovery’ and the
‘ Alert’ were despatched to the far north in the summer of 1875. The
expedition failed to discover this mild circumpolar region; but on some
islands, in very nearly the highest latitude it was able to attain, some
Knots were detected breeding by Capt. Feilden, and, although no eggs
were obtained, some young in down were brought back to England,
which may now be seen in the Bird Gallery at the South Kensington
Natural-History Museum—an interesting trophy from the Pole. But
the Knot must occasionally nest in lower latitudes; for Mr. Booth
(‘ Field,’ Dec, 16th, 1876) saw little flocks of young Knots on the
Dornoch Firth, in Sutherlandshire, as early as 8th July, and it seems
impossible that they could have been reared near the Pole, where every-
thing would be frozen against the parent birds until the middle of June,
and there would be no time for young Knots to be hatched and able to
fly until the beginning of August, and it is therefore natural to suppose
that those seen by Mr. Booth must have come from a nesting-station closer
at hand, perhaps somewhere on the Finnish or North Russian coast. And
Dr. Saxby states, in his ‘ Birds of Shetland,’ that he has little doubt that
the Knot occasionally breeds in the northern districts of those islands, as
he has met with young ones so weak upon the wing that it seemed
impossible for them to have crossed the sea—‘‘indeed, they rather
fluttered than flew.”

Zz 2

340 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

According to Mr. Gatcombe, large flocks of Knots sometimes remain throughout the
winter at Plymouth (J. G., Zool. 1873, pp. 3468, 3784 ; 1875, p. 4373; 1876, p. 5490;
1879, pp. 114, 418); one occurred on the Exe in November 1868, and a small flock in
December 1888.

Specimens in breeding-plumage are met with occasionaliy. One was shot out of a
flock of ten on the Exe, May 27th, 1844 (F. W. L. R., MS. iv. p. 116). This bird is
now in the A.M. M. Another occurred on the Exe, August 11th, 1877 (W. D’U.,
Zool. 1877, p. 448); a male at Bantham about 1860; a female on the Kingsbridge
estuary in May 1876 (R. P. N., MS. Notes); and two at Plymouth September 16th,
1873 (Zool. 1873, p. 3784). There wasa male from Devon in the National Collection
which was presented by Mr. Comyns. A Knot obtained at Plymouth on May Sth,
1878, was still in winter plumage (Zool. 1879, p. 418).

Knots are abundant on the Kingsbridge estuary in autumn, and a few occur in
wirter and spring. Mr. Henry Nicholls shot a white specimen there, September 16th,
1865, which is now in his fine collection. It was in company with two other birds in
the ordinary plumage, which were also shot (H. N., Zool. 1866, p. 526; and MS. Notes).
On the Exe estuary the Knotis rarely seen except in autumn, arriving in September and
remaining for about three weeks.

_ Mr. Mansel-Pleydell states that a few Knots occasionally remain during
the winter in the neighbourhood of Poole Harbour; and Mr. Cecil Smith
considered this bird a winter visitor to the Somersetshire coast.

Ruff. Machetes pugnax (Linn.).

A casual visitor, of occasional occurrence, generally in autumn or winter,
and very rarely in spring. ‘On 17th May, 1806, a Ruff was shot at the
mouth of the Avon, on the coast of South Devon ; this had a white ruff,
quite perfect, but no warty appearance about the face” (Montagu, Orn.
Dict., Suppl.). Excepting this specimen, two-full-plumaged males and a
female said to have been shot on Aveton Gifford Marshes, and now in the
collection of the late Mr. J. Elliot of Kingsbridge, and a Ruff and Reeve
at Plymouth May 9th, 1867, all that have been obtained in South Devon
were immature birds or adults in winter plumage. A male bird was shot
on Dartmoor in January 1867, and another there in October 1878 (J. G.,
MS. Notes; Zool. 1879, p. 113), but it is on the estuaries or near the
sca-coast that the Ruff is most frequently met with.

At Plymouth one occurred December 8th, 1854; two May 9th, 1867 (B., MS.
Notes). One was shot at Slapton Ley by Rev. Mr. Holdsworth, December 27th, 1808
(Montagu, Orn. Dict., Suppl.). Two Ruffs and a Reeve in winter plumage, obtained
near Kingsbridge, are in Mr. Henry Nicholls’s collection.

Montagu mentions one shot near Exeter “ lately” (1815). The late Mr. Ross states
that when in September 1844 a Reeve occurred on the Exe it was quite an unknown
bird there (MS. Journ. iv. p. 121), but since then a good many have been obtained
from time to time. Several specimens in the A. M. M. were killed on the Exe in the
winter of 1847-48 (R. C.). Several were shot in August and September 1870; one in
September 1889; and one at Exmouth, December 1890. There were Devon-killed
specimens in Mr. Byne’s collection, probably from the Exe.

One was killed on Braunton Burrows in the winter about 1856 (M. A. M., Zool.
1858, p. 6264). The Ruff has also been shot near Clovelly, and an immature bird was
secured near Barnstaple in September 1865 (G. F. M., ‘ Naturalist,’ 1866, p. 360). A
Ruff und Reeve, September 15th, 1870, on Braunton Burrows (M.S. C. R., Zool. 1870,
p- 2287), and one there in November 1889 (Zool. 190, p. 108).

SCOLOPACID.A. 341

In former days the Ruff was a spring visitor in some numbers to the
fen-districts of England, nesting and passing the summer in several of the
Eastern Counties ; but at the present time an occasional nest is all that is
to be found in Lincolnshire and Norfolk, and in Devonshire and in the
West of the kingdom generally the Ruff is seen only at uncertain intervals
in spring and autumn. Col. Montagu visited Lincolnshire for the purpose
of acyuiring all the information he could respecting the habits of these birds,
and the methods of capturing and fattening them adopted by the fen-men,
and took several back with him for his aviaries at Kingsbridge. He has
described the battles the Ruffs wage in the spring at the breeding-season,
and the ‘** hills” or mounds which the birds selected for their encounters,
where they contended with one another like game-cocks, the combatants
rarely doing any injury to each other, and how they were netted around
these “hills.” We have once or twice obtained a Ruff in the autumn in
North Devon; one, which flew towards us and alighted by a small drain on
the Northam Burrows, looked very like a Bartram’s Sandpiper as it was
running on the ground, and as the birds have yellow legs we have sometimes
had them sent to us for the American Yellowshank. We have seen Ruffs in
Somerset near Weston-super-Mare, one day encountering a small flock in
September ; and in Col. Montagu’s day they were not uncommon around
Bridgwater, Somerset being given as one of the English counties in which
they formerly nested. In its curious spring plumage, in which no two
males will be found with the colours of their ruffs identical, this Sand-
piper is very rare in the West of England, although some were shot some
years ago near Taunton, and Mr. Rodd states that he never knew of one
in this dress having been secured in Cornwall.

Sanderling. Calidris arenaria (Linn.).

A winter visitor, of irregular appearance, sometimes in vast flocks, to
some of our estuaries, arriving in August and remaining until March. The
late Charles Hall, of Topsham, with whom we used to go gunning on the
Exe estuary, once killed seventy in two shots out of a large flock on the
mud-banks below Topsham.

To be readily distinguished from the other smaller sand-birds through
the absence of a hind toe, the Sanderling is not a numerous species in
general on the Devonshire coasts. We have seen little parties as early as
2nd August on the Barnstaple river, having returned by then from their
nesting-stations in very high latitudes, the old birds still retaining rufous
margins to some of the feathers ; but the flocks seen later on in the autumn
are composed chiefly of young birds in their first plumage, in which the
colours are yellowish or greenish grey, black, and white. Some are occa-~
sionally obtained in the spring in the “ Ruddy Plover” dress of the older
ornithologists, and some in the full winter plumage, but the birds seldom
remain with us long enough for its complete assumption. Authenticated
eggs of the Sanderling are rare in collections. Capt. H. W. Feilden took
a nest on 24th June, 1876, in latitude 82° 33' N., containing two eggs,

342 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

which Mr. Dresser describes as ‘‘ miniature Curlew’s eggs, of a pale colour,
and of about the size of the egg of the Wood-Sandpiper”’ (‘ Birds of
Europe,’ vol. viii. p. 108).

Although often plentiful on the estuary of the Exe, and also at Axmouth, the
Sanderling is generally scarce on the shores of Torbay (F. Pershouse, Trans. Devon.
Assoc. vol. viii. p. 288) and at Plymouth (J. G., Zool, 1873, p. 3393). It is common
in autumn on the coast between Bolt Tail and Avonmouth (E. A. S. E., én /itt.), and
is sometimes numerous on the sand-flats near Barnstaple, but is not a regular winter
visitor to the north of the county (M. A. M., Zool. 1859, p. 6762).

Sanderlings sometimes occur in spring and summer in breeding-plumage. One on
the Exe, June 8th, 1844 (F. W. L. R.), and one May 19th, 1850 (R. C.), Both these
specimens are in the A.M.M. Mr. Cecil Smith shot eight at one shot at Exmouth on
May 7th, 1863, which were in all stages of plumage (MS. Notes); and one was seen
in breeding-dress and very tame feeding along the margin of Slapton Ley (J. H. G.,
Zool. 1871, p. 2679). Flocks were met with in spring plumage in May 1887 and 1890
on the sands at Thurlestone (E. A. 8. E., MS. Notes).

This species is frequently confounded with the Dunlin, which is also often called
“ Sanderling,” and probably from this causeit has been reported from Dartmoor and has
even been stated to breed there.

Buff- breasted Sandpiper. Zryngites rufescens
(Vieill.).

An accidental visitor, of extremely rare occurrence.

This pretty wanderer from America is said to be a frequenter of dry
plains, where it feeds upon grasshoppers and other insects. Like many
other Sandpipers it nests in the Arctic Regions, and the only eggs of it
known are those in the Smithsonian Institution, which were taken by
Mr. McFarlane on the banks of the Anderson river. The Buff-breasted
Sandpiper is described as very tame and confiding. It may always
be known by the beautiful mottled band drawn across the under surface of
the wings. The only undoubted Devonshire example of this rare species
which we have handled is the one which is now in the Taunton Castle
Museum, which was presented to the late Dr. Woodforde of Taunton by
Mr. 8. De B. Heaven, who shot it on Lundy Island in the autumn of
1858 (H. Saunders, Yarrell’s ‘ British Birds,’ 4th ed. iii. p. 437).

In Cornwall the Buff-breasted Sandpiper has been obtained twice: the
first was shot on the sands between Marazion and Penzance, September 3rd,
1846, while flying with Dunlins and Ringed Plovers; and the second on
September 8th, 1860, by a pool on some high moor-ground near Chun
Castle, Morvah. Then, in September 1870, a third example was obtained
on St. Bryher’s, one of the Scilly Islands, which was also noticed by the
margin of a pool (Rodd’s ‘ Birds of Cornwall,’ p. 100).

In August 1851 a bird, supposed by the late Mr. F. W. L. Ross to
belong to this species, was shot on the Exe, and was often seen by us in
his possession after it had been set up, with its wings raised so as to show
the under wing-coverts; but when his collection was handed over to the
Albert Memorial Museum in 1865, this bird was not forthcoming—at any
rate there was no specimen of the Buff-breasted Sandpiper in the collec-

SCOLOPACID. 343

tion. It is unfortunate that this specimen should have disappeared, as it
is possible it was incorrectly identified, and it has been recorded on our
authority in Harting’s ‘Handbook of British Birds, p. 138, and in
Yarrell’s ‘ British Birds,’ 4th ed. iii. p.437. In the ‘ Zoologist’ for 1857,
p- 5791, Mr. Henry Nicholls records a female specimen obtained in
September of that year near Kingsbridge, but Mr. J. H. Gurney believes
it to have been a young Ruff (Harting’s ‘ Handbook of British Birds,’
p- 1388). There is a Buff-breasted Sandpiper in the collection of birds
formed by the Rev. Alan Furneaux, of St. Germans, Cornwall, presented
to him by Capt. Creyke, R.N., and now in the Plymouth Institution, but
we have not been able to ascertain where it was obtained.

[Bartram’s Sandpiper. <Actiturus longicauda (Bech-
stein).

This species, somewhat larger than the preceding one, is also a chance
migrant to this country from America, and is very similar in its habits,
but differs in being very numerous, sometimes being seen in Texas in flocks
of thousands, It differs again from the Buff-breasted Sandpiper in breeding
throughout the United States, so that its beautiful eggs, which closely
resemble those of the Woodcock, are common in collections. American
sportsmen consider Bartram’s Sandpiper a fine game-bird, and it is known
to them by various names, such as Upland Plover and Prairie Pigeon, and
Dr. Coues states that it “is best shot from a carriage.” We have never
seen a Devonshire example of this Sandpiper, but detected one, its
possessor not knowing what it was, in Dr. Woodforde’s collection at
Taunton, which had been shot many years before on the Bridgwater river
at Combwitch. This bird is now, with the rest of Dr. Woodforde’s col-
lection, in the Taunton Castle Museum, and is in a greyer plumage than
any other example of Bartram’s Sandpiper we have examined. In
Cornwall, a county singularly rich in rare Sandpipers, two examples have
been recorded. ‘The first was recognized and purchased November 13th,
1865, by Dr. Bullmore, hanging up in Webber’s game-shop at Falmouth.
It had been flushed by a farmer’s son in a turnip-field at Mullion. “It
rose singly, uttering a short shrill scream, flew over the hedge, and dropped
into a ditch by the side of a contiguous road. On the approach of its
pursuer it again flushed, alighting this time in the middle of a lay field,
where it was shot. It was sent, in company with Woodcocks and Snipes,
to the game-shop, from which place I was fortunate enough to rescue it.”
(Dr. Bullmore, ‘Cornish Fauna.’) This specimen weighed a little over
6 0z. A second Cornish Bartram’s Sandpiper was shot at St. Keverne,
near the Lizard, in October 1883, and recorded in the ‘ Zoologist ’ for that
year, p. 495, by Mr. Thomas Cornish of Penzance. This bird is now in
the possession of Dr. H. 8. Leverton, of 68 Lemon Street, Truro, whose
brother shot it, and in whose house it was examined by Mr. H. E. Dresser,
who describes it as being very pale-coloured in its plumage (H. E. Dresser,
Zool. 1885, p. 232), Bartram’s Sandpiper may easily be distinguished

344 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

from a young Ruff, the only bird with which it might possibly be con-
founded, by the extreme length of its tail, which has given it its specific
name of longicauda. |

Common Sandpiper. Zringoides hypoleucus (Linn.).
[Summer Snipe, Otterling (on the Exe). ]

A summer migrant, to be met with both in the spring and early
autumn in small flocks on the banks of rivers and streams in the
neighbourhood of the sea. It arrives in April, the earliest date
observed by ourselves being the 7th of that month in 1872, and
departs about the middle of October. A few stragglers sometimes remain
until November and December on the estuaries of the Exe and Dart
(G. F. M., Zool. 1875, pp. 4827, 4828). Soon after their first arrival
the flocks disappear from the estuaries until the end of June or the
beginning of July, as observed by ourselves on the Exe, and Mr. E. A. 8.
Elliot at Kingsbridge; but the Rev. R. A. Julian and Mr. Gatcombe state
that they do not return to the coast near Plymouth from their breeding-
places on the moorlands until the end of August (‘ Naturalist,’ 1851,
p. 88, and Zool. 1882, p. 64), though some were seen at the end of
July 1882 (Zool. 1882, p. 49). The Common Sandpiper is seen in pairs
on the Okement, Avon, and other Dartmoor streams in summer, and
the nest has frequently been found. ‘The eggs are laid in May.

About the middle of April this well-known bird makes its appearance
in pairs by most of our inland West Country streams at certain favourite
places, remaining for a few days, and then pursuing its course to its
nesting-stations on the moors. Here it at once proceeds to engage itself
with its nest, and continues all the summer until the young are strong on
wing, and then, towards the end of July, it leaves the moors and descends
to the creeks and shores of tidal estuaries, where it stays until the end of
September in little flocks composed of two or three broods. By the
beginning of October all but one or two will have left for the south. The
angler who fishes moorland streams cannot fail to notice this graceful
Sandpiper as it flies before him with its shrill whistle, settling on a stone
in midstream, swaying its body to and fro, and then rising again on his
approach. Should the nest be situated near the water great will be the
excitement of the birds as the fisherman draws near to it; they will fly
round him in repeated circles and will be very clamorous until he is once
more at a safe distance from their treasures. We have found the nest
with young birds in it at Simonsbath, on Exmoor, and have had one of
the old Sandpipers come and settle close to our hand as we were stooping
down looking at it. We were contented with a brief examination, and
then hastened away to set the anxious birds at rest. When fishing on the
Barle we were once close to a Common Sandpiper, which did not see us, as
a high furze bush by the edge of the water screened us effectually, when
the bird rose from the shingle and flew up a few feet, twittering a little
song, and then slowly descended again with outstretched wings, in the

SCOLOPACID.A. 345

manner of a Titlark. The Common Sandpiper, the Grey Wagtail, and
the Dipper are all dear to us from their association with many a moor-
land stream in the delightful West Country on which we have plied our
fly-rod. When shot at and wounded this Sandpiper swims and dives
readily, and is difficult to capture.

Green Sandpiper. Helodromas ochropus (Linn.).

A passing visitor, occurring sparingly, and generally in autumn, 7. ¢.
August to October. Itis probably to some extent a resident, as three, old
and young, were shot on the Exe Marshes, August 5th, 1839(F. W. L. R.,
MS. Journ. i. p. 34), and in 1868 a flock remained on the Exe estuary
all the summer, ‘There is hardly a month in the year in which we have
failed to notice this beautiful Sandpiper in the South-western Counties.
Some are undoubtedly with us during the winter, as we have frequently
seen them in December, January, and February, and a pair or two have,
with little doubt, nested occasionally in the neighbourhood of our least
disturbed streams. With the single exception that this species does not
ascend to the moors at the nesting-season its year’s history closely follows
that of the Common Sandpiper, for as soon as the young can fly they also
are conducted by the old birds to salt-marshes, and to the edges of small
ponds and creeks near the tideway, where they appear at the end of July
or at the beginning of August, and have occurred to us when the young
have been such feeble flyers that it has been evident that they could not
have come from any great distance. There is a small stream which runs
down from Bratton Fleming, and joins the Yeo some five miles to the east
of Barnstaple, by whose banks one spring we constantly saw a pair of
Green Sandpipers, and several times searched diligently for their nest in
the long rushy meadow where we invariably flushed them. This was
many years ago, before the singular nesting-habits of this species had been
discovered, and had we only been aware of them we feel confident we
might have secured the eggs of this pair of Sandpipers. At the bottom of
the meadow where we saw them there was a small plantation which came
down to the edge of the stream, and when we disturbed the birds they
generally rose rather high into the air, and, taking this direction, were lost
to view as they flew over the trees. These were chiefly firs, and in an
old pigeon’s nest in one of them were doubtless the eggs we had searched
for in vain.

When flushed the Green Sandpiper utters a shrill piping cry, and flics
off in a succession of abrupt zigzags, its white tail, boldly barred with
black, being a conspicuous object. It is a shy bird, and could not be
approached, if it were not for the shelter afforded by the rushes and
aquatic herbage at the edges of the small pools it frequents, in which,
being partly concealed itself, it fails to perceive the advancing sportsman.
Put, unless one is wanted as a specimen, the Green Sandpiper is hardly
worth shooting, as the flesh is dark and has a curious musky flavour,
rendering it quite unpalatable.

346 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

An immature bird was obtained at the mouth of the River Plym, July 31st, 1851
(R. A. J., ‘Naturalist,’ 1851, p. 59). One occurred at Plymouth, July 30th, 1858
(B., MS. Notes). Three were seen, August 35rd, 1874, between Instow and Freming-
ton, two being young birds (J. G., Zool. 1874, p. 4254). A pair were shot in
May 1884, which frequented the pond at Bearscombe, near Kingsbridge, and one was
seen near Loddiswell Bridge in May 1886 (E. A. 8. E., MS. Notes). The Green
Sandpiper also sometimes occurs in winter. A young male was shot on the Exe,
November 2nd, 1863; one near Plymouth early in January 1881 (J. G., Zool. 1881,

p- 195) ; one at Buckland, near Kingsbridge, January 15th, 1887 (E. A. 8. E.) ; and three
were seen at Exmouth, December 21st, 1890.

Dr. E. Moore and Bellamy considered it rare and a winter visitor. Turton and
Kingston say: “ rare, found occasionally on the banks of some of the Dartmoor streams
from September to April.” Mr. Ross states that it was “very rare on the Exe.”
Mr. Cecil Smith considered it a common bird in Devon and partially resident (én
litt.). At Kingsbridge it occurs occasionally in spring, autumn, and winter (R. P. N.
and EH. A. S. E., MS. Notes),

It has been frequently obtained at Plymouth, on the marshy ground skirting Big-
bury, Start, and Tor Bays, and on the estuary of the Exe on the south coast ; and on
salt-marshes near the shores of Barnstaple Bay and the estuary of the Taw on the
north coast. Inland it has occurred at North Buckland (J. C. B., Nat. Hist. 8.
Devon, p. 212); near Ivybridge (Zool. 1885, p. 378); Wonford, near Exeter; and
near Barnstaple (M. 8. C. R., Zool. 1871, p. 2810).

We used to find the Green Sandpiper common in the neighbourhood of
Weston-super-Mare in Somerset, meeting little parties consisting of old
birds and young, by the side of rushy pools bordering on the Axe, at the
end of July, and in August and September.

Wood-Sandpiper. Zotanus glareola (Gm.).

A casual visitor, of rare occurrence. It was first discovered as a British
bird by Col. Montagu, and there used to be a female specimen in the
Kritish Museum from his collection, which was shot on the south coast of
Devon carly in the month of August (Orn. Dict.). Dr. Tucker includes it
in his list of birds found near Ashburton, and Turton and Kingston speak
of its being found on the Dart.

Although this Sandpiper is a widely distributed species and nests
commonly in Holland, it is known in this country only as an occasional
visitant, rarely seen in the spring, and chiefly appearing in the autumn.
There is one instance of its nest and eggs having been taken at Prestwich
Car, in the county of Durham. We know of but three occurrences in
North Devon, all of them of young birds ; one was to ourselves on a salt-
marsh close to Barnstaple, August 11th, 1859, another was shot by the
Rev. Marcus Rickards on the Braunton Burrows, on the same day that he
obtained the Pectoral Sandpipers and very near the same spot, in Sept.
1871, and the third was secured near Barnstaple in August 1877. In
South Devon the Wood-Sandpiper is equally rare, and Mr. Gatcombe had
never seen one that had been shot in the neighbourhood of Plymouth.
However, in the Gallery of British Birds in the Natural History Museum
at South Kensington a very good example of the Wood-Sandpiper may be
seen which is labelled ‘* Torquay,” and was presented by Mr. Coningham.

Mr. R. P. Nicholls has never seen a Wood-Sandpiper at Kingsbridge,

SCOLOPACID. 347

and we know of no instance of its occurrence on the estuary of the Exe.
There is an immature specimen in the Torquay Museum which is labelled
* Slapton Lea ;” it is old and rather faded.

In Cornwall the Wood-Sandpiper is more often obtained, as many as
seven having been shot in one day in the month of August in the Land’s
End marshes, and others have been met with in April, May, June,
and December, Mr. Rodd believing that those shot in the spring might
possibly have nested had they been undisturbed. In Dorset, according to
Mr. Mansel-Pleydell, this Sandpiper is rare. Mr. Cecil Smith knew of no
Somerset Wood-Sandpiper at the time he published his book, but procured
two subsequently, which were shot close to Taunton. These birds are
before us as we write; for, having seen them both in the flesh, we were
sufficiently interested in them to purchase the case at the sale of Mr.
Cecil Smith’s collection. We look regretfully at the one in complete
summer plumage, which was shot at Chedden on 9th May, 1870, as it
might have had a mate, and possibly a nest, at the time it was slaughtered.
The other is an example of a young bird in immature plumage.

Our first eggs of the Wood-Sandpiper were presented to us by our kind
old friend Mr. Frederick Bond, at whose house in St. John’s Wood it was
our privilege to spend many a happy half-holiday in our schoolboy days.
We happened to be there one day when Baker of Trumpington Street,
Cambridge, arrived from Holland, where he had been collecting eggs, with
a large basket full of the beautiful eggs of the Melodious Willow Warbler,
Little Bittern, Wood-Sandpiper, &c., and were presented with one or two
ot each, to our great delight.

The Wood-Sandpiper places its nest upon the ground in marshes, and,
according to Mr. Dresser, is fond of the society of cattle. The Rev.
Marcus Rickards has remarked that there is the same musky smell,
perhaps more highly intensified, observable in the body of the Wood-Sand-
piper as may be detected in that of the Green Sandpiper. Respecting the
example of this species shot by him on Braunton Burrows, Mr. Rickards
has informed us that it rose with a loud startling whistle, and then
dropped like a stone into some reeds, where he watched it standing and
vibrating its tail.

[ Observation.—Two examples of a common American Sandpiper, the
Solitary Sandpiper, Totanus solitarius (Wilson), have been obtained in
recent years in the extreme S8.W. of the kingdom—one on the Scilly
Isles, on 21st September, 1881, which is now in the collection of Mr.
Dorien-Smith, of Tresco Abbey; and the other on a marsh near Mara-
zion, towards the end of January 1885; both were recorded in the
‘ Zoologist ’ at the time by Mr. Thomas Cornish, of Penzance (Zool. 1882,
p- 432, 1885, p. 232). Only one other instance of this species had been
previously known from the Clyde some few years before. The Solitary
Tattler, to give it its American name, closely resembles our Wood-Sand-
piper, but differs from it in having olive-brown instead of white upper
tail-coverts. It makes its appearance in the United States in the spring
and fall, and some are said to breed. Dr. Coues has given an amusing

348 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

account of its trick of constantly bowing its head, and of standing
motionless in the water when its hunger has been satisfied (‘ Birds of
North-West,’ p. 500). |

Redshank. Zotanus calidris (Linn.).
[Pill-cock: .D.]

A passing visitor, principally in autumn, when flocks sometimes
frequent our estuaries for a tew weeks in August and September. Dr.
E. Moore records specimens shot on Kenton (Dawlish) Warren in June
1828 (Trans. Plym. Inst. 1830). Mr. Gateombe mentions seeing one
flying up the Tamar on July 12th, 1876 (Zool. 1876, p. 5109); and Mr.
E. Elliot shot one on the 27th of that month in 1889 on the Kingsbridge
estuary. Single birds occasionally remain throughout the winter on the
Exe, and Mr, Gatecombe considered the Redshank had become a regular
winter resident on the Plymouth estuaries (Zool. 1875, p. 4373; 1877,
p- 278; 1880, p. 247; 1883, p. 166; 1884, p. 55). Some occur on the
Kingsbridge estuary nearly every autumn (R. P. N.), where it was
very numerous in September 1879 and 1890 (E. A. S. E.). The Red-
shank is by no means common on the Exe estuary. It used to be one of
the most numerous of our shore birds on the North Devon estuaries, but
has now become comparatively rare. We can remember when every
** pill,” the local name given to a little stream which had cut for itself a
deep passage in the mud to join the tideway, possessed a pair or more of
‘** Pill-cocks,” which in such places could be easily stalked and shot.
Nor were little flocks of ten or a dozen uncommon on the sands and
oozes in the autumn. As we never went at any time of the year to
the neighbourhood frequented by the Redshanks without either
seeing one or two, or hearing their unmistakable whistle as they flew
overhead, we have little doubt that in those days a pair or two nested
on the then undrained and unenclosed salt-marshes by the side of the
Barnstaple river. Mr. Rodd says that ‘in the spring its musical cry
may be heard in the marshes at a great distance,” and it is probable that
it is also a nesting species in Cornwall. In Dorset it is common, resident
all the year, and is known to nest. In Somerset we have met with it in
the spring and autumn; and although Mr. Cecil Smith had no evidence
that it bred anywhere in the county, it is not unlikely that it does in
suitable localities, which are numerous enough.

Spotted Redshank. Totanus fuscus (Linn.).
[Dusky Redshank, Spotted Snipe of Montagu. ]

A casual visitor, of rare occurrence, principally to the south coast of
the county, where it has been generally seen in the month of August.
It has only once been known to occur in the early part of the year, in the
roonth of February.

SCOLOPACID.E. 349

This species, somewhat larger and with a longer bill and longer legs
than the Common Redshank, is only a rare autumnal straggler to the
S.W. counties, and although we have frequently had extra fine examples
of the latter bird forwarded to us in the belief that they were Spotted
Redshanks, it was not until October 1891 that we received the first
undoubted specimen of the bird from North Deyon, which had been shot
on the Barnstaple river after the heavy gales which blew at the middle
of that month. This was a young bird in immature plumage. Over a
dozen specimens have been secured in the south of the county.

Montagu mentions one killed in South Devon in the month of August, probably
the example that was in the British Museum from his collection. Dr. Edward Moore
records one shot in the Hamoaze, November 1829 (Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837, p. 319).
One procured at Kingsbridge in 1842 is now in the collection of the late Mr. J.
Elliot of that town. Three specimens were obtained on the Topsham mud-flats in
August 1851; these we saw soon after they were shot, and they are recorded by Mr.
W. Tombs in the ‘Naturalist’ for 1852, p.19. One of them is in the A. M. M.
One was killed at Plymouth, August 24th, 1858 (B., MS. Notes). Mr. Byne had a
specimen said to have been shot at Slapton Ley in 1864. Mr. Cecil Smith had one
in winter plumage shot at Teignmouth (‘ Birds of Somerset,’ p. 376). Mr. J, Gateombe
mentions one killed in February 1874 at the mouth of the river Erme in perfect
winter plumage (Zool. 1874, p. 8945). Mr. E. A. 8. Elliot shot a male, together with
two Greenshanks, two Common Redshanks, and two Dunlins, August 24th, 1885;
and on August 18th, 1890, he killed two, both females, out of a flock of four on the
Kingsbridge estuary (MS. Notes).

In Cornwall the Spotted Redshank is occasionally met with on the
marshes in the autumn, and Mr. Rodd received one from the Scilly Isles.
During our residence at Weston-super-Mare we examined two, both
immature birds, shot in the autumn, which had been obtained by the
side of ballast-pits adjoining the Great Western Railway. Col. Montagu
received one from his friend Mr. Anstice, of Bridgwater, which had been
shot out of a small flock near that town in September. Mr. Mansel-
Pleydell can only mention three examples, all obtained in September in
various years, for his county of Dorset.

The plumage of the Spotted Redshank varies greatly according to age
and the time of year. The adults in their breeding-plumage are sooty
black below, with backs of the same colour, the feathers margined with
white, and pure white upper tail-coverts; the tail sooty black, with
numerous white bars; and are singular-looking birds. The time of their
assumption of this dark dress seems greatly to vary, as the blackest bird
we ever saw is one we possess which was shot by the Rev. Marcus Rickards
at Pagham Harbour, in Sussex, 5th March, 1870, whereas two other fine
adults in our collection, obtained from Norfolk at the end of May, are far
from being in as complete nuptial plumage. The immature birds are
more or less brown all over, with a white patch at the top of the throat,
and in their complete winter plumage the adults are ash-grey on the back,
with the underparts pure white.

The Spotted Redshank breeds in Norway, Lapland, &c., and its beautiful
pyriform eggs are the delight of collectors, from their extreme richness
of colour.

350 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

[Yellowshank. Totanus flavipes (Gm.).

When we were at Penzance we were shown by Mr. Vingoe an example
of this American Sandpiper which he had shot on a marsh near Marazion
on 12th September, 1871. It corresponded exactly with American skins
in our possession, and,as Mr. Rodd points out, comes intermediate in size
between the Common and Spotted Redshanks, and has a much shorter
beak than either, and of course is at once to be recognized by its yellow
legs. We have more than once had young Ruffs, which also have yellow
legs, sent to us as examples of this American species. The bird figured
as a Yellowshank by Mr. Ross in his MS. ‘ Journal of Occurrences in Nat.
Hist.’ (1840, vol. ili. p. 52) appears to have been a young Redshank,
and from the description may have been an example of 7. fuscus. Ac-
cording to Dr. Coues the Yellowshank, or “ Lesser Telltale,’ is common
east of the Rocky Mountains as a migrant, nesting in high latitudes in
Arctic America. |

Greenshank. Totanus canescens (Gm.).

A passing visitor, principally in autumn. Small flocks occasionally
visit our estuaries in August and September, and it is sometimes, but
rarely, observed in spring, and now and then in winter. It is by no
means a common species.

At Plymouth examples occurred in 1821 (R. 8.) ; September 1855 and May 10th, 1861
(B., MS. Notes) ; December 26th, 1862, October 1875, January 13th, 1879, December
1882, August 7th, 1885 (J. G., MS. Notes, and Zool. 1875, p. 4719; 1879, p. 2061;
1883, p. 166; 1885, p. 378). A few generally visit the mud-flats in autumn.

On the Kingsbridge estuary the Greenshank is generally seen in small numbers
every autumn (BH. A. 8. E., MS. Notes).

A pair were seen on,the Teign, near Newton Abbot, September 27th, 1871 (G. F. M.,
Zool. 1872, p. 2945).

On the Exe estuary specimens were obtained in September 1839, September 1844,
and September 1845 (F.W.L.R.). Two August 25th, 1851, May 6th, 1853, September
1867, September 1871, and September 1890. There are also several from the Exe in
Mr. Byne’s collection.

On the Taw a pair occurred September 5th, 1870, and a large flock August 30th,
1871 (M. S.C. R., Zool. 1870, p. 2387 ; 1871, p. 2809). One May 28rd, 1874 (G. F. M.,
Zool. 1874, p. 4134).

This fine Sandpiper nests by the lochs in the far north of Scotland, and
also in the northern parts of Europe, and is an autumn visitor of
irregular appearance on our Devonshire estuaries and rivers. We have
seen Single examples on the Barnstaple river, always finding them very
wary and difficult to approach. The Rev. Marcus Rickards met with a
flock of from twenty to twenty-five running on the bank of the Taw close
to Barnstaple, in August and September 1871, and informs us that they
continued to frequent the same place for some time, and that he succeeded
in shooting two of them. He also saw a single Greenshank on the salt-
marsh at West Appledore.

SCOLOPACIDA, 301

Dr. Bullmore considered the Greenshank not uncommon in the south
of Cornwall, to which county Mr. Rodd states that it is both a spring and
autumn visitor, occasionally remaining until the winter, and mentions
two sent to him from the Scilly Isles in December. Mr. Gatcombe has
recorded one shot at Wadebridge, September 29th, 1884 (Zool. 1885,
p. 21). We never saw a Greenshank in Somerset, and the only instance
we can mention is one recorded by Mr. Cecil Smith from Huntspill,
August 29th, 1884 (Zool. 1885, p. 66).

The Greenshank occurs in Dorsetshire, sometimes far inland, according
to Mr. Mansel-Pleydell, but is somewhat scarce, and “is never so common
as the Redshank,” being seen singly or in pairs, and never in flocks,
The flesh of this Sandpiper is said to be excellent. It is a widely dis-
persed species, occurring in India, China, throughout Africa, &., as well
as in the north of Europe.

Red-breasted Snipe. Macrorhamphus griseus (Gm.).
[Brown Snipe of Montagu. ]

An accidental visitor, of very rare occurrence.

Col. Montagu, who first made this species known as a British bird, records,
under the name of “ Brown Snipe,” a male obtained on the coast of Devon
in October of some year about 1801, which was deposited in the British
Museum; and Dr. E. Moore also mentions one which was in the collec-
tion of Mr. Drew, of Devonport (Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837, p. 321). A male
in winter plumage was shot in the parish of South Huish by Mr. Andrew
Gillard in the winter of 1855; it rose from a marsh like a Common
Snipe. This specimen passed into the hands of the Rev. G. 8. Marsh, of
Sutton Benger, Wilts (H. N., Zool. 1857, p. 5791). One said to have been
killed at Hatherleigh was in Mr. Byne’s collection, afterwards purchased
by Mr. Marsh-Dunn, of Teignmouth.

The Red-breasted Snipe is another of those species of Limicole
which have wandered to this kingdom from America, where it is abundant
as an autumn visitor in the United States, and nests in the Arctic
Regions, the only authentic eggs that are known having been taken
on the Anderson river. Like most of the shore-frequenting Sandpipers,
its red summer plumage is replaced in the autumn by a sober grey livery,
in which stage it has been met with three or four times in the south of
Devon. We know of no instance of its occurrence in North Devon, but
are confident two strange Sandpipers we encountered one day upon the
sands of the Taw, and were unable to secure, belonged to this species.
Only one other example of the Red-breasted Snipe has been obtained in
the $.W. district, one shot on St. Mary’s, one of the Scilly Isles, October
3rd, 1857.

Although going by the name of Red-breasted Snipe, this bird is more of
a Sandpiper than a Snipe, and occurs in large flocks in the autumn on the
sands and oozes of the coast in America, when numbers are shot by the
guuners, as its flesh is in high estimation.

San THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

Bar-tailed Godwit. Limosa lapponica (Linn.).
[Sea Woodcock, Goddin (V. D.); Red-breasted Snipe of Montagu. ]

A passing visitor in spring and autumn, sometimes numerous on the
mud-flats in the estuaries of our larger rivers both in the north and
south of the county. Non-breeding birds are occasionally met with in
summer: we ourselves obtained a pair in reddish mottled plumage on the
mud-banks below Topsham on the Exe on June 10th, 1854; the eggs in
the ovary of the female were no larger than duck-shot. There is a
specimen in full breeding-plumage in the A. M. M. which was procured
on the Exe, May 14th, 1845 (F. W. L. R., MS. Journ. vol. iv. p. 107).
Dr. E. Moore mentions a flock of seven, out of which four were shot, on
the Tamar in June 1828 (Trans. Plym. Inst. 1830). One was shot close
to Milton Ley, June 2nd, 1885 (E. A.S. E., MS, Notes). Many occurred
at Plymouth in May 1876 in spring plumage (J. G., Zool. 1876, p. 4992),
and hundreds visited the Kingsbridge estuary at that time. The wind
had blown continuously from the east for three weeks (E. A. 8. E., in litt.).
Montagu’s “ Red-breasted Snipe,” a flock of which visited the south
coast of Devon, May 21st, 1803 (Linn. Soc. Trans. ix. p. 198), must have
been this species in summer plumage. This bird occurs occasionally in
the winter months at Plymouth, and on the Kingsbridge, Dart, and Exe
estuaries. We saw a large flock near Budleigh Salterton on 14th
December, 1890, and many were shot near Exmouth about that time.

There is very great variation in the length of the bill in this Godwit,
due to sex and age, immature birds having it much shorter than the adults.
A curious pale variety shot May 10th, 1844, on the Exe estuary, is in
the A. M. M. (F. W. L. R., MS. Journ. iv. p. 111).

In Norfolk, according to Mr. Stevenson, the name “Scamell” is
applied to the Bar-tailed Godwit, and the word occurs in Shakespeare.
Mr. Harting thinks the “immortal bard” wrote ‘sea-mells” or “ sea-
malls,” z. ¢. Sea-gulls; but we consider it probable that the word should be
** Schimmel,” a Dutch term applied to roan or ‘“ strawberry ” horses, and
other animals suffused with red colour and white.

The ‘ Goddin,” as the shooters on the Barnstaple river termed them,
were usually expected on its sands at the time of Barnstaple Fair, that is
to say about the middle of September, and there was great excitement
when the first flocks had been seen and announced. The birds were
singularly tame on their first arrival, appearing in flocks of from a
dozen to thirty, and would be noted feeding in a long straggling line at
the edge of the mud, and as they were approached the outside birds
would run in towards the centre, so that the gunner would find them
awaiting his shot huddled together in a compact group, obtaining some-
times a dozen or more at a single discharge of his gun. As the tide was
ebbing the flocks would be seen flying up the river to feed upon the
uncovered flats, their soft whistling ery would be heard as they came
near, and they would pass ciose to any boat upon the river in their

SCOLOPACID.Z. 353

course, frequently paying heavy toll through this want of caution. No
amount of persecution appeared to make them any wilder, and as long
as they remained and were repeatedly being joined by fresh arrivals they
were most easily to be shot. At the beginning of October they all dis-
appeared, and we never saw a Bar-tailed Godwit in full winter plumage
from the Barnstaple river, although we possess one shot on the estuary
of the Dart. Small flocks of Bar-tailed Godwits were not uncommon on
the Taw in the spring, when they were in the full red plumage, and we
have some fine examples. Occasionally they remained until the middle
of June, and one day when we were bathing at Instow, in looking
towards the shore, we saw about a dozen in their beautiful summer
dress walking about among our clothes. The flocks appearing in the
autumn are mainly composed of young birds, when brown, grey, and
buff are the prevailing tints of their plumage. Genuine eggs of this
bird are rare in collections, but a few have been obtained of late years
in Lapland and Finmark, and are said ‘to be different in texture and
more glossy” than those of the Black-tailed Godwit (Zool. 1892, p. 30).

The Bar-tailed Godwit also occurs commonly on the Cornish, Dorset,
-and North Somerset coasts in the antumn.

When the tide has been high, covering all the sands and mud-flats, we
have occasionally flushed and shot single examples of this Godwit in
turnip-fields adjoining the river. We have seen the birds using their
long legs to wade in the little pools left by the tide on the sands, or at
the edges of the ooze as the tide has been running out.

Black-tailed Godwit. Limosa egocephala (Linn.).

A casual visitor, of occasional occurrence, in spring and autumn, prin-
cipally on the south coast of the county. It is very rare in North Devon.

Although this Godwit formerly nested in the fen districts in the east
of England, and at the present time breeds commonly so close to us as in
Holland, it is now only an uncertain spring and autumn migrant, and is
extremely rare in the western counties. In North Devon we know of
only two examples having been obtained on the Taw, both immature
birds, which were shot in September, one in 1859, the other in 1868.
In the south of the county the Black-tailed Godwit has occurred more
frequently, and several have been shot in the spring in the handsome
-breeding-plumage,

The Black-tailed Godwit is longer both in the beak and legs than the
Bar-tailed species, and is not so red in its summer plumage,

Dr. E. Moore records a specimen shot on Dawlish Warren, near Exmouth, in
1829, and mentions that Mr. C. Prideaux said it was not unfrequently met with in
his neighbourhood [Kingsbridge] (Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837, p. 519). One was obtained
on the Exe, September 1839 (F. W. L. R., MS. Journ. ii, p. 103). A female shot
there was brought to us in the flesh September Ist, 1851. One in breeding-plumage
is in the A. M. M.; and another is in Mr. Byne’s collection which is said to have been
obtained on the Exe. One was killed at Yealmpton, September 18th, 1855 (B., MS.
Notes). Four were shot at Slapton Ley in August and September 1864 (C. 8., ‘ Birds

2A

By § THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

of Somerset,’ p. 390). A pair were shot on the Exe estuary, March 2nd, 1864 (J. C.
Tyrwhitt- Drake). Two occurred there in May 1867 (W. Taylor), and one in October
1870. One was shot on Thurlestoue Ley, September 14th, 1877 (H. N.). A female,
apparently in an exhausted state, was killed in the meadows at Preston, some distance
from the Kingsbridge estuary, August 18th, 1889; and in May 1890 one was shot at
Bearscombe pond (E. A. 8. E., MS. Notes). There is a specimen in breeding-plumage,
killed near Kingsbridge, in the collection of the late Mr, J. Elliot.

In Cornwall and also in Dorset this Godwit is a rare straggler, but few
being mentioned in the account of the birds of those counties, and in
Somerset the only specimen which came into the hands of Mr. Cecil
Smith was a young bird of the year purchased from a poulterer, who had
received it from the neighbourhood of Bridgwater.

Whimbrel., Numenius pheopus (Livn.).

[Cuckoo Curlew (on the Exe), Stone Curlew, Half Curlew, Jack
Curlew (NV, D.), May-bird. |

A passing visitor in spring and autumn, arriving in April and May.
After a short stay with us in spring it leaves for its breeding-places, re-
turning in July and August, and remains until the end of September,
frequenting the mud-flats in the estuaries of our larger rivers. Some
occasionally remain till late in the winter. Probably owing to this late
stay both Moore and Turton considered it a winter visitor. One was
killed out of a flock at Instow, North Devon, in January 1868 (G. F. M.,
Zool. 1868, p. 1135).

Whimbrels are usually seen in small parties, but sometimes large flocks
are met with. They are rather tame on their first arrival in spring. We
see some every year about the first week in May on the sea-beach at
Exmouth. ’

The Whimbrel is a well-known and common bird upon our North Devon
estuaries, where it arrives regularly at the beginning of May, and, after
spending about a fortnight with us, proceeds on its journey to its breeding-
haunts in the far north. It is seen again on its return south in the
autumn, but it is never so numerous on the North Devon rivers at that
season of the year as it is in the spring. Some autumns would pass
without a single young Whimbrel having appeared on the sands of the Barn-
staple river. The Whimbrel is a very tame and confiding bird, and when it
is running upon the shingle it will squat and trust to its plumage harmo-
nizing in its grey tints with its surroundings to conceal it from observa-
tion, and we have frequently been startled by almost treading upon one
which has either run away or risen reluctantly on wing from beneath our
feet. Owing to the Sea Birds’ Preservation Act the tameness of the Whim-
brel has greatly increased, and we have been told by a boatman at Instow
that in May they may be seen running along on the road passing through
that little watering-place “ like chickens.” The Whimbrel is honoured
-by many local names. The North Devon shore-shooters call it the Half
Curlew or Jack Curlew ;. we have also heard it called the Seven Whistlers

SCOLOPACID.A. aod

and the Titterel, in allusion to its musical piping notes; in some parts of
the West of England it is called the Cuckoo (!) ; and we once saw a friend,
who lived near Honiton, point out with his whip a Whimbrel which was
feeding on a meadow by the sea-side, as he drove along the road, and
heard him say, “It is not often you see a Cuckoo so close as that.”
Around Bridgwater Mr. Goldsmith (Zool. 1888, p. 67) states that the
Whimbrel is known as the ‘‘ Cowslip bird ;” that it is seen on the neigh-
bouring moors for about three weeks in May, and is supposed to vary in
its numbers according as it is a good or a bad cowslip year !

There is no record of the Whimbrel ever having nested in the south of
the kingdom, but one which started up from the heather in front of us,
on the top of Skomer Island, off the S.W. coast of Pembrokeshire, and
ran off slowly trailing her wings, on the last day of May, looked very
much like a breeding bird. Unfortunately at the moment we were in
keen pursuit of something else, and when we returned to search for our
Whimbrel’s nest (?) had lost count of the precise spot.

The Whimbrel is, evidently, one of those birds whose passage south in
the autumn is chiefly by a different route from the one followed northwards

in the spring.

Curlew. Nwmenius arquata (Linn.).
[Whistlizg Curlew. ]

Resident, some breeding on Dartmoor, also in many places on the
rough high ground in the north-east and north-west of North Devon, and
on the higher hills of Exmoor. Small flocks may be seen feeding on the
mud-flats in the estuaries of the larger rivers at all times of the year,
but their numbers are greatly increased at the end of August or the
beginning of September, at which time large flocks are wont to ascend the
estuary of the Exe to feed on the marshes below Countess Weir.

According to Mr. Gatcombe the resident birds go to the moors early in
March. The eggs are laid in May. ‘Two eggs were found on Sherbitor
Farm, Dartmoor, two miles from Prince Town, May 11th, 1886. After
rearing their young they return to the sea-coast in August (J. G., Zool.
1877, p. 279; 1878, p. 249 ; 1879, p. 420; 1882, p.458; 1887, p. 376),
Curlews are said to roost at night on the sea-cliffs with the Gulls. They
have been known to breed on the shores of the Plymouth harbours
(J. C. B., Nat. Hist. 8. Devon, p. 298, note).

In the autumn and winter large flocks assemble, feeding by the water-
line at low tide, and betaking themselves to the marshes or to wet stubble
and turnip-fields on the hillsides when the sands and oozes aro covered.

The Curlew is the most wary of all the shore birds and the most
difficult to approach. By watching their line of flight, and lying up for
them behind a hedge, it is possible to get a shot once or twice, but not
oftener, as the birds will very soon detect the danger and take another
direction. In the spring we have sometimes succeeded in whistling them

2A 2

556 THE. BIRDS OF DEVON.

within range of some carefully chosen ambush. A good many Curlews
nest on the rough moory hills in North Devon. In May 1890 we came
across several pairs on the high ground above North Molton, called North
Molton Ridge, and we have information of nests near Bradworthy. We
sat for some time one day on a stone close by the side of a Curlew’s nest,
and after a little while the two old birds, which had been gradually
approaching nearer and nearer, plaintively whistling, came and perched
on stones on either side of us. We were greatly amused at having
these wary “ lang nebbit things” reduced to this state of tameness, and,
as we sat watching their anxiety, felt as if we were paying out the whole
Curlew race in their persons for many a stalk after wild duck which had
been baffled by the ill-omened scream of some prying Curlew, putting up
our birds just at the critical moment when a few more yards of crawling
over the mud would have resulted in a successful shot. The Curlews are
always the first birds to take wing, as the gunner is drifting in his boat
towards the edge of the shore, where perhaps he has marked a nice lot of
Wigeon and Teal resting, and their loud cries make all the other birds
uneasy, and almost certain to rise before a shot can be obtained. Many
Curlews breed on Brown Willy and Roughtor, in the centre of Cornwall,
and Mr. Rodd states that the moormen search eagerly for the young birds,
which are considered great delicacies, In Dorset some are known to breed
near Wareham.

[ Observation.—Mr. Thomas Cornish, of Penzance, recorded in the ‘ Zoolo-
gist’ for 1887, p. 388, an adult example of an Esquimaux Curlew, Numenius
borealis (J. R. Forster), a wanderer from North America, which had been
obtained at Tresco, on the Scilly Isles, September 10th that year, and
is now in the collection of Mr. Dorien-Smith at Tresco Abbey. It was
in company with a Whimbrel when shot. The Esquimaux Curlew bears
a superficial resemblance to a small Whimbrel, but may at once be dis-
tinguished by the arrow-head markings on its breast and flanks. Dr.
Coues states that it migrates through the Missouri region of the United
States in immense flocks in May. He met with it also in Labrador,
where it is very abundant, the flocks being easily enticed within gunshot
by an imitation of their oft-repeated, mellow whistle. The birds feed
almost entirely on the crowberry (Empetrum nigrum). Their nesting-
station is in Arctic America, where they breed in great numbers in the
Anderson River region (‘ Birds of the North-West,’ p. 512). ]

-J

os
on

LARIDA.

Order GAVIA.
Family LARIDA.
Subfamily STE RNIN 4.
THE TERNS.

The beautiful and graceful Terns, or ‘Sea-Swallows” as
they are often called, are but little known on our Devon-
shire coasts, as they are seldom seen except when they
pass along our shores in spring and autumn on their
migrations. We cannot boast that any of the species
spend the summer and find a nesting-station on our
beaches. ‘The only places we know of in the South-west
of England where any breed are the Chesil Beach, near
Weymouth, and one or two other spots on the Dorset coast,
where numerous nests of the Common Tern, together with
a few of the Little and Sandwich Terns, may be met with,
and on some of the Scilly Islands; while the rare Roseate
Tern, which once in considerable numbers nested on those
islands, no longer does so, and there is no authenticated
instance even of its appearance on any of our Devon
waters. ‘The Terns nesting at the present day on the
Scilly Islands are the Arctic, Common, and Sandwich
Terns, and of these the first is by far the most numerous.
A few Common Terns may nest occasionally on the
Cornish coast. Although most of the British species have
been recorded from Devonshire, the Arctic, Common, and
Black ‘Terns are the only three which we can claim as
being at all common; the fine Sandwich ‘Tern, chiefly in
immature plumage, may be seen occasionally fishing off
the southern shores of the county, and the Little ‘Tern
also occurs not unfrequently, while there are several
others, such as the Whiskered Tern, the White-winged

358 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

Black Tern, the Gull-billed Tern, and the Caspian Tern,
which have either been observed in single instances only,
or whose reported occurrence is open to doubt. Besides
the species we have mentioned three others have occurred
in British waters. Two or three examples of the Sooty
Tern (Sterna fuliginosa, Gmel.), a single one of the
Smaller Sooty Tern (Sterna anestheta, Scop.) obtained off
a lightship at the mouth of the Thames in 1875, and two
examples of the Noddy (Anouws stolidus (Linn.)) are re-
corded, the last secured off the coast of Ireland in 1830.

A party of Common Terns fishing is a pretty sight as
they beat backwards and forwards a few feet above the
surface of the water, one of them every now and again
checking itself for a second and dropping down to seize
a small fish espied below; their grey and snow-white
plumage, with black heads, red beaks, and red legs, con-
trasting well with the blue of the sky above and the blue-
green water beneath. All the while they are fishing the
birds keep up a querulous screaming one to another, and
if, as they are fond of doing, they are following the run of
the tide, they keep one after the other almost in line, and
as one is watching them the long drawn-out party gradu-
ally disappears in the distance, the little white flashing
forms getting more and more indistinct after all recog-
nition of their cries has ceased.

Mr. E. A. 8. Elliot watched some Common and Arctic
Terns feeding on the South Coast in October 1891, and
observed that the ‘birds were sometimes completely sub-
merged when dropping on their prey and were quite hid
from sight, but at other times were not. He thought it
depended on how far the fry of which they were in
pursuit was below the surface of the water. The Arctic
Terns appeared to be the most vigorous in their plunges,
and the quickness of their evolutions was wonderful.

LARID&. 399

Arctic Tern. Sterna macrura, Naumann.
(Pearl Gull.]

A passing visitor in spring and autumn, much more numerous in some
years than in others.

On May 8th, 1842, great flights of this Tern visited the Exe, and
hundreds were killed with sticks ‘and stones, being in an exhausted state
(F. W. L. R., MS. ‘ British Laride,*). About the same date great
numbers of Terns, both Common and Arctic, but mostly the latter,
appeared after a gale in Kingsbridge estuary and along the coast.
Thousands were seen and many were killed in thesame manner as we have
described already. They remained about a week and departed as suddenly
as they came (H. N., MS. Notes; J.G., Zool. 1872, p. 3260). Mr. Ross con-
sidered that young Arctic Terns were more numerous than any other kind
on the Exe, but we have not ourselves found this to be the case. Cer-
tainly the birds that visit us in autumn are mostly immature, and were
very numerous on the coasts at the beginning of October 1871, and at
Plymouth October 1886 (Zool. 1887, p. 377). A male and female were
killed between Bantham and Thurlestone in May 1878, and many were
seen at Beesands in October 1891 (KE. A. 8. E., MS. Notes). An adult
was shot at Exmouth at the end of August 1891 after southerly gales.
This species was plentiful on sandy parts of the North Devon coast in
the autumn of 1859 (M. A. M., Zool. 1859, p. 6761); and many flocks
were seen on the Taw and Torridge in May 1374 (G. F. M., Zool. 1874,
p. 4154).

The Arctic Tern is a common spring and autumn visitor to our estuaries,
where in September it may be seen in company with the Common Tern,
and can hardly be distinguished -from it when the birds are wheeling
about and fishing. Although it is a more northern bird than the Common
Tern, breeding at stations which are beyond the northern range of that
species, it is nevertheless, according to Mr. Rodd, more numerously repre-
sented on the Scilly Islands, where it nests commonly. There appears to
be no place on the south coast of England where the Arctic Tern breeds,
for Mr. Mansel-Pleydell declares that it does not nest anywhere on the
Dorset coast, in spite of Mr. Cecil Smith’s assertion that he himself took
its eggs on the Chesil Beach. After reading Mr. Cecil Smith’s very inter-
esting account in the ‘ Zoologist’ for 1883, p. 454, of his visit to that
locality, it is quite plain to us that he may have been mistaken, as it
would be impossible to separate the eggs of the Arctic and Common
Terns unless the old birds were actually caught on or shot off the nest,
and this cruel method of identification was not adopted. The Arctic
Tern deposits its eggs, which are generally two but sometimes three in
number, in a hole scratched among the pebbles on the beach, sometimes
with a scanty lining of grass, but most often without any lining at all.
The young when first hatched are covered with a greyish down, and, like
those of the Ring Dotterel, are very difficult to detect upon the ground,

560 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

This species closely resembles the Common Tern, but may be known
from it by its darker pearl-grey plumage, by having the underparts
equally as dark as the back, and by its conspicuously shorter tarsus.

Common Tern. Sterna fluviatilis, Naumann.
[Miret, Mackerel-Bird, Sea-Swallow, Gull-teaser (1. D.).]

A passing visitor in spring and autumn, being most frequently met
with at the latter season, especially after storms, when it ascends the
river estuaries.

It is difficult to separate records concerning this and the preceding
species, but, like that and some other Terns, it is sometimes met with
on the coast and estuaries in extraordinary numbers in a weak and
exhausted condition. Dr. E. Moore relates that great numbers of young
birds frequented the shores of Plymouth harbours for two or three days
after a strong gale in October 1828; many of them were very weak, and
some were picked up starved (Trans. Plym. Inst. 1830). Mr. E, A. 8.
Elliot states that ‘after a continuous and heavy gale from 8.W. to N.W.
for forty-eight hours, October 16th, 1886, at dusk, near Rowdon Point, in
Kingsbridge estuary, an immense flock, some hundreds, of Common Terns
appeared and a few pitched on the Point, and that two of them were
shot. Next day one was caught alive in an exhausted state.” A consi-
derable flight visited the coast at Beesands in October 1891. The Common
Tern is seldom seen at Plymouth before September, but Mr. Gatcombe
saw an adult on August 10th, 1881, hovering over a shoal of mackerel.
He obtained a young bird as late as November 22nd, 1876 (Zool. 1877,
p- 45; 1882, p. 63).

We have seen this Tern on the Exe in July and August (1854, 1855,
1863, and 1891). It is rarely observed in winter. Some are said to
have been seen at Salmon Pool, near Exeter, in December 1870 or
January 1871, but the birds then observed may have been Arctic Terns.

To be seen regularly every autumn as it is beating south, this beautiful
Species sometimes occurs in large flocks in the spring when some sudden
gale has intercepted it in passage and driven it to seek shelter in our
tidal rivers. We remember some years ago a great multitude of Common
Terns appearing in May at Barnstaple, flying over the river by the
bridge, and receiving the usual welcome from all who had a gun ready to
hand. In September there are usually many of these Terns on the
Barnstaple and Bidetord rivers to be seen coming in with the tide and
following it inland, wheeling about, and fishing by throwing themselves
from time to time abruptly into the water. We have occasionally seen a
single Tern as late as November at Instow, but the main body of the
birds which visit our North Devon estuaries goes further south early in
October. We know of no Devonshire nesting-place of the Common Tern.
A pair or two were said to breed on Steart Island, off Burnham, in North
Somerset, but we -could not find any one June morning we visited the

LARIDE. _— aGik

island expressly to look for them. The Common Tern breeds upon the
Scilly Islands, on some places on the coast of Cornwall, as at Newlyn,
where Dr. bullmore states that eggs were found and taken by his cousin
Mr. W. Bullmore, of Trescobeas ; also on the Chesil Beach on the Dorset
coast, and on Skokholm Stack, a small island off the south-west coast of
Pembrokeshire, where we were informed by some boatmen there were
about twenty nests. Mr. Cecil Smith states that the most advanced of
the young birds found by him when he visited the Chesil Beach on
August 5th, 1883, “ hid themselves amongst the pebbles and stalks of a
wild pea (Lathyrus maritimus), which I believe is rather local, but which
grows on parts of the Chesil Beach. The young birds hid amongst these
peas, with their grey backs just showing above the leaves; they looked
like largish grey pebbles, of which there were a good many about. They
kept perfectly still, so still indeed that we were sometimes in danger of
treading on them ” (Zool. 1883, p. 454; 1888, p. 206).

The adults of this beautiful species of Tern have a delicate salmon
tinge upon the breast, which soon fades away from skins and mounted
specimens.

(Roseate Tern. Sterna dougalli, Mont.

The recorded instances of the occurrence of this species in Devonshire
are ail either erroneous or open to doubt. ‘One in North Devon,
September 1859” (G. F. M., ‘ Naturalist,’ 1866, p. 360). The reference
there given to the ‘ Zoologist,’ 1859, p. 6761, is wrong, the Gull-billed
Tern and not the Roseate Tern being mentioned by us, and we now
believe this specimen was a young Whiskered Tern, but unfortunately
the skin no longer exists (M. A. M.). Another recorded by the late
Mr. Cecil Smith as having been shot at Exmouth in the autumn of 1863
or 1864 was incorrectly determined, as that gentleman himself informed
us. Mr. Gatcombe mentions two which were said to have been seen in
Plymouth Sound in April 1874 (Zool. 1874, p. 4104).

From various causes this most graceful and elegant of all our British
Terns has within the last half-century become extremely rare as a British
species, and most of its old nesting-stations have been abandoned. In 1840
it was quite a common nesting-bird, according to Mr. Rodd, on the Scilly
Islands, but there have been none there now for years, nor is the bird ever
seen at the present day off the Cornish coast. The only recorded Cornish
example we know of is one stated by Dr. Bullmore to have been shot on the
Swanpool at Falmouth in1846. In former years this Tern was also obtained
on the Dorset coast, and Mr. Mansel-Pleydell speaks of seven having been
killed at one shot at Weymouth. We know of no Somerset examples of
the Roseate Tern any more than we do of any from Devonshire. A very
fine adult, picked up dead some distance inland in the neighbourhood of
Pembroke in 1885, is the only recent specimen of which we have know-
ledge in the 8.W. of England. The persistent persecution by eggers has
doubtless been the cause of the present scarcity of this beautiful species,
It is said to be very abundant in many parts of America. |

362 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

Little Tern. Sterna minuta, Linn.

A casual visitor, of occasional occurrence, in summer and autumn.

The adults are rare and generally occur singly in summer, whilst the
young birds of the year are met with in small flocks in the autumn,
Many breed on the Chesil Bank on the neighbouring coast of Dorset (C.%.,
Zool. 1883, p. 454; Ernest Salmon, Zool. 1888, p. 307).

Dr. E. Moore mentions two shot in Plymouth Sound, where it appears to be very
rare. An adult occurred at Kingsbridge September 29th, 1876 (H. N., Zool. 1876,
p- 5179). A flock of seven was noticed on Thurlestone Sands, September 10th, 1877,
and oue shot from it proved a fine adult male (#. A, S. E, MS. Notes). One on
Torbay, October 1876 (G. F. M., Zool. 1876, p. 9161).

Mr. Ross had one shot on the Exe in 1839 and says “it was not very common”
(MS. Journ. vol. ii.). We obtained several immature birds on the Exe estuary,
October 10th, 1854, one in October 1855, and saw some in September 1882. We also
observed an adult in the Bight near Exmouth in July 1855. An adult from the Exe
estuary is in Mr. Byne’s collection; and another adult was shot at Exmouth in
1890. Adults (in winter plumage) and young birds occurred at Exmouth at the
end of August 1891 after stormy weather.

One occurred on the Taw in 1856 (M. A. M., Zool. 1851, p. 5348). An adult in
moult August 13th,-1868 (C.8., Zuol. 1868, p. 1378). ‘Two immature females on
Northam Burrows, September 13th, 1870 (Zool. 1870, p. 2387).

This small species of Tern is only an occasional visitor to the North
Devon coast. We have specimens from Instow in immature plumage
obtained in September. Our friend, the Rey. Marcus Rickards, shot two
at West Appledore, and has informed us that he once observed a flock of
upwards of thirty on the shore at Northam Burrows beyond the Pebble

tidge. ‘They tlew in from the sea before an impending storm, during

the continuance of which they crouched quietly on the sand, presenting a
very pretty and interesting appearance.” We have received adult
examples from the Somerset coast, near Weston-super-Mare, in the spring,
but know of no nesting-station anywhere in that county. Off the Cornish
coast the Little Tern is not rare in the spring and autumn, and to the
Dorsetshire coast it is a regular summer visitant, breeding on the Chesil
Bank, at Langton Herring, and also at Abbotsbury with the Common
Tern (Mansel-Pleydell, ‘Birds of Dorset, p. 106). Mr. Cecil Smith
noticed several Little Terns flying towards the shore with fish in their
beaks for the purpose of feeding their young on the occasion of his visit
to which we have already referred. The Little Tern is extremely tame and
confiding at its nesting-station, and there is no prettier sight than one
occupied by numerous pairs of these beautiful birds, We have one
such before our mind’s eye as we write which we once visited, contenting
ourselves with a short stay in which we only admired, and refrained
from touching either bird or egg

(3)
o>
Oo

LARIDZ.

Caspian Tern, Sterna caspia, Pallas.

An accidental visitor, of very rare occurrence.

Mr. Ross gives figures of this Tern in his MS. ‘ British Laride,’ and re-
marks that it is “ by no means common on the Exe, seldom more than four
or six being seen during the summer. Their flight is high, and they are
much more shy than the other Terns, keeping to the open sea or the rocks
in small quiet bays of the coast.” Whether these observations really apply
to this species it is difficult to determine. Mr. R. Cumming, however,
informs us that a specimen was shot by Mr. Rudd, a well-known sportsman,
near Topsham, and was stuffed by Truscott. It was, he thinks, probably
the one figured by Mr. Ross. We know of no other specimen being
obtained on the Exe. An immature bird occurred at Teignmouth in Oct.
1861 (R. C.). Another is said to have been shot on Torbay, September
28th, 1873 (E. P., Trans. Devon. Assoc. viii. p. 301).

Although this fine Tern is to be found in the summer-time breeding so
near to us as on the coasts of Sweden and Denmark, it is only a very rare
straggler to our eastern and southern shores, and of the few instances
which are recorded of its occurrence some may perhaps be erroneous.
Thus, not very long ago a pair of Caspian Terns were reported to us from
Torbay, which proved to be only Sandwich Terns in adult plumage.
The superior size of the Caspian Tern, its bright coral-red beak and black
legs, ought to ensure its easy recognition. We never heard of one in any
stage of plumage haying been obtained on the North Devon coast, and
the only reported Devonshire examples come from the south coast of
the county. No Cornish Caspian Tern appears to be known. ‘The late
Mr. J. Rodbard-Rodbard, of Aldwick Court, Wrington, in the county of
Somerset, wrote to inform us that he had in his collection a pair of
Caspian Terns which had been shot on the breakwater at Weymouth
when he was on a visit to that town in the year 1848. We believe this
to be the pair of Caspian Terns from Weymouth Mr. J, H. Gurney states
in his paper on the British examples of this species that he was unable
to trace (Zool. 1887, p. 457). After Mr. Rodbard’s death his collection
was sold, and we have no information as to the present owner of these
rare specimens. Mr. Mansel-Pleydell has recorded two others, one shot
in Poole Harbour in 1869, and another on the Wareham river in July
1872.

The Caspian Tern has an extensive range over many parts of the world.
FE.ggs of this species in our possession were taken on an island in the
Persian Gulf.

Gull-billed Tern. Sterna anglica, Mout.

An accidental visitor, of extremely rare occurrence.
An immature bird was killed near Plymouth in October 1866, and is
now in the possession of Mr, J. Brooking-Rowe (J. G., Zool, 1867, p. 557).

364 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

Mr. Ross mentions another immature example shot on the Exe, August
25th, but does not say in what year. It was probably a young Sandwich
Tern. This is another Tern which nests on the coast of Denmark, and
occasionally, but very rarely, visits England. It is a more southern
species than the Caspian Tern, and its summer haunts are to be sought
chietly in the marshes of the south of Spain, whence the eggs in our
collection, taken by Lord Lilford, who kindly presented them to us, were
obtained, as also in the south of Greece, Asia Minor, &c. In the autumn
of 1859 a great multitude of Terns of various species frequented the
Barnstaple river, and among those which came into our hands were
two in immature plumage which we had a difficulty in determining,
and, from the beaks and size, considered at the time to be young Gull-
billed Terns. Unfortunately they were but indifferently preserved, and,
becoming infested by moth, had to be destroyed, and we can only record
them now with some amount of doubt (Zool. 1859, p. 6761). The only
English-killed examples of this Tern in full adult plumage we have ever
handled are some fine specimens in the museum at Dover which were
shot many years ago either at Rye or Lydd, on the Kentish coast. In
size the Gull-billed Tern comes very close to the Sandwich Tern, than
which it is only about an inch shorter in length, and is to be knowit from
that species by its short, stout, gull-shaped beak of a dark red colour,
and by its yellowish-brown legs.

Mr. E. H. Rodd mentions two examples of the Gull-billed Tern, both
in full summer plumage, one of them from the Scilly Isles, where it was
shot near Tresco Abbey at the end ef May or the beginning of June 1852
by the Rev. J. Jenkinson, the other trom St. Just, near Penzance, on
11th July, 1872. The latter bird was a female, whose ovary was full of
eggs. Mr. Mansel-Pleydell records no instance of its occurrence in
Dorsetshire.

Sandwich Tern. Sterna cantiaca, Gm.

A casual summer and autumn visitor, of occasional occurrence.

Dr. E. Moore mentions a pair shot in Plymouth (Trans. Plym. Inst.
1830) and one on the Tamar, April 1831 (Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837, p. 360),
A few come up the estuary of the Exe in some seasons. A flock of adults
was seen near Topsham at the beginning of May 1853, and one was shot.
We saw a single bird on June 10th, 1854, just above Topsham, and
several were shot on the Exe estuary in the following September in
beautiful plumage (W. D’U.). Mr. Ross obtained one at Plymouth, and
there are two fine specimens from his collection in the A. M. M., probably
shot in 1854 on the Exe. Mr. Cecil Smith secured one at Exmouth,
April 12th, 1867 (Zool. 1867, p. 832). <A flight occurred in Plymouth
Sound, and one was shot in full breeding-plumage, March 31st, 1876.
This Tern is very uncommon near Plymouth, although young birds are
sometimes met with in autumn, but adults rarely (J. G., Zool. 1876,
p. 4903; 1882, p. 64). An immature specimen killed at the Start

LARID.X. 365

Lighthouse, October 19th, 1886, is the only one which has ever occurred
in the Kingsbridge district (HE. A. 8. E., MS. Notes), Adults have been
occasionally shot on Torbay.

This species only very rarely visits the North Devon waters, and we
have never obtained an example from them in complete plumage, although
we have occasionally seen large Terns flying over the mouth of the Barn-
staple river which we concluded were adult Sandwich Terns, and the
Rey. Marcus Rickards informs us that he also has once or twice come
across large Terns in the same locality without being able to obtain a
shot at them. In the more favoured bays and estuaries in the south of
the county the Sandwich Tern occurs pretty regularly every autumn,
although even there examples of adults in complete plumage are rare in
comparison with immature birds. Of the latter Mr. Cecil Smith’s
collection contained several examples shot by himself off Exmouth.

Mr. E. H. Rodd states that a few pairs of the Sandwich Tern visit the
Scilly Isles in the summer and nest there, and that the bird is not very
rare off the Cornish coast. It no longer nests with the other Terns on
the Dorsetshire beaches as Mr. Mansel-Pleydell considers it did formerly,
but is seen in Poole Harbour and at other places on the coast pretty
regularly both in April and again in the autumn. The opaque waters of
the Bristol Channel off the North Somerset coast are very rarely visited
by Terns, and we have no knowledge of any Somerset example of a
Sandwich Tern.

The eggs of the Sandwich Tern vary greatly and are very beautiful.
A few of these fine Terns are said to nest on the coasts of Kent, Essex,
Lancashire, and Cumberland, on the Farne Islands and on Coquet Isle,
off the coast of Northumberland, on one of the islands in Loch Lomond,
on a few places on the east coast of Scotland, and on a lough in the North-
west of Ireland; but it is only too probable that some of these stations are
deserted at the present day, and that the birds continue to resort only to
those where they are protected from the ravages of the exterminating
egg-stealer.

(Sooty Tern. Sterna fuliginosa, Gm.

Mr. Foot, the bird-stuffer of Bath, has in his possession a very perfect
example of the Sooty Tern, which he has shown us, caught alive near
Bath after stormy weather in October 1885, Mr. J. HK. Harting, in his
‘ Handbook of British Birds,’ p. 170, records three other British specimens,
one of them said to have been obtained on the estuary of the Axe, near
Axminster, and recorded by the Rey. J. B. Selwood, in the ‘ Field, 17th
July, 1869. This, Mr. Harting considers, may have been only a Black
Tern. ‘ The death of Mr. Selwood has unfortunately prevented a solution
of the doubt.”

The Sooty Tern inhabits the West India Islands, Central America, the
South-Sea Islands and Australia. Great numbers breed on Ascension
Island, and we possess some beautiful photographs of the ‘* Wide-awake

366 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

Fair” very clearly showing the eggs and young birds upon the gritty
sandy plain near the centre of the island, together with multitudes of
Sooty Terns ail facing one way, their heads pointing in the direction of
the wind. These photographs were obtained for us by our kind old
friend and constant correspondent, Mr. J. Gatcombe.

We have ourselves seen and eaten the eggs of the “* Wide-awake ” at
Ascension, and found them very similar in taste to those of the Black-
headed Gull from Scoulton Mere in Norfolk. They were often brought
on board the Cape mail steamers calling at the island. ach bird lays a
single egg. (W. D’U.)

The Sooty Tern is black above, with white underparts, and has a patch
of white upon the forehead, with jet-black back and legs. Its eggs, of
which we possess a large series, vary greatly in colour, shape, size, and

markings, some of the varieties being of extreme beauty. |

Whiskered Tern. JHydrochelidon hybrida (Pallas).

An accidental visitor, of extremely rare occurrence.

This Tern has received its English name from the white line which in
the adult runs from the gape beneath the eye contrasting with the black
cap and with the general dark iron-blue and black of the rest of the
plumage. It is a southern species, common in the summer on the basin
of the Mediterranean, in Africa, India, China, and Australia. Mr.
Harting’s ‘ Handbook’ enumerates only five examples for the whole king-
dom, three of them from the West of England, and there appear to have
been no others obtained since his book was published in 1872. We
possess an adult in our collection, which we received some years ago from
the late Mr. Burt, the Curator of the Torquay Museum. This example
was said to have been picked up at Paignton ; but Mr. Burt had his doubts
about it, and would certainly have kept it for his own museum had it
been free from suspicion, and to our eyes it looks as if it had been mounted
from a relaxed skin. There seems to be only one authentic specimen
from Devonshire, the particulars of which are as follows :—

An adult was picked up on the water by some fishermen, alive, but
apparently in an exhausted state, off Plymouth, May 10th, 1865 (J. G.,
Zool. 1865, p. 9629). This beautiful specimen, which was in full breeding-
plumage, was presented to Mr. Howard Saunders by Mr. Gatcombe
(Yarrell’s B. Birds, 4th ed. iii. p. 529).*

An immature bird shot near Tresco Abbey, Scilly, in August 1851, was
the only one known to Mr. Rodd; and according to Mr. Yarrell (1st ed.
vol, iii. p. 404) one obtained in August 1836, at Lyme Regis in Dorset-
shire, was the first example recorded as having occurred in the British
Isles.

‘he Whiskered Tern nests commonly in the marismas of the south of
Spain, in Turkey, &c., and is said to be a very abundant bird in the Nile
valley.

* We learn from Mr. F. C. Hingston, of Plymouth, that the Whiskered Tern given
to him by Mr, Gatcombe was a dry skin.

LARID®. 367

White-winged Black Tern. ydrochelidon leu-
coptera (Schinz).

An accidental visitor, of very rare occurrence. We think that this little
Tern may occur more frequently on our southern coasts than is supposed,
and may occasionally be overlooked. In the immature plumage the
young of this species and those of the Black Tern might easily be
confounded.

Mr. F. W. L. Ross, in his MS. ‘ British Laride,’ figures a specimen
which he says was in Mr. Pincombe’s collection at Plymouth, and was
supposed to have been killed on the Breakwater there. One, in full
moult, which we have examined, was shot in the harbour at Ilfracombe
on 2nd or 3rd Nov. 1870, and is in the collection of Mr. Westlake of that
town (Harting, Handbook B. Birds, p. 169; H. Saunders, Yarrell’s B,
Birds, 4th ed. iii. p.523). An immature specimen from Mr. Ross’s collec-
tion is in the A. M. M., and was probably obtained on the Exe; Mr. Ross
does not seem to have discriminated between it and some immature
Black Terns with which it was cased. One said to have been obtained at
Kingsbridge is in Mr. Byne’s collection, which passed into the hands of
the late Mr. Marsh-Dunn of Teignmouth.

The Rev. A. P. Morres, Vicar of Britford, near Salisbury, has informed
us that on 30th April, 1891, he saw a little flock of five adult White-
winged Black Terns flying over the Salisbury Avon. The birds passed
close where he was standing, and there could be no error about them.
We also learn from him that Mr. Hart, the well-known bird-stufter of
Christchurch, has frequently met with this species of Tern in the spring,
has some very good examples of it, and expects to see it with regularity.

An adult of the White-winged Black Tern was shot on the Long Pool
at Tresco, on the Scilly Isles, on 14th May, 1882, and is now in the
collection at Tresco Abbey. An immature example was secured at
Sennen, in Cornwall, and was submitted to Mr. Howard Saunders, who
pronounced it to be a White-winged Black Tern (J. H. Gurney, Zool.
1887, p. 387). An adult was shot in Poole Harbour, in the month of
June, and Mr. Mansel-Pleydell also refers to Mr. Hart as his authority for
the frequent appearance of this species both on the Hampshire and
Dorsetshire coasts in May and June.

The White-winged Black Tern is a southern species possessing a most
extensive range over the world, being found throughout the south of
Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and even in North
America,

Black Tern. Jydrochelidon nigra (Linn.).

A passing visitor to the south of the county in spring and autumn, at
intervals of about ten years, appearing in vast numbers at the latter season,
Some were obtained in 1839, on the Exe estuary, near Topsham (F. W,
L.R., MS.). In 1849 a large flight of young birds came up the Exe as

368 THE PRIRDS OF DEVON.

far as Exeter in September, and numbers were knocked down by boys
with their caps and sticks (R.C.). Immature birds were plentiful at
Exmouth and at Plymouth in Sept. 1866 (E. P., ‘Trans. Devon. Assoc.
vill. p. 302; J.G., Zool. 1866, p. 500); and many came up the Exe as far
as Stoke Canon in Sept. 1868. Some were seen on Torbay, Sept. Ist,
1859 (Zool. 1869, p. 1917).

Adult birds are much rarer, but in April 1852 we saw in the flesh
several that were killed on the Exe estuary, near Topsham. A flock
appeared on the Axe at Seaton in April 1866 (J. G., MS. Notes), and an
adult was killed on the Avon in the parish of Aveton Gifford on April 30th
of that year, and another at Salcombe a few days after (H. N., Zool. 1866,
p. 526; R. P. N. and E. A. 8. E., MS. Notes). A pair were obtained at
Plymouth, May 9th, 1867 (B., MS. Notes). An adult was killed on a
pond near Colmer, April 22nd, 1890 (E. A. 8. E.).

The bird killed on the estuary of the Axe in July 1869 was probably
an example of this species, and not a “ Sooty Tern” as stated by Rev. J.
B. Selwood (‘ Field, July 17th, 1869). The time of occurrence is, how-
ever, very unusual, Montagu met with a specimen of the Black Tern
at the beginning of Noy. 18U2 in Devonshire (Orn. Dict.), and one is said
to have occurred near Exeter in the wiuter of 1848 (W. R. 8., Zool.
1849, p: 2385).

This small species of Tern is a regular autumnal visitor to the North
Devon estuaries, where it may be observed in company with other Terns,
or flying over the small pools in the salt-marshes adjoining the rivers,
presenting some resemblance to a large Swallow. We never saw any in
the spring in North Devon in the complete black plumage, b ut have
received examples from the Somerset peat-moors. Those which visit our
waters in the autumn are chiefly young birds in immature plumage, with
a few adults in a transition stage between the spring and winter dress.
In 1859 large flights appeared on the sand-flats at Barnstaple.

In Cornwall Mr. Rodd states that it is rare in the spring, but he him-
self received three in full black dress which had been shot on a pond near
the Land’s End in April. In the autumn it is not uncommon on the
coast. In Dorsetshire it is an uncertain visitor in the spring and autumn,
and rather scarce. We have frequently seen young Black Terns in Sep-
tember, flying over pools by the side of the Somerset Axe near Weston-
super-Mare.

The Black Tern used formerly to nest on many of the fen-lands in the
Eastern Counties, where it was well known as the ‘ Blue Darr,’ by which
name it was reported to us as breeding on Otmoor, a fen not far from
Oxford, in our undergraduate days. There are none nesting anywhere in
England at the present day, but throughout the Continent the Black Tern
is found as an abundant breeding species on most suitable marshes,

LARIDE. 369

Subfamily LARIN 4.
THE GULLS.

The Devonshire coast is never without numerous Gulls
to lend the charm of bird-life to its beautiful scenery.
There are four species resident with us—the Greater and
Lesser Black-backed Gulls, the Herring-Gull, and the
Kittiwake. ‘The Herring-Gull is to be seen on both the
north and south coasts every day in the year, while the
Kittiwake, abundant throughout the summer in the
northern waters of the county, because of its great nesting
station on Lundy Island, is numerous in the sounds and
bays of the south only in the autumn and winter, in which,
after stormy weather, the Black-backed Gulls also make
their appearance. Our native Gulls receive large rein-
forcements from other species in the autumn, which pass
the winter in their company, and in October such bird
stations as Torbay and Plymouth Sound are teeming
with Gulls, Skuas, Shearwaters, Divers, Scoters, Wild
Duck, and Wigeon. The Common Gull and the Black-
headed Gull are very numerous as winter visitors, while a
season seldom passes without the southern estuaries being
tenanted by some of the fine Polar Gulls, such as the
Glaucous, and its smaller relative the Iceland Gull. After
severe October gales the rarer Sabine’s Gull, a small and
beautiful species from the regions of snow and ice, is
occasionally seen, while the still smaller species, no larger
than an ordinary Pigeon, the Little Gull, is then not unfre-
quently obtained. Devonshire can also boast of possessing
the only British-killed specimen of the Great Black-headed
Gull; and the rare Lvory Gull has occurred also but once.
Directly the tide goes out and leaves the sands and mud-
flats uncovered, the Gulls flock to them in numbers, and

2B

570 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

may be seen dotted about in all directions searching for
food; as the flood again comes in they retire to the cliffs
or pass the time floating gracefully on the surface of the
water, some of them following the advancing tide far
inland, on the chance of its disturbing anything from the
mud which may provide them with prey. A common
sight of a still evening are the long lines of Gulls beating
with measured flight along the shore as they seek their
favourite roosting-places on some distant cliffs. Often the
Gulls are to be seen wheeling in the air far inland, when
their presence is considered to be portentous of storms.
Often, too, those which are not strictly oceanic species
may be noticed on freshly ploughed fields in the winter
and spring in company with Rooks and Starlings in search
of worms, or following close behind the plough, contend-
ing with one another for any spoils it may bring to light.
All the Gulls are birds of singularly graceful and buoyant
flight, and their snowy forms are an adornment to the
marine landscape, whether they are beheld soaring over
the blue waters, or perched upon the shore, or skirting the
cliffs. ‘The old birds are always to be known by their
pure white tails and grey or black mantles; the younger
birds are brown, and take three years before the last dark
bars disappear from their tails—the least trace of a band
upon the tail being an invariable sign that the adult plumage
has not been fully reached. Some of the Gulls nest upon
the ledges of the cliffs facing the sea (Herring-Gull and
Kittiwake) ; others upon the shelving ground on the top
(Greater and Lesser Black-backed Gulls); while the
various Black-headed Gulls breed in society (in “ Gul-
leries” as they are termed) and place their nests upon the
ground in marshes; the Common Gull also nests in pre-
ference upon the ground at the edges of lochs. The eggs,
generally three in number, are characteristic and beautiful,

LARIDA. 371

varying greatly in size and colour—olive, stone, and green
being the ground-colours, on which are more or less
numerous spots and blotches of dark umber-brown.
Occasionally varieties are met with which are either red
all over, or green, without a single blotch. The young
birds are covered with down when they first emerge from
the shell, and remain for some little time in the nest.

Ivory Gull. Pagophila eburnea (Phipps).

An accidental visitor, of extremely rare occurrence. The snow-white
plumage of this beautiful Gull when adult sufficiently indicates that
its abode is among the Polar ice, and few have seen it in its home beside
the whaler or the Arctic explorer. Very rarely indeed it strays to the
south, and the only Devonshire example we know of was shot when in
an exhausted condition at Torquay on January 18th, 1853, and is now
in the Torquay Museum, where we have examined it, finding it to be in
the immature spotted plumage (HE. B., Zool. 1853, p. 3807). According
to Dr. Bullmore, an Ivory Gull was seen by Mr. W. P. Cocks near
Falmouth on Feb. 13, 1847, and one was shot near Quilquay, by Mr.
Olive, watchmaker. Mr. E. H. Rodd had one in his collection, in imma-
ture plumage, which was shot from the Pier Head, Penzance, two days
later than Mr. Cocks had seen his bird at Falmouth, and probably was
the same. Mr. Cecil Smith states that Mrs. Turle, who some years ago
stuffed birds at Taunton, ‘“‘had one or two Somersetshire specimens of
this bird through her hands, one of them killed, I think she told me, in
the marsh when it was flooded; but I am not quite certain about this.”
We never saw either of these specimens, nor do we know to whom they
belonged. Vast numbers of Gulls coHect in the bay at Weston-super-
Mare, following the schools of sprats which are abundant in the muddy
shallows in the winter-time, and many are caught in gins baited with fish
and placed upon the rocks, and in this manner, in the winter of 1864, a
beautiful adult Ivory Gull was taken, which was kept alive for some time
by Mr. Augustus Stone, a bird-stuffer in the town. Unfortunately, this
most interesting bird was found one day dead in a fresh-made heap of
mortar, with its plumage completely ruined. Within the last fifty years,
according to Mr. Mansel-Pleydell, six examples of the Ivory Gull have
been secured on the Dorsetshire coast, but it is not stated in what plumage.

The Ivory Gull nests in the extreme north, and its eggs are almost
unknown to collectors.

Kittiwake. Rissa tridactyla (Linn.).

(Hacklet or Hacket Gull, Tarrock (young). |

tesident and abundant, breeding in large numbers on Lundy Island,
2B 2

aH heh THE BIRDS OF DEYON.

where it is a summer visitor, the eggs being laid at the end of May. It
is most numerous on the south coast of the county in autumn and winter,
appearing in large flocks in October and November, especially when sprats
are on the coast. It leaves Plymouth Sound at the end of February.
Large flocks frequent the estuaries in a starving condition after long-
continued gales (J. G., in litt. ; Zool. 1873, p. 3446). This species, how-
ever, usually keeps more out at sea than the Black-headed Gull, feeding
more generally on small fishes than that species. We have never seen
any Kittiwakes on the fields inland in company with other Gulls, and
believe it to be quite an oceanic species. Sometimes these Gulls are
blown far inland in winter, and on the coast of North Devon Kittiwakes
are often found dead on the sands after a heavy gale at midsummer
(M. A. M., Zool. 1859, p. 6762), and on the south coast after winter
storms. Strangely enough, Montagu met with this bird only once in the
South of England, when three were thrown up by the tide in March 1806
on the south coast of Devon (Orn. Dict.).

The Kittiwake is the most numerously represented of all the Gull
family upon the Devonshire coasts, on some portion of which it may be
seen throughout the year. In the summer-time great numbers may be
encountered on Barnstaple Bay, or may be seen wheeling about the
entrance of Ilfracombe Harbour. After heavy autumnal gales we have
found the sands off the Braunton Burrows and the shores of the Barn-
staple river strewn with the bodies of drowned Kittiwakes; cartloads
might have been gathered. Great numbers of Kittiwakes nest on Lundy
and also on the Scilly Islands, and we are informed that a few nest on
the cliffs of the Land’s End, and in 1873 Lord Lilford found a pair with
young, nearly full fledged, on the Cod Rock, off Berry Head, on the South
Devon coast. Immense numbers nest on the northern side of the Bristol
Channel, on Skomer and Ramsey Islands, off Pembrokeshire. In the
winter-time great flocks of Kittiwakes appear along the Cornish coast,
entering fearlessly into the harbours, and Mr. Rodd considered these
Gulls were, next to the Black-headed Gull, the most numerous Cornish
species. Both on the North Somerset and the Dorset coast Kittiwakes
congregate in the bays and harbours in pursuit of the sprats, and numbers
of these poor birds are cruelly caught in baited ging by boys, and hawked
about *.

We have visited various breeding-stations, containing countless nests ;
they are generally constructed of seaweeds, which, after a time, become
almost cemented together by the droppings of the birds. The eggs vary
greatly in size, shape, and markings, and very pretty varieties may be
picked out.

The young birds in their first plumage are called “ Tarrocks,” and as
they are flying seem to have a black collar round their necks. The Kitti-
wake is usually distinguished from all the other Gulls through the absence
of a hind toe. Mr. Gatcombe, however, in October 1886, met with a

* For an interesting account of the barbarous slaughter of Kittiwakes at Lundy I4land,
for the sake of their wings for ladies’ hats, see Yarrell’s B. Birds, 4th ed. iii. p, 653.

LARIDZ. ain

specimen which had a small but perfect hind toe and claw, one eighth of
an inch in length (Zool. 1887, p. 377). The Common Kittiwake of the
Pacific coast (20. tridactyla kotzebuii) has the hind toe better formed—
sometimes (according to Dr. Coues) almost, if not quite, as long as in
ordinary Gulls, with a nearly or quite perfect, though small, claw.
Possibly Mr. Gatcombe’s bird may have been an example of the Pacific
form, and may have reached us by the same route by which so many
other American birds have come to us, namely, by the northern coasts of
Asia and Europe.

Glaucous Gull. Larus glaucus, Fabr.
[Great White-winged Gull.]

A casual visitor, of occasional occurrence in harbours and river estuaries
from January to March. It is most frequently seen in Plymouth Sound
(where it was especially numerous in the early months of 1872 and 1873)
after severe gales. The specimens obtained are mostly immature ; adults,
however, are not very rare. This fine Gull sometimes remains until far
on in the spring; the latest noticed by Mr. Gatcombe was on April 30th,
1875, when one occurred in Plymouth Sound (Zool. 1875, p. 4491), but
Dr. E. Moore records an adult killed at Mutley, near Plymouth, feeding
on carrion, on May 21st, 1832 (Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837).

This splendid Gull is, from its size and courage, the tyrant among the
countless wild-fowl which in the short Arctic summer frequent the Polar
seas, preying upon the smaller species, the Little Auk especially, and
gaining for itself the name of ‘‘the Burgomaster” from the whalers. It
is, like the Fulmar and other Gulls, very fond of the blubber of the whale,
and two in our possession, one an adult and the other in immature plu-
mage, were killed at one shot when feasting on a stranded whale on the
Orkney coast. The Glaucous Gullis not an uncommon winter visitor to
the South Devon waters, numbers having been observed and recorded off
Plymouth in various years by Mr. J. Gatcombe, and a very interesting
particular mentioned by that gentleman is the late date in the spring on
which he has occasionally noticed this fine Gull, as well as the smaller
and rarer Iceland Gull. On the North Devon estuaries the Glaucous Gull
is rare, and we know of only two examples having been obtained, both in
immature plumage; one of these, shot at Instow, is in the Museum of
Westward Ho! College, as we are informed by Mr. A. H. Evans. At
Weston-super-Mare this Gull is not very rare, and several have been
obtained in the winter-time, having come into the bay after the sprats
with countless other Gulls. Mr. Augustus Stone, the local bird-stuffer,
possessed a very beautiful example, which, Professor Newton was kind
enough to inform us, was evidently a very old adult. In this bird the
mantle was silvery white, instead of being the usual pale French grey.

Specimens were obtained at Plymouth, Jan. 7th and 10th, 1860; one Jan. 1863 ; one

Feb. 20th, 1868; many old and young in February, and one in March, 1872; an adult
killed Jan. Ist, and several old and young seen in Jan., Feb., and March, 1873; one

374 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

April 30th, 1875; Jan. 6th and 14th, 1877; an adult seen March 29th, 1879; an
immature bird April 9th, 1881 (J. G., MS. Notes; Zool. 1872, p.3051 ; 1873, p.3445;
1875, pp. 4371, 4491 ; 1876, p. 4798; 1877, p. 163; 1879, p. 208; 1882, p. 63; J. J.
R., Zool. 1863, p. 8448).

Only one specimen has occurred in the Kingsbridge estuary (H. N.).

This Gull was met with in Torbay in the winter of 1854; 1867-8; Jan. 1869; and
on Feb. 8th, 1871: two of the specimens obtained being adults (Zool. 18¢9, p. 1846 ;
1871, p. 2651; 1874, p. 3908). The Iceland Gull recorded in the ‘ Zoologist’ for
1868, as killed in Torbay, was a Glaucous Gull in adult plumage (J. H. G., Zool. 1871,

. 2631).
An immature bird occurred on the Teign in Jan. 1877 (Zool. 1877, p. 108).

On the Exe estuary it is rare; Mr. Ross and Dr. W. R. Scott had specimens, and
one was killed at Exmouth, Jan. 3rd, 1872, and an immature bird near Topsham, Jan.
20th, 1877 (Zool. 1877, p. 108). We saw one at Exmouth in Jan. 1889.

One was killed at Budleigh Salterton in the winter of 1847 (W. B.S., Zool. 1849,
p. 2585) and one at Beer, March 17th, 1883.

The Glaucous Gull is, apparently, very rarely seen on the Dorsetshire
coast, as Mr. Mansel-Pleydell can enumerate only three examples. In
Cornwall, according to Dr. Bullmore, it is occasionally seen in Falmouth
Harbour, and Mr. Rodd hada splendid example in his fine collection which
was shot in Mount’s Bay early in April 1872; and two were shot at
Hooe as recently as December 1891. The Glauccus Gull breeds commonly
in Greenland, and its fine eggs are well known to collectors.

Iceland Gull. Larus leucopterus, Faber.
[Lesser White-winged Gull. }

A casual winter visitor, occurring occasionally on the south coast of the
county from October to February, sometimes lingering to April and May.
The specimens obtained are most frequently immature. It appears to
have become since 1855 a more frequent visitor to Plymouth Sound, where
before that year one in Dr. E. Moore’s collection was the only example
known to have been procured.

The Iceland Gull is a smaller edition of the Glaucous Gull, which it
closely resembles in plumage, and is also an inhabitant of the far north,
coming very rarely to our southern waters, where it is a much less
frequent visitor than its larger ally. We have never known an instance
of its occurrence in North Devon. On the bays and sounds on the south
coast of the county it has been noticed occasionally, and in the winter of
1874-75 was numerous. Mr. J. Gatcombe supplied the following note
respecting its occurrence that winter in the neighbourhood of Plymouth to
Mr. Dresser :—‘* Owing to the long-continued gales, I suppose, last winter
produced more of this species on the coasts of Devon and Cornwall than
were remembered ever to have appeared before—numerous specimens, both
of young and adult, having been seen and obtained on the coasts and in
our harbours. A specimen or two of the immature might be occasionally
seen on the coast, but the adult very rarely. There seems to be a regular
gradation in size between this species and Larus glaucus, as 1 have seen

LARIDA, 879

Larus leucopterus from the size of the Common ‘ Mew’ up to that of a
small Glaucous Gull” (Dresser, ‘ Birds of Europe,’ vol. viii. p. 440).

At Plymouth one was killed by the Rev. R. A. Julian on the Laira, Jan. 380th, 1856,
and one occurred in the Sound, Noy. 26th, 1861; a bird of the year in December 1862
(J. J. R., Zool. 1863, p. 8448) ; one at Membury, April 28th, 1866; one Jan. 25th, 1867 ;
one Dec. 6th, 1869; one Feb. 4th, 1872; an adult Noy. 27th, 1873; one nearly adult
Dee. Ist, 1877; one May 14th, 1878; one Jan. 25th, 1883, after a very strong wind
from 8.S.E. (J. G., MS. Notes; Zool. 1855, p. 4705; 1862, p. 7848 ; 1870, p. 2027 ;
1872, p. 3012; 1874, p. 3826; 1877, p. 132; 1878, p. 419; 1883, p. 166; and
‘Naturalist, 1855, p. 144; C.8., Zool. 1882, p. 71).

Immature specimens occurred in Torbay in Oct. 1844 (W.S. H., Zool. 1845, p. 879) ;
in 1851; March 28rd, 1868, nearly adult (J. H. G.); and in the autumn of 1871
(Torquay Museum).

On the Cornish coast the Iceland Gull has also occurred occasionally.
Dr. Bullmore reports two obtained in Falmouth Harbour—one shot from
the North Quay on April 24th, 1863, the other on Jan. 6th, 1864,—and
mentions a third obtained in the summer of 1868. The first two were
both in immature plumage, in which state the majority of those obtained
in the south occur. Mr. EH. H. Rodd records an immature Iceland Gull
shot on the Scilly Isles in the swmmer of 1852, another from Mount’s Bay,
also in immature plumage, in April 1872, and states that a number of
these Gulls, all apparently young birds, appeared on the coast of Cornwall
in January and February 1873, and were especially numerous in Lamorna
Cove, about three miles from Penzance.

In Somerset the Iceland Gull has been procured several times in the
winter at Weston-super-Mare, whence Mr. Cecil Smith received avery fine
example in immature plumage, which we examined in the flesh; this
bird was obtained on Dec. 28th, 1870. He has also recorded in the
‘ Zoologist’ (1882, p. 71) an Iceland Gull which occurred many miles
inland at Somerton on Dec. 12th, 1881, which was made into a fire-screen !
It is a little singular that Mr. Mansel-Pleydell can mention no instance of
this Gull from the Dorsetshire harbours.

The Iceland Gull occurs sometimes very abundantly in the winter off
the coast of Scotland, and breeds numerously in Greenland.

Herring-Gull. Larus argentatus, Gm.
{Ladram Gull (on the Exe) ; Wagel (young). ]

Resident. Breeds in considerable numbers on the cliffs along the south
coast from Sidmouth to Plymouth. One of these breeding-places is at
Ladram Bay (between Sidmouth and Budleigh Salterton); another at
Berry Head; and another at Wembury, at the mouth of the river Yealm,
near Plymouth.

On the north coast the great breeding-stations are Baggy Point and
Lundy Island. Mr. Gatcombe says that this species lays from April to the
end of July at Wembury, and that the first young birds are seen in
August in the Sound (Zool, 1877, p. 280; 1878, p. 430, &c.). We saw

376 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

some nestlings in the down, and a few eggs, on the cliffs at Wembury on
June 15th, 1883, when we visited that interesting locality with Mr. Gat-
combe and Mr. J. Brooking-Rowe. There were then fifty pairs of adults
flying about the bold cliffs. Formerly this Gull bred in great numbers at
Ladram Bay, and the boatmen on the Exe are wont to term the young
birds “ Ladram Gulls.” Many still frequent the Red Sandstone cliffs there,
and a few may be seen at the mouth of the Otter. The Herring-Gull
varies greatly in size. One as large as an ordinary Great Black-backed
Gull occurred at Plymouth, Feb. 3rd, 1876. The wing measured 19 inches
from the carpal joint (J. G., in litt., and Zool. 1876, p. 4901). We saw
one of this size near Exmouth, July 20th, 1887.

This beautiful species is very common throughout the year all round
the coast of Devon and Cornwall, and, to the eyes of the naturalist, lends
by its presence an additional charm to many a picturesque and rocky
shore. From the Tors at Ilfracombe, the Castle Rock in the Valley of
Rocks at Lynton, from many a dark cliff on the North Cornwall coast,
from the Land’s End itself, and along the tamer coast-line of the south,
we have watched the Herring-Gull as it sailed in circles overhead
clamouring angrily, or swept with measured flight along the cliff either
up or down the channel according to the tide. However wild and
delightful the coast scenery and refreshing the breeze which came to us
off the sea—however gladly we hailed again those sweet scents of cliff-
flowers which can only be inhaled upon the shore,—had the Gulls been
wanting we should have felt that something was missing to complete the
enjoyment of the landscape which their presence, as tiny specks of white
on the sea below, on the shelving ledges of the cliffs, or in the air above,
rendered perfect to our sense. We have never realized the charm given
to cliff scenery by the Gulls more fully than at Tintagel. Passing through
the churchyard, where the graves were covered to the depth of a foot or
more with lady’s bed-straw (Galiwm verum) and the air was perfumed
from its golden blossoms, we left the lonely church, and came out on the
side of the cliff with the wild promontory on which one part of the old
castle stands immediately before us. It was a glorious July day; the sea
beneath caught the sunlight and answered back with ‘countless
jaughter”; the scent of the sea-pink wafted on all sides was itself a
delicious reminder that we were on the coast; the strange old-time ruins
above us on the mainland shimmered in the sun; a few Kestrels were
poising themselves across the deep blue of. the sky; and the silvery
Herring-Gulls were sailing solemnly along in little parties of three or five
but a few feet above the ground, all heading to the north, and seeming to
follow without any deviation the line of flight which their predecessors had
taken, which tracked all the windings of the cliffs. Slipping quietly a
little further down the steep hillside, we placed ourselves beneath this
aerial path which the birds had chosen, and sitting close behind one of the
ruined walls of the old castle we soon had some of the Gulls passing over-
head, and so near did they come that had we stretched out our walking-
stick it seemed as if some of them might have been touched upon the
breast. They took but slight notice of us; one or two gave us a grave

LARID.A. a

glance as they sailed on; and so still and silent were they that we thought
there was something ghostly about them; they might have been the
transmigrated Knights of the Round Table keeping watch over the scenes
of their former revels. Another spot on which to see the Herring-Gull to
perfection is Baggy Point, the eastward boundary of Barnstaple Bay.
This is afavourite breeding-station of the birds, andin June we have often
enjoyed a peep over the edge of the cliff at the numerous nests on the
ledges below. The Gulls have noisy neighbours in the chattering Jackdaws
and in a pair of Peregrines, which continually dart backwards and for-
wards above the cliff, screaming loudly their anger, doubtless excited by
our presence. The Herring-Gull is almost omnivorous; nothing seems to
come amiss to it. It is very destructive to young rabbits in warrens
bordering on the coast, and as it has increased enormously in numbers in
some places, owing to the operation of the Sea Birds’ Preservation Act, we
know of warrens which formerly used to produce many thousands of
rabbits during the season, but which now do not yield as many hundreds.
The evil character it bears in Scotland, owing to its eating eggs and young
grouse upon the moors near the coast, is probably well-earned. We have
already related how every Woodcock which, shot on the sidlings on Lundy,
chanced to fall over the cliff into the sea would be espied by the watchful
Gulls that would swoop after it, and as soon as the dead bird touched the
water a great scramble ensued as to which of them should first seize upon
and devour it. Tame Herring-Gulls kept in gardens are good vermin-
killers, and are very clever in pouncing upon and killing rats in particular.
Col. Montagu noticed that his tame Herring-Gulls had a trick of treading the
earth with their feet in order to induce worms to come forth for them to eat ;
we have already recorded this as a habit with Woodcock and Snipe. Almost
every day in the year Herring-Gulls and Kittiwakes, with an occasional
Black-backed Gull, may be seen hunting about the mouths of the drains
outside Ilfracombe Harbour in search of any garbage which may serve
as food. In the spring the Herring-Gulls come some miles inland
to visit the freshly-ploughed fields and the water-meadows, and their
presence any distance from the coast is always considered ominous of
stormy weather. Some tame Herring-Gulls kept by Mr. Cecil Smith used
to lay eggs in the spring; but we do not believe that they ever hatched any
off, as the birds either devoured the eggs themselves or they fell a prey to
the rats.

[ Observation.—Another species of Herring-Gull, namely Larus affinis,
Reinhardt, is not unlikely to visit the British Islands, as Mr. Giitke has
obtained it at Heligoland. It is a native of Northern Siberia, and passes
the winter in South-eastern Europe, North Africa, India, &e. The
mantle is dark slate-colour (resembling pale examples of L. fuscus), and
the legs and feet are yellow as in that species, and not flesh-colour as in
the Herring-Gull, but the foot is larger in proportion than in the Lesser
Black-backed Gull, and the pattern of the outer primaries is different
(Yarrell’s L. Birds, 4th ed. iii. p. 621).]

78 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

9

Lesser Black-backed Gull. Zarus fuscus, Linn.

Resident ; breeding in small numbers on Lundy Island and in places
along the north coast as far as Lynmouth. The late Mr. Gatcombe
informed us that the Rey. R. A. Julian must have made a mistake in
stating that he found this species breeding on the cliffs at Wembury on
July 4th, 1852 (‘ Naturalist,’ 1853, p. 117), as the Herring-Gull is
the only species that breeds at that locality. Adults in pairs are,
however, seen in nesting-time about the coast between the Bolt Head
and Bolt Tail, where there are suitable grassy slopes for them to
breed upon (R. P. N. and E. A. 8. E., MS. Notes). This Gull is most
numerous on the south coast and its estuaries in winter and spring after
storms. It is a spring visitor to Plymouth Sound, appearing usually at
the end of March, and keeping in pairs. Adults leave the Plymouth
waters by the lst of May, but immature non-breeding birds are seen in
flocks sometimes as late as June; the breeding birds return again early in
August with their young (J. G., Zool. 1872, pp. 3051, 3101, 3150;
1874, p. 4228; 1875, p. 4449; 1878, p. 55). Mr. E. A.S. Elliot has seen
birds of this species on the coast at Thurlestone in May, and some at
Bantham on Aug. 24th, 1878. Mr. J. H. Gurney shot one on the Dart
April 10th, 1866 (in litt.). Mr. Stevenson found it on the Teign in
winter and spring after storms (Zool. 1859, p. 6794). We observed a large
flock of adults and young off Teignmouth on Aug. 24th, 1874. <A very
beautiful specimen was shot at Salmon Pool, just below Exeter,
March 31st, 1876, and one at Stoke Canon, May 3rd, 1884, after stormy
weather, but it is a very scarce species on the Exe estuary. Mr. 0. V. Aplin
saw flocks off Morthoe, North Devon, in August 1886 (Zool. 1887, p. 71).

This Gull is a resident throughout the year on the Devonshire coast,
but is never numerous. We have found it nesting on the cliffs in the
neighbourhood of Lynmouth, and a few pairs breed on Lundy Island. On
islands which we have visited at the nesting-season we have always found
the Lesser Black-backed Gull breeding in little communities by itself, and
there is never the least difficulty in examining the eggs (of which very
pretty varieties may be obtained), as the nests are placed among the
grass and fern on the top of the cliffs. The Lesser Black-backed Gull
does not very often come inside the estuaries, keeping to the cliffs and the
salt water. In the spring pairs may be seen commonly feeding in the
water-meadows, where they are very wary, keeping well out in the centre
of the fields, and frequently flying from one to another with somewhat
musical and laughing notes. We have a splendid adult and a young bird
in its second year’s plumage which we secured at the same shot as they
were feeding on a splashet in North Devon, after having waited patiently
for them for a long time in a hedge with a heavy duck gun.

Mr. Rodd states that this Gull is seen on the Cornish coast in flocks in
the winter and spring, but does not specify any nesting-station; and
although Mr, Mansel-Pleydell supposes that it may breed on the Portland
and Purbeck cliffs, he was without any positive information on the point.
Ou the North Somerset coast this Gull (in our experience) is rather rare.

LARID.Z. 579

Like the Herring-Gull, the Lesser Black-backed Gullis a great robber of
other birds’ eggs.

Common Gull. Larus canus, Linn.

[Sea Mew, Winter Mew, Barley Bird, Long-winged Screamer (on the
Exe), Coddy Noddy (young): Dev. ]

An autumn and winter visitor to our estuaries, from August to the
middle of April, when it leaves us for its breeding-places. In early spring
small parties fly far inland, following the ploughs and feeding on the
worms and grubs turned up. The Common Gull was formerly numerous
on the Exe estuary in the autumn and winter months, constantly feeding
on the fore-shore at low water, above Topsham. Some fifteen years ago,
however, it had become so scarce that we had great difficulty in procuring
aspecimen. Latterly it has increased again, and is now as plentiful as
ever. Adults are seen on the Exe in breeding-plumage in April. Mr.
Gatcombe observed that in 1876 this species was rather more abundant
than it had been for some years at Plymouth. It was plentiful in the
harbour in March 1877, March 1878, Nov. 1879, and March 1883 (mostly
in pairs) (Zool. 1877, pp. 45, 279; 1878, p. 249; 1880, p. 48; 1888,
p- +19). Mr. R. P. Nicholls informed us that he had never seen a
specimen in summer plumage at Kingsbridge; a few immature birds
sometimes remain there till May, or perhaps later. This Gull is common
on the Teign (H. 8., Zool. 1860, p. 6793 ; and C. 8.); and is said to be an
occasional visitor to Lundy Island (Trans. Devon. Assoc. vol. vill. p. 309).

The nesting of the Common Gull in Devonshire, recorded by Mr. A. G.
More in his interesting paper in the ‘ Ibis’ (1865, p. 455) on the distribu-
tion of British birds during the breeding-season, is of course erroneous,
as this species, as is now well known, does not nest south of Scotland, and
we regret to have been amongst those who led Mr. A. G. More astray.
The Common Gull makes its appearance on the Devonshire coast in the
autumn, and during the winter we have seen it in extraordinary numbers
on the sand and mud-flats on the Exe and Teign. In North Devon it is
also very common, and is the most numerous of the Gulls which come
inland to seek for food on the freshly ploughed fields, for this reason
getting its name of ‘ Barley Bird,’ because it is seen about the fields as
late in the spring as the season of barley sowing. Even Col. Montagu
supposed that the Common Gull nested in the south, and writes: “* We
saw some hundreds sitting on their nests in an island off St. David’s
(Ramsey I.); the nests were made of seaweed, and were placed near
together about fourteen feet from the beach.” ‘These were, of course,
Kittiwakes’ nests. Col. Montagu states that Common Gulls “ flock with
Rooks in severe weather, and follow the plough for the sake of the larvae
of the chaffer and worms.” The changes of plumage in the various Gulls,
as they pass year after year from the buffish brown of the nestling stage
towards the gradual assumption of the grey mantle, white head, tail, and
‘underparts of the adult state, have proved a great puzzle to ornithologists,

380 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

who are now agreed that the full adult dress is not reached until the
third spring: and as the birds moult twice each year it would not be until
after the sixth moult that the perfect plumage is attained, and even then,
after the full dress is reached, there is a further annual change, as the
adults in winter-time, instead of having the heads pure white, have them
streaked with dark grey.

In its second year’s plumage the Common Gull was once considered a
distinct species and given the name of the “‘ Winter Gull.” Col. Montagu
greatly interested himself in the changes of plumage of the Herring- and
Common Gulls, and by keeping live examples, and watching them through
their various moults, solved the difficulties presented. This excellent
naturalist thought that it was not until the autumn of their third year that
these Gulls reached their complete plumage with perfectly white tails, and
a Herring-Gull kept by him did not assume its full dress until its fifth
year ; but itis a matter of question whether birds kept in confinement are so
regular and forward in the moulting-process as birds in a state of freedom.

The Common Gull is not one of those species which nest upon the
cliffs, preferring a flat surface, generally by the side of some mountain
loch, for its breeding-station. It makes rather a large nest upon the
ground of grass, sea-pinks, &c., and its eggs, like those of all other Gulls,
vary greatly in colour and markings. It breeds commonly in the north of
Scotland ; in a few places in Ireland ; and is generally dispersed during the
nesting-season over the north of Europe.

Greater Black-backed Gull. Zarus marinus, Linn.
[Saddle-back (Exe), Cobb (WV. D.).]

Partially resident. Some few pairs breed on Lundy Island, and it
seems to have formerly nested on the cliffs at Bolt Head (Yarrell’s B.
Birds, 2nd ed. iil. p. 593).

The Greater Black-backed Gull is a winter visitor to the coast near
Plymouth, and is most frequently seen after storms in winter and spring
on the estuaries. It seldom flocks, being generally seen singly or in
pairs. According to Mr. J. Gatcombe, the young birds usually arrive
after Christmas, increasing in numbers until spring, when the adults
appear in pairs, just before leaving for their breeding-places. This
splendid bird is to be seen all the year on the North Devon coast, but
never in any great numbers ; sometimes a solitary one may be seen stalking
upon the sands, at other times a pair, but it is rare to see more than two
together. A pair or two nest on Lundy Island, but we have no know-
ledge of any breeding-station anywhere upon the mainland. Off the
Lighthouse on Braunton Burrows, Herring-Gulls and Grey Crows used
often to be seen engaged in carrying mussels up into the air and dropping
them upon the rocks in order to break the shells, and we have frequently
seen a Greater Black-backed Gull joining with them in this amuse-
ment. This large Gull is extremely wary, and an adult can be secured

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only after a very careful stalk. One afternoon we came across two of
them striking at something in a shallow pool left by the tide on the
sands in the middle of the Barnstaple river, and, on going to see what it
was, found that the Gulls had just killed a salmon of about eight pounds
weight, and had already devoured its eyes. We appropriated the fish,
and, carrying it home, had it cooked for dinner. The Greater Black-
backed Gull is an omnivorous feeder, devouring any carrion it can find at
the water’s edge, also fish, birds, eggs, offal, &c., and is said to be very
destructive to the eggs and young of Wild Ducks, especially those of the
Eider. It is sometimes, but rarely, seen in fields some distance inland.

Some adults were seen at Plymouth on November 25th, 1876, after gales, and they
were extremely numerous in January 1873 (J. G., Zool. 1873, p. 3445; 1875, p. 4449;
1877, p. 45; 1881, p. 195). Mr. E. A. 8. Elliot had a very small specimen of this
species brought to him in December 1890. It was only 26 inches in length, and the
wing measured 18 inches; it had been shot outside Plymouth Sound.

A few visit Kingsbridge estuary in severe weather (HK. A.S. E.). This fine Gull
is occasionally seen on the Exe estuary in winter and spring. On February 24th,
1853, Mr. W. H. Beadon, when shooting on the mud-flats below Topsham, saw one of
these Gulls attack and kill an Oyster-catcher, which he kindly brought to us. A large
hole had been torn in one side of its body under the wing. ‘wo splendid adults were
shot at Exmouth at the end of December 1891.

According to Mr. Rodd, the Greater Black-backed Gull is not a common
species on the Cornish coast, but is more numerous further to the east on
the shores of Dorsetshire, breeding, Mr. Mansel-Pleydell states, on the
rocky cliffs of St. Alban’s Head and Gad Cliff; and one of the Poole
gunners, firing one night with his big gun into a flock roosting on a mud-
flat, imagining them to be Wild Geese, is said to have killed” fourteen of
these great Gulls at a single shot,

Great Black-headed Gull. Larus ichthyaétus, Pallas.

An accidental visitor, of extremely rare occurrence. The only example
hitherto recorded as having been killed in the british Islands was shot
at Exmouth at the end of May, or beginning of June, 1859, by William
Pine, a boatman employed by Mr. William Taylor, of Bridgwater, who was
engaged in fishing for bassin the estuary of the Exe off Exmouth. It was
in company with a flock of ordinary Gulls. Its remarkable size and appear-
ance attracted the attention of the boatman, who, baving his gun with
him, singled it out, and fortunately obtained the bird (F. W. L. R., Ann.
Mag. Nat. Hist. 3rd ser. vol. iv. p. 467, December, 1859; and Zool.
1860, p. 6860). Mr. Taylor presented this unique specimen to Mr. Ross,
of Topsham, in whose possession we saw it on our return from Canada in
October 1859. As the latter gentleman had not the least idea to what
species it belonged, we persuaded him to allow us to take it up to
London, and on Ist November following we showed it to Mr, G. R. Gray,
of the British Museum, who at once led us to the only specimen of
L. ichthyaétus then exhibited in the galleries of that institution, <A
comparison of the two birds immediately proved their identity. At

382 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

Mr. Gray’s request we left the Exe bird with him for exhibition. At the
death of Mr. Ross’s widow in 1865, his collection of birds was removed to
Exeter, having been bequeathed to the Albert Memorial Museum in that
city, and the Great Black-headed Gull accompanied it, and was under our
care for nearly twenty years. The specimen is still in good condition,
though, having been badly mounted at first, it had to be restuffed, and it
has been much handled (W. D’U.).

This, the king of the Black-headed Gulls, has its home on the Caspian
Sea, and it must have been a strange chance which brought one to the
mouth of our Devonshire Exe, off Exmouth, at the beginning of the
summer of 1859. No other example has been obtained in the United
Kingdom except this very fine specimen, which is to be seen, rather
indifferently stuffed, unfortunately, in the Museum at Exeter, where it is
certainly one of the most interesting of the birds in the whole collection,
and as a very important object iu the Devonshire Ornis we have selected
it for one of our Plates. One example is said to have been shot some
years since upon Heligoland, and is included in the list of birds obtained
upon that wonderful rock by Herr Giitke. The Great Black-headed Gull
is said to breed in colonies upon marshes like the Common Black-headed
Gull, but its eggs are still rare in collections. We have been informed by
Mr. J. H. Gurney that he was very disappointed when he first saw this
Gull upon the wing in Egypt, where it is common, as it did not come up
to his expectations with regard to its appearance or powers of flight, but
seemed an awkward and lumbering bird. It is said to have a very
harsh croaking note.

In the fourth volume of Dr. Bree’s ‘ Birds of Europe,’ there is a figure
of the Devonshire specimen from the pencil of the Rev. F. Wright, of
St. Stythians, Cornwall, which is an excellent rendering of the bird, but
appears to us to be indifferently coloured, and, moreover, errs in the
colour of the legs, which are given as a very pale red (there is the same
mistake in Mr. Dresser’s figure in his splendid work). It is true
Mr. Ross himself, in the ‘ Zoologist’ for 1860, p. 6860, has described the
legs as “ fuscous red,’ but must have done so in error, as such excellent
authorities as Mr. Howard Saunders and Mr. Dresser both state they are
yellow, or greenish yellow. ‘This magnificent Gull has bright vermilion
rings round the eyes. ‘he beak is said to be yellow, with a broad red
band across it, immediately followed by another of black at the tip (Dresser,
‘ Birds of Europe,’ vol. viii. p. 369).

Black-headed Gull, Larus ridijundus, Linn.
[Peewit Gull, Maddrick Gull, Red-legged Gull.

Very abundant in large flocks on the estuaries of the south coast in
autumn, winter, and spring. Comparatively few are met with in
summer, and Mr. J. Gatcombe had never met with one at that season
(Zool, 1876, p. 4902) until July 26th, 1882, when he observed old and

LARIDE. 583

‘young at Plymouth, and on July 18th, 1883, there were many on the
St. Germans River which had already returned from their breeding-
haunts (Zool. 1882, p. 459 ; 1883, p. 421). Montagu, however, observed
some with black heads at the beginning of July on the south coast of
Devon, and non-breeding birds remain on the Exe and Kingsbridge
estuaries until the middle of May, and even later. The greater part
leave Plymouth Sound by the middle of March (Zool. 1877, p. 279;
1878, pp. 52, 432), and Kingsbridge estuary as soon as they have
assumed the black head (KE. A. 8. E.), but many adults remain on the Exe
estuary till the middle of April. Mr. Ross, in his MS. ‘ British Laride,’
says of this species ‘‘in large flocks on the iixe at all times of the year.”
There is, however, no breeding-place in Devonshire, but as a “ Gullery ”
has been established on the north side of Poole Harbour (‘ Field’ tor
February 23rd, 1884, p. 276), besides several others in Dorsetshire, the
birds that frequent the Exe have not far to go in the breeding-season.
Old birds, and young birds of the year, return from their breeding-places
generally at the end of August or beginning of September, but sometimes
by the middle of July. The birds of the year are occasionally, though
rarely, obtained in the first autumnal moult in July and August, with
much of the wood-brown colour of the first plumage remaining. Examples
in this state of plumage obtained on the Exe on July 17th and August
4th, 1851, and July 19th, 1852, are in the A, M. M., and Mr. Gatcombe
saw a very young bird which was obtained at Warleigh on the Tamar,
early in August 1885 (Zool. 1885, p. 378). A bird in full breeding-
plumage, but with a reddish-brown (not black) head, was killed on the Exe
July 22nd, 1844 (F. W. L. R., MS. Journ. iv. p. 125), The small race or
variety capistratus occurred on the Dart, December 1849 (A. N., Zool. 1850,
p- 2825), and three at Torquay, January 4th, 1871 (J. H. G., Zool. 1871,
p. 2631). The black head is sometimes retained very late or assumed
very early in the season in this county. One with a dark head was shot
on December 3rd, 1853; one was seen at Exmouth, December 2!]st,
1874, and numbers in November 1891; and one with entirely black hood
on January 11th, 1875 (‘ Field” January:23rd, 1875), About the middle
of February is the usual time for the assumption of the black hood on the
south coast of Devon. The adults are in their most perfect breeding-
plumage early in March, and are usually in their winter plumage by
October.

During the severe frost in February 1855 and January 1891, Black-
headed Gulls entirely disappeared from the Exe estuary.

Although there is no Devonshire breeding-station of this very pretty
Gull, great flocks arrive early in the autumn to spend the winter with us,
and it is during the winter months very abundant upon our coasts, perhaps
ranking next to the Kittiwake in numbers. ‘Towards the middle of
August we used to see the first arrivals of this Gull on the Barnstaple
river, when a large flock, consisting mainly of young birds of the year in
their pretty chequered plumage of light brown, grey, and white, made
their appearance, and were very tame and confiding, more so than any
other members of the Gull family. Throughout the winter numbers

384 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

might be seen on fields some miles inland, searching the ground in com-
pany with Rooks, Starlings, and Common Gulls. The old birds sometimes
assume their breeding-plumage with the dark cap very early in the year.
We have one, shot out of a flock ina ploughed field at the end of January,
near Barnstaple, which is in complete nuptial dress. Great numbers of
these Black-headed Gulls flock into the bay at Weston-super-Mare in
company with the other Gulls after the sprats, and many are trapped.
Mr. Cecil Smith had a very pretty flock of over a dozen, which he
received from this watering-place, and it was an interesting sight to see
them running about on his lawn and to watch the changes in their
plumage. Col. Montagu states that he used to see this Gull in full
plumage on the Devonshire coast in the beginning of July, and these
were birds which probably belonged to the small “ Gulleries” in the
adjoining county of Dorset. The Colonel communicated a paper to the
‘Transactions of the Linnean Society,’ in which he traced this species
through all its changes, from the nestling to the adult plumage, in order
to prove that various other so-called species of Gull were only forms of it
at different ages.

Mr. Rodd considers the Black-headed Gull the commonest of all the
Gulls to be seen on the Cornish coast during the winter, and says that a
few are to be noticed all through the year, and that some formerly nested
on the Scilly Islands. In Dorsetshire, according to Mr. Mansel-Pleydell,
it is increasing greatly in numbers every year as a nesting species, owing
to the Sea Birds’ Preservation Act.

The adults in their winter plumage have white heads, but always with
a small black patch behind the ear; the same thing may be said of
the winter plumage of adult Little Gulls, and it is probably a characteristic
of the winter plumage of all the Black-headed Gulls.

There is not a more beautiful object in nature than an adult Black-
headed Gull in its full breeding-plumage in early spring. The breast is
suffused with a delicate rosy blush, which unfortunately soon fades after
death, and the contrast of the blood-red bill, eyelids, legs and feet, the dark
hood, and the snowy white and delicate grey of the rest of the plumage
is truly exquisite, and fills one with regret that these evanescent charms
caunot be preserved in all their pristine perfection. The distinctive mark
of the species is that the central portion of the outer primaries is always
white.

These Gulls nest in great communities on the fens, merely trampling
the grass or rushes with their feet to form a depression in which to lay
their eggs, and the young birds are taken and sold for the table, and are
considered very good eating. The largest “ Guilery”’ in England is the
one at Scoulton Mere in the centre of the county of Norfolk, which forms
the subject of the frontispiece (from a drawing by Mr. Wolf) to the third
volume of the ‘ Birds of Norfolk.’ From nine to ten thousand eggs are
there taken annually, and are accounted great delicacies, being eaten cold
like Plovers’ eggs. Mr. Dresser states that where there are trees and
bushes near their breeding-stations these Gulls commonly perch upon
them.

LARID. 385

Little Gull. Zarus minutus, Pallas.

A casual visitor in autumn and winter, 7. e. from August to February.
The specimens obtained are generally in immature plumage. The Little
Gull occasionally wanders inland, following the course of the larger
rivers,

This, the smallest of the Gull family, with a body somewhat less than
that of a common Blue-Rock Pigeon, although very rarely obtained in
this country in full adult plumage, when it has a black cap upon the head,
is not uncommon in the autumn and winter, large flocks occasionally
appearing off the Yorkshire and Norfolk coasts. In Devonshire the
greater number of the examples secured have been from the estuaries of
the south coast ; from North Devon, as far as we know, only three have
been recorded, while at least thirty are said to have been obtained in the
south of the county.

The Little Gull feeds upon small fishes and insects, pursuing and cap-
turing dragonflies upon the wing.

The plumage of some immature specimens we have examined in the
flesh was suffused with the same beautiful rosy tint as is seen in the
Black-headed Gull in breeding-plumage, and also in some other Gulls and
Terns ; it soon disappears.

A Little Gull shot at Brent, South Devon, was in the British Museum. Another
was shot September 28th, 1828, twenty miles up the Tamar, and another there in
October 1831. Mr. Drew had two others (EZ. M., Trans. Plym. Inst. 1830, p. 338 ;
Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837, p. 360). One shot in Plymouth Sound in February 1852
(J. B., ‘ Naturalist,’ 1853, p. 204); one at Plymouth, December 24th, 1858 (B., MS.
Notes); one January 1859; one, nearly adult, February 3rd, 1862 ; one December 31st,
1868, at Plymouth (J. G., MS. Notes; Zool. 1859, p. 6377; 1862, p. 7940).

One occurred in Torbay, November 1844 (F. W. L. R., MS. vol. iv. p. 159) ; two
there January 1869 (Zool. 1869, p. 1720); one 12th February, 1870 (A. von H., Zool.
1870, p. 2098) ; one at Paignton (in Torquay Museum) ; one in Torbay, October 1876
(G. F. M., Zool. 1876, p. 5161).

One was killed at the mouth of the Teign, November 24th, 1866, in pursuit of sprats,
in company with a large flock of Kittiwakes (C. 8., Zool. 1867, p. 562). An immature
specimen was uvbtained on the Exe estuary, November 28th, 1844 (F. W. L. R., MS.
Journ. iv. p. 159). One was shot by Mr. G. 0. Luke, January 31st, 1851, whilst
feeding with two others in a turnip-field near Exeter (W.T., ‘ Naturalist,’ 1852, p. 19) ;
one was shot on the Exe, December 28th, 1855 (Zool. 1856, p. 5065) ; one October 27th,
1873; an adult at Woodbury Road Station, November 29th, 1876; two immature
birds on the Exe, January 12th, 1877 (Zool. 1877, p. 104); another, January 17th,
1877.

A Little Gull was caught by a fishing-line at Beer (‘ Exeter Gazette’ for January (3th,
1871). We saw a specimen in a bird-stuffer’s shop at Seaton in 1883, which may have
been this one.

Two, nearly adult, were shot on the sands near Braunton Burrows, August 30th,
1858 (Zool. 1858, p. 6245); and another there January 1869 (Zool. 1869, p. 1803).

The Little Gull has been seen at Lundy Island. The Rey. H. G.
Heaven has informed us that one was seen beating about close in shore in
October 1891.

On the Cornish coast the Little Gull also occurs in the autumn and
winter, and Mr. Rodd states that both immature birds as well as adults

2c

386 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

in their winter plumage (when the top of the head is white, and there is
only a small dark spot behind the ears) have been frequently met
with.

Mr. T. Cornish received a Little Gull from St. Just, near Penzance,
February 15th, 1889, an adult, which weighed a little under 7 ounces, or
about as much as would be scaled by an extra fine Common Snipe. Two
more were seen between Hayle and St. Ives, and one of them, an
immature bird, was shot on February 21st that same year (Zool. 1889,
pp. 107, 234).

Mr. Mansel-Pleydcll enumerates eight Dorsetshire specimens; one of
them, shot March 22nd, 1862, was probably almost in full plumage. In
Somersetshire we have known the Little Gull to occur in the autumn in
the neighbourhood of Weston-super-Mare, and one was shot at Clevedon
at the end of October 1888 (Zool. 1889, p. 32). We have ourselves a
very pretty specimen of a young bird which was shot on the sands
at Weston-super-Mare in a plumage closely resembling the “ Tarrock ”
stage of the Kittiwake.

The summer home of this small species is to be found in South and
Central Russia, the great lakes providing the nesting-stations. It is
especially numerous on Lake Ladoga, breeding on the small islands
in company with the Common Tern, its eggs very closely resembling
those of that bird in size, shape, and in the colour of the markings;
but, according to Mr. W. Meves, they are to be easily distinguist.ed
by the colour of the yelk, this being orange-red in the eggs of the Little
Gull, and ochre-yellow in those of the Common Tern.

[Bonaparte’s Gull, Larus philadelphia (Ord).

Three examples of this small Black-headed Gull, a common and beauti-
ful North-American species of about the same size as Sabine’s Gull, have
now occurred in Cornwall: the first in Falmouth Harbour, January 4th,
1865 ; the second on the 10th January in the same year, near Penryn;
and the third at Newlyn, near Penzance, October 24th, 1890 (Zool.
1891, p. 35). One of these Gulls has also been obtained near Belfast ;
another, a fine adult, in Scotland; and another at St. Leonards, in
Sussex. Among the birds enumerated by Herr Giitke as having occurred
in Heligoland is a single example of Bonaparte’s Gull, shot in the winter
of 1845. No other European specimens appear to have been recorded.

The three Cornish Bonaparte’s Gulls were all in immature plumage,
which closely corresponds with that stage of dress in all the other Black-
headed Gulls. That obtained in Falmouth Harbour was examined and
fully described by Dr. Bullmore, who gives its length as 14 inches (the
length of the Little Gull is only 10 inches), and its weight as 7 ounces,
and states that it exactly resembled the figure of the immature bird given
in Yarrell.

This species is very abundant throughout North America and the
United States in the autumn and winter, and goes very far north in the

LARID.£. 387

summer to nest, breeding in colonies on trees near the Great Bear Lake,
the nest being made of sticks, and throughout Arctic America, its eggs
haying been taken near Anderson-River Fort.

The last of the Cornish examples, shot at Newlyn, was examined by
Mr. J. E. Harting, and exhibited at a meeting of the Linnean Society on
4th December, 1890. |

[ Observation.—Besides the various Gulls we have enumerated, several
others have occurred on British waters, but not in the South-west.
These are the Laughing Gull, Larus atricilla, an American black-headed
species, a single British example having been in Col. Montagu’s collection,
said to have been shot at Winchelsea so long ago as August 1774; the
Adriatic Gull, Larus melanocephalus, a common Mediterranean black-
headed species, of which an immature bird is said to have been shot at
Barking Creek, January 1866; and, lastly, perhaps the most beautiful,
as it is the rarest of all the Gulls, the Cuneate-tailed Gull, of Ross,
Tthodostethia rosea, a rose-breasted species with white head, black collar
round the neck, blue mantle and white underparts, with a white wedge-
shaped tail having the two central feathers slightly elongated, which is a
native of the Arctic regions, a very doubtful example of which is claimed
from Yorkshire (Yarrell’s B. Birds, 4th ed. vol. iii. p. 586); but very
considerable doubt attaches to all these birds. ]

Sabine’s Gull. ema sabinii (Joseph Sabine).

An accidental visitor, of rare occurrence, in autumn, and always in
immature plumage.

This very beautiful Arctic species, which is only a trifle larger than the
Little Gull, from which in all stages of plumage it is easily to be distin-
guished, both by its forked tail and by the form of its beak, has, according
to Mr. Howard Saunders, only been obtained three times in the United
Kingdom in its adult state (in which it has its head leaden black with a
dark black collar around the neck), the last of the three having occurred
after the heavy October gules of 1891, at Lymington, in Hampshire. In
its immature plumage Sabine’s Gull can hardly be considered as a rare
straggler to our coasts in the autumn. We have ourselves detected
examples of it in many West Country collections, where it was either
labelled the ‘ Little Gull, or was entirely unknown to its possessor.
Mr. Cecil Smith possessed one in his collection which had been shot many
years ago in South Devon. We have no information of any specimens
from the North Devon estuaries, but feel certain they must have been
occasionally visited by this small species of Gull, as examples have been
more than once obtained some distance up the Bristol Channel. Thus,
we ourselves examined three examples which were secured on the sands
at Weston-super-Mare at different dates, and saw one of them alive on
September 14th, 1867. On the afternoon of that day, when a strong
westerly gale was blowing, we were walking up the sands and saw five

2c2

388 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

very small Gulls beating about the mouth of the Somerset Axe. A man
who was loafing about with a gun walked down and shot one of them,
which proved to be a very pretty example of Sabine’s Gull in immature
dress. This we secured from him, and have still in our collection. There
is another, in very similar plumage, in the collection of birds presented
by Mr. Horner to the Literary Institution in Frome, which we doubt not
is a West Country specimen. Some nine or ten appear to have been
recorded from the South Devon coast.

Two occurred near Brixham, Torbay, in October 1844 (W. 8S. H., Zool. 1845, p. 879).
A bird of the year in Plymouth Sound in the autumn of 1866 (J. G., Zool. 1867,
p- 557). Another was in the collection of the Rev. Alan Furneaux, of St. Germans,
and is now in the Plymouth Atheneum. It was killed by a wild-fow] shooter at night
amongst a flock of Curlews (J. G.). A young bird shot in Torbay a few years before
1862 was in the collection of the late Mr. Cecil Smith (M. A. M., Zool. 1863, p. 8448 ;
G. F. M., ‘ Naturalist, 1866, p. 360). Mr. E. Burt, Curator of the Torquay Natural
History Society's Museum, knew of but two instances of its occurrence in Torbay in
twenty-five years—the first being probably that mentioned aboye in 1844, and the
second was an immature bird shot on October 23rd, 1866, out of a flock of Kittiwakes
attended by Skuas by Mr. E. Schofield. Mr. Ross, in his MS. ‘ Journal of Occurrences
in Natural History’ (vol. iii. p. 4), and MS, ‘ British Laride,’ figures a Gull with a
slightly forked tail in immature plumage, which he says was common on the coast, and
was known as the ‘ Sea-Pigeon’ on the Exe. He considered it the young of Sabine’s
Gull.

Several examples of Sabine’s Gull were obtained on the S.W. coast after the gales of
October 1891. Mr. E. A. 8, Elliot shot one on October 19th off Beesands in Start Bay,
which was in company of a flock of Common and Arctic Terns (Zool. 1892, p. 34).

In Cornwall immature examples of Sabine’s Gull are occasionally pro-
cured in the autumn. Dr. Bullmore received one or two from the
neighbourhood of Falmouth, and Mr. Rodd (Zool. 1866, p. 501) described
one which was knocked down with an oar on Mount’s Bay as it was
flying about with one or two others. In the museum at Truro we saw
an immature example, without any label attached, which had probably
come from Looe, the locality which supplied most of the marine birds to
the collection. And Mr. T. Cornish (Zool. 1892, p. 22) records one which
was shot at Newlyn by Mr. C. Vingoe, about the middle of October 1891.
The same stormy month produced the example at Kingsbridge mentioned
above, and another, October 13th, at Bournemouth (Zool. 1892, p. 22),
which is reported as an adult in winter plumage. This example was
picked up dead in a field, and, from the description given of it by Mr.
F, Coburn, was a very interesting specimen: “ the plumage on the whole
of the underparts was beautifully suffused with salmon-pink, which was
observable for several days after the bird had been skinned and mounted.
The white tips to the black primaries have a twisted and worn appearance.
The tail is not so acutely forked as shown in Yarrell’s figure, while the
sharp angle to the lower mandible was not at all observable in the fresh
bird, but is heginuing to appear as the bill dries.” The colours of the soft
parts, as given by Mr. F. Coburn, are: “ Tibia, tarsus, and toes, also webs,
pale drab colour, with a shade of umber at the joints and on the webs.
Nails dark umber. Bill from base to a little beyond nostrils black, re-

LARIDA. 589

mainder straw-yellow. Gape, and inside mouth and throat, bright reddish
orange. Tongue pale orange-yellow. Eyelids black. Irides dark hazel.”
This must be considered as an addition to the three adult specimens
known to Mr. Howard Saunders mentioned above. Mr. Mansel-Pleydell
had no knowledge of any Dorsetshire example of Sabine’s Gull.

This beautiful Gull was first made known through a pair killed by
Captain Sabine on Spitzbergen, and to obtain its eggs the nesting-stations
must be sought in the bleak regions of the Pole, either in Northern Siberia
or in Arctic North America.

Its fork tail was considered by earlier ornithologists to show a link
between the Terns and Gulls, but in the arrangement we are following
the position assigned to this species, at the end instead of at the head of
the Gulls, would seem to show that more recent systematists have
abandoned this idea.

Subfamily STERCORARIINA.
THE SKUAS, or PARASITIC GULLS.

There are four species of these singular raptorial Gulls
which pass the summer in the north nesting upon the
fells, and in the autumn come down our coasts on their
migration to the south. ‘Two of them—the Common Skua,
or ‘** Bonxie,” as it is called in the Shetland Islands, and
Richardson’s Skua—nest on the islands to the north and
north-west of Scotland; while the other two—the Pomato-
rhine and Buffon’s Skua—nest in the northern countries of
Europe, and are only more or less accidental visitors to
our southern coasts in the autumn. But sometimes after
heavy October gales Skuas are blown into the English and
Bristol Channels in considerable numbers, and one reads
of many being shot at the different watering-places. The
Skuas are great bullies to the other Gulls, chasing them
and robbing them of their fish, as we have witnessed in
October in Torbay, where occasionally the Pomatorhine
and Richardson’s Skuas occur abundantly. They are also
carnivorous, feeding on carrion, birds, and small mammals.
Many names have been bestowed upon them: that of

390 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

Skua is said to be taken from “ Skui, Skui,” the cry of the
birds; they are often called “‘ Boatswain Gulls,” from the
long tails of all the species except the Common Skua, as if
each bird was, like a boatswain, carrying behind it a
marlingspike; and on Torbay the sailors give them the
name of “Irish Lords,” for a reason which it is easy to
surmise. All four species have been obtained on both the
northern and southern shores of the county, although in
the fine estuaries and bays of the south they occur more
frequently and in greater numbers. The eggs of the
Skuas differ considerably, both in their colour and in the
character of their markings, from those of the other Gulls,
being reddish olive with only a few darker blotches upon
them; and the nests are usually placed upon the ground,
the Common Skua being the only one of the family which
breeds upon the cliffs. Their plumage is singular, the
adults having a few golden hackles upon the throat, with
black caps on their heads, blackish or grey mantles, and
white underparts, the central tail-feathers being consider-
ably elongated. ‘The young birds are first chocolate-
coloured, and attain the adult plumage slowly, and do not
gain it entirely until the third year. But the Common
Skua is an exception, being always dark brown and fulvous
all over in its plumage, and possessing certain of the
characteristic yellow hackles upon the throat. The colour
of the legs and toes in the Skuas also differentiates them
from the other Gulls, whose legs are yellow, black, or red ;
while the Skuas have their legs bluish with the webs and
toes black, so that one of the names given them by the
earlier ornithologists was “ Black-toed Gull” (Pennant).
The Skuas also received the extraordinary name of “ Dung-
birds ” (Stercorarius, Brisson), from the strange idea that
when they were pursuing the Kittiwakes and Common
Gulls for their fish it was for the purpose of feeding on

LARIDZ. 391

their mutings! Although all the Skuas are birds of the
open sea, seeking the fishing-grounds far from the coast,
and seldom, unless the weather is very boisterous, coming
near the shore for shelter, we have instances of all four
species having been met with far inland, driven in by the
stress of severe autumn gales.

Common Skua. Stercorarius catarrhactes (Linn.).
[Tom Harry, Old Hen, Dev.; Bonxie (Shetland Isles), Great Skua. ]

A casual visitor in autumn, winter, and spring, rarely approaching our
shores, and generally keeping far out; in the Channel. When obtained
the birds are usually in an exhausted state, having been driven far inland
by severe gales at sea.

This powerful and courageous bird nests on the Shetland Isles, where it
will not suffer either the Raven or the Sea-Eagle to come near its station,
and was fast becoming exterminated owing to the rapacity of “ collectors ”
for its skin and eggs, but we are glad to hear that the landowners are now
doing their best to preserve it. Like all the other Skuas it comes south
in the autumn, and on 5th October, 1891, was seen in considerable
numbers by Mr. G. F. Mathew, R.N., when passing in H.M.S. * Tyne,’ on
the Burlings, some rocky islets 8 or 10 miles off the coast of Portugal, and
again off Cape St. Vincent, on the ship’s return voyage from Malta, on
25th of the same month. The Common Skua very seldom enters the estu-
aries, keeping well out to sea, and for this reason is not so often obtained
as the other species, and may be considered a rare bird on the Devonshire
coast. We have seen one which was shot some years since at Appledore,
in North Devon, and a more recent specimen is said to have been obtained
in a ploughed field close to Barnstaple. Some of the reported occurrences
of the Common Skua are open to doubt, as we have known cases in which
the Pomatorhine Skua in its first year’s chocolate-brown plumage has
done duty for it. Several examples have been procured in different years
in the south of the county, a list of which we append below. Col. Montagu
thought from the powerful talons of this species, and especially from the
great strength and curved shape of the inner claw, that the Common Skua,
instead of bolting its food whole, held it under its feet, like a Hawk, and
tore it in pieces. We have failed to meet with any confirmation of this
in any author, but have been informed by Lord Lilford that two Common
Skuas from Foula in his aviaries ‘‘ habitually stand upon and tear up
their meat unless it is thrown to them in small pieces.” He adds that
they prefer flesh of birds or beasts to fish, though they eat the latter
greedily. The Common Skuas at Foula are reported to catch great
numbers of Kittiwakes, seizing them in their claws and carrying them off
to devour. Lord Lilford’s Skuas, soon after their arrival at Lilford,

392 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

“managed to drag a Teal (Anas cyanoptera) through the wires of an
adjoining compartment, and devoured him like young Goshawks, with
cries of exultation” (Lord L. zn litt.). The Common Skua has been
known to attack dogs, and even men, who have ventured near its nest,
with the greatest fierceness, and has been seen to strike down a Herring-
Gull, and Mr, Mansel-Pleydell relates an instance of one having been
shot just after it had been seen to kill a Wigeon in Poole Harbour.

Dr. E. Moore says “a specimen was obtained here [Plymouth] by Mr. Drew in
February 18380, and is now in his collection.” He also states that this Skua frequently
accompanies fishing-boats, and that ‘‘ one was taken alive February 16th, 1835, having
gorged itself from the Whale” (Trans. Plym. Inst. 1830, p. 339; Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837,
p. 365), Bellamy says, on the authority of Mr. Gosling, that six were shot in the
harbour at Plymouth in September and October 1831 (Nat. Hist. 8. Devon, p. 215).
The great Razor-back Whale was found floating dead, off the Eddystone, in October
1831. There would, therefore, appear to be an error in Dr. Moore’s date unless some
other whale is alluded to.

An adult was found dead in a field near Cullompton, twelve or fourteen miles from
the coast, in 1848 (W. R.S8., Zool. 1849, p. 2384). This specimen is now in the
A.M. M. In April 1850, one was caught in a net near Plymouth (E. P., Trans.
Devon. Assoc. viii. p. 298). One was picked up in an exhausted state on the rocks in
Plymouth Sound, December 27th, 1852 (J. G., ‘ Naturalist,’ 1853, p. 228). A bird
said to have been a Common Skua, and recorded by us as that species, was shot by the
late Charles Hall below Topsham on the Exe estuary, December 29th, 1855, having
just struck down a Black-headed Gull, which it was engaged in devouring (Zool. 1856,
p- 5065). It was purchased for Mr. Byne’s collection, but the bird standing under the
name of ‘Common Skua’ in that collection is a Pomatorhine Skua. In 1880 Mr. Gat-
combe speaks of this fine species as ‘‘ now unfortunately so rare on our coast” (Zool.

1880, p. 21).

Mr. E. H. Rodd writes :—‘“ To see the Common Skua one must take a
boat and put off a few miles from shore during the pilchard and mackerel
seasons. A few pairs may then be generally observed, chasing and
worrying the other Gulls to make them disgorge their prey.” He also
states that the fishermen occasionally catch these birds with a baited
hook.

We have seen two specimens of this Skua in the Truro Museum.

We know of no record of a Somerset example of the Common Skua, but
it is occasionally obtained off the Dorsetshire coast.

Pomatorhine Skua. Stercorarius pomatorhinus
(Temm.).

[Irish Lord (Zorbay), Lords and Captains, Tom Harry, Boatswain
ull. |

A passing Visitor in spring and autumn, being most numerous at the
latter season, when large flights appear off the south coast at intervals
of about ten years (as in October and November 1879), and smaller
numbers are seen in the Bristol Channel. This species is the least rare of
all the Skuas, and is generally to be met with in Torbay in October, and

LARID.Z. 393

sometimes in winter, but it is not so numerous on the north coast of the
county (M. A. M., Zool. 1859, p. 6331; A. von H., Zool. 1874, p. 3907).
The specimens obtained are usually in the first and second year’s plumage ;
adults, however, are not rarely met with. ‘There is one which was taken
with a hook and line in the Torquay Museum, and others have been
obtained on Torbay, Plymouth Sound, &c., and also in North Devon.

Although the nesting-stations of this fine Skua are more remote from
England than those of the other three species, it is (somewhat strangely) by
far the most common and the most numerous of all the Skuas which visit
our Devonshire coasts, some being seen off the south of the county every
autumn, and in some years, when autumn gales have been severe and
prevalent, great flocks appear in Torbay and Plymouth Sound and off the
Cornish coast. We have ourselves encountered great numbers of the
Pomatorhine Skua in October upon Torbay, where they were flying about
like large Hawks in chase of the smaller Gulls, and robbing them of their
fish ; and one morning without any difficulty we secured fine examples in
all conditions of plumage, among them some very fine white-chested adults
with the central elongated tail-feathers (which in this species are not
acuminate, but increase in width and are rounded at the end) perfectly
developed. When shooting these birds we were struck by the way in
which they succumbed to a very slight wound. As our old boatman has
often said to us, “‘ It is of no use to fire at a Gull until you can see its eye,”
meaning that the feathers are so closely set that they are sure to turn the
shot unless the bird is within comparatively easy range; and this we have
found from long experience to be true enough, yet it was different with
the Skuas. We were shooting them with a little 18-bore muzzle-loader,
and dropped them dead upon the water at long distances, and judged them
to be but loose feathered birds, in consequence, in comparison with the
other Gulls which were the objects of their persecution. Mr. Gatcombe
has recorded numerous notes upon the Pomatorhine Skuas which came
into his hands at Plymouth. In the ‘Zoologist’ for 1883, p. 421, he
relates that in the shop of a bird-stuffer at Stonehouse he saw a specimen
of this Skua, ‘a young bird of last year in very interesting plumage,”
which had been shot near the Manacles, off the coast of Cornwall, on the
strange date of June 15th in that year; and we ourselves saw this bird in
the flesh at Plymouth. In October 1881, a Pomatorhine Skua was
obtained at Plymouth which had “ two odd-coloured legs, one being wholly
black, the other partly light blue and partly black, similar to that of the
so-called Black-toed Gull. It is somewhat remarkable that the stomach
of this bird, like that of a Honey-Buzzard [recently examined |, contained
nothing but feathers; I think it probable, however, that these feathers
might have been accidentally swallowed by the bird when constantly
picking itself during the moult.”

An immature Pomatorhine Skua occurred at Plymouth, December 27th, 1852, and
others in March and April 1855 (B., MS. Notes). A young bird was killed in 1871 ;
there were great flights in the English Channel off the south coast (Salcombe and
Kingsbridge) in November 1879. Three were secured at Plymouth, November LOth,

394 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

1879; one March 17th, 1880; and one in ‘ change,’ October 1881 (J. G., Zool. 1872,
p. 2940; 1880, pp. 20, 21, 48, 249; 1882, p. 65).

Several were seen and two were shot in September 1885, on the Kingsbridge estuary
(R. P. N., MS. Notes).

Many in Torbay, October 1858; some there October 7th, 1869; two October 12th,
1869; two in first and two in second year’s plumage, October 26th, 1871; some
January 1874 (M. A. M., Zool. 1859, p. 6331 ; 1869, pp. 1917, 1983; 1872, pp. 2946,
2995; 1874, p. 3907). Flights visited the bay in November 1879 and November 1890
(W. E.).

An sr fhisidia bird was killed on the Exe estuary in the winter of 1848-9 (W.R.S.,
Zool. 1849, p. 2385). One at Exmouth, October 1870; and one on the Exe estuary
in November 1882.

We have seen a Pomatorhine Skua in the chocolate-brown immature
plumage which was shot on a field in the parish of Sandford, near Credi-
ton. In North Devon specimens of this Skua have been obtained at
various times, but it is only when it is a great Pomatorhine Skua season
on the southern waters of the county that a few appear on the Barnstaple
and Bideford rivers, and are also noted far up the Bristol Channel. We
possess a very fine pair of adults, with perfect tails and broad black bands
across the chest, and fine golden hackles on the neck, which were shot at
Instow in October 1879 (Zool. 1880, pp. 20,21). The Rev. Marcus
Rickards shot two on the Northam Burrows, on October 7th, 1874, one
an adult, and the other in immature plumage, and has informed us that
the former was most conspicuous when first observed, swimming very high
in the water, and when put up flying restlessly about until it pitched upon
the sand, where he stalked it from behind some sand-hills, and shot it as
it rose. The immature bird was observed later the same day feeding upon
a dead sheep upon the Burrows*. It was fired at, and flew off badly
wounded, settling upon the water about half a mile from the shore, but
was picked up dead upon the mud-flat near Appledore the following
morning in very good condition (Zool. 1874, p. 4240 ; 1875, p. 4300). In
the Westward Ho! College Museum is a specimen of the Pomatorhine
Skua, shot at Instow, which is in the immature reddish-brown plumage,
and was at first believed to be an example of the Common Skua.

Mr. W. Else, the Curator of the Torquay Museum, kindly showed us a
large series of specimens shot in Torbay in November 1890. They varied
greatly in plumage, some having much white on the head, and others
being very dark in colour, One had the shoulders mottled with white
feathers,

Mr. E. H. Rodd considered the Pomatorhine Skua a somewhat rare and
irregular visitor to the Cornish coast, but mentions several examples, and
we have seen one in the Museum at Truro. However, large flocks were
seen off Looe, and recorded by Mr. Clogg of that place, in October 1879.
On the North Somerset coast this species has been obtained at Minehead,

* Tn his note to the ‘ Zoologist’ at the time, Mr. Rickards adds: “I observed with
great interest the savage way in which it proceeded with its meal, running at the body,
and tearing out the entrails with even greater energy and avidity than is usually
displayed by the Crows, which make such short work with the carcasses of the many
hapless sheep that are worried to death by dogs upon the Burrows.”

(a)

LARID.E. 398

on Steart Island, also at Combwitch, on the Bridgwater river, where it
was called a ‘“* Mullin Hawk,” and one, recorded by ourselves, in immature
plumage, was shot at North Curry some distance inland, and specimens
have also occurred at Weston-super-Mare. All these were the produce of
the month of October, 1579, when a large number of Pomatorhine Skuas
appeared off the 8.W. counties (Zool. 1880, pp. 19, 20). In the same
year and at the same period, Mr. Mansel-Pleydell states that a flock
visited Poole Harbour, but before that time this Skua had only been a rare
occasional visitor to the Dorset coast in spring and autumn.

Genuine eggs of the Pomatorhine Skua are very rare in collections,
The bird is said to nest on some of the Lapland fells, also in Greenland,
and on the tundras of Northern Russia (Yarrell’s B. Birds, ed. 4, vol. iii.

. 670).
‘ teers of this bird is very remarkable, and Mr. W. Theobald, late
Deputy Supt. Geol. Survey of India, kindly informed us that a specimen
was killed a few miles from Moulmein in 1859.

Richardson’s Skua. Stercorarius crepidatus (Gmel.).

[Robber Bird, Irish Lord, Tom Harry, Dev.; Arctic Skua, Boat-
swain Gull. |

A passing visitor, sometimes not uncommon in autumn, but rarely seen
in spring, as it generally keeps well out to sea on its migrations. The
young or immature birds are most frequently met with in Torbay in
October, and there are specimens of both the adult and young from that
beautiful bay in the Torquay Museum. This Skua also occurs occasionally
at Plymouth ; on the Exe estuary ; and on the North Devon coast, where
it occurred as early as August in 1872. It is sometimes driven inland in
an exhausted state by stormy weather.

Richardson’s Skua, one of the species conspicuous in the adults for
the possession of two elongated acuminate central tail-feathers, is quite a
common bird in the summer-time off the north-west coast of Scotland,
where we have frequently seen it, not only closely following the steamers
for anything which might be thrown overboard, but hovering close over the
heads of the passengers on deck, as if it would dart down and take their
buns and sandwiches out of their hands. But although so numerous off
the Scottish coast, and nesting commonly on the islands of the Hebrides
and on the Orkneys, Richardson’s Skua is far from a frequent visitor to
the S.W. counties, and is not seen so often, or in such numbers, as the
preceding species. Still, we have encountered many of these birds on
‘Torbay in October, where we obtained examples of the white-breasted
and also of the black forms, and we have known specimens in all stages
of plumage to occur occasionally in the autumn on the Barnstaple river,
whence Mr. Cecil Smith received one which was shot in October, and from
the description of it furnished by him to Mr. Dresser (‘ Birds of Europe,’
vol, vili. p. 473) it was evidently a bird in its second year. A fine adult

396 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

in full plumage was brought to us in June at Instow, which had swallowed
a baited hook on a spiller line upon the sands. The Rev. Marcus Rickards
saw an immature specimen in dark plumage in the bird-stuffer’s shop at
Barnstaple at the end of August, 1872, which had just been shot at Instow
(Zool. 1874, p. 4241). An extremely black example of this Skua, a re-
markably handsome and singular-looking bird, was obtained at Budleigh
Salterton on November 12th, 1891. A similar bird is stated to have been
shot at the same place some years since.

Two examples of Richardson’s Skua were obtained after a severe south-west gale at
Plymouth, in September 1828; one was shot in a field, and another caught in Cattewater
Harbour, Plymouth, in an exhausted state by a water-spaniel, October 9th, 1828.
Two others were obtained by Drew at the same time, and another at Mothecombe by
Mr. Jenkins, gamekeeper to R. Julian, Esq. (E. M., Trans. Plym. Inst. 1830; Mag.
Nat. Hist. 1857). One on September 18th, 1857, at Plymouth (B., MS. Notes), and
an adult was seen by Mr. Gatcombe flying past the Devil's Point, Stonehouse, Noyen-
ber 25th, 1872 (Zool. 1873, p. 3399).

Specimens occurred at Kingsbridge between 1840 and 1847. A male was picked up
dead in a field near Kingsbridge, May 29th, 1860 (H. N., Zool. 1847, p. 1694 ; 1860,
p- 7106; and MS. Notes); and one was shot on the estuary, November 1874
(BE. A. S. E.).

Three or four were seen driving Gulls in Torbay in October 1844, after a gale of wind
(F. W. L. R., MS. iv. p. 182). Two were shot in Torbay, October 1858 (M. A. M.,
Zool. 1859, p. 6331); one in October 1876 (G. F. M., Zool. 1876, p. 5161) ; and
several adults in November 1890 (W. E.).

An immature male was shot on the Exe estuary, September 30th, 1868 (M.S. C. R.,
Zool. 1869, p. 1518), and one September 21st, 1870. An adult was shot at Christow,
ten miles from the sea, October 10th, 1873, and was seen by us in the flesh.

Both Mr, Rodd and Mr. Mansel-Pleydell speak of Richardson’s Skua as
only rarely seen on the coasts of their respective counties. Mr. Rodd
adds that he knew of no Cornish example in the adult plumage. Although
describing it as more common than the Pomatorhine Skua, Mr. Mansel-
Pleydell could only enumerate four examples. Nor is this Skua other
than a very rare visitor to the coast of North Somerset. We know of one
in immature plumage which was shot on the sands at Weston-super-Mare,

and Mr. Rickards saw a fine specimen of an adult which had been obtained |

in December 1873 on the shore near Clevedon.

Mr. Howard Saunders, whose full account of the Laride in fourth
edition of Yarrell’s ‘ B. Birds’ we have carefully consulted, states that this
species, like the other Skuas, is more numerous on the eastern side of the
kingdom in its passage south in the autumn. Richardson’s Skua makes
no nest, merely depositing its eggs in a cup on the mossy ground, which
it hollows out with its breast. It is a very widely diffused species, being
met with off the Cape of Good Hope and off the coast of India. Mr.
Howard Saunders states that the white-breasted and the black forms are
to be found on the same nesting-stations, and that they interbreed with
one another.

LARIDZ. 397

Buffon’s Skua. Stercorarius parasiticus (Linn.).
[Long-tailed Skua. }

A casual visitor, of rare occurrence. Specimens have been obtained in
summer, autumn, and winter.

Until the autumn of 1891 we could only have stated that this long-
tailed species was extremely rare on the 8.W. coasts, and that very few
Devonshire examples were on record. But the severe October gales of
that year drove a large flock, chiefly of adults and of others closely
approaching the adult plumage, into the English and Bristol Channels, and
if we start from the neighbourhood of Christchurch in Hants, and follow
the coast-line around Devon and Cornwall until we nearly reach the far
east of Somerset on the Bristol Channel, at least fifty specimens were re-
ported. Before this great visitation the few examples of this Skua which
had been obtained in Devonshire were all young birds in their first year’s
plumage ; one of them, secured by Mr. Cecil Smith at Exmouth, is now in
our possession. In October 1891, two other examples in a very interesting
state of plumage were shot at Exmouth. One of these which was sent to
us has the dark feathers of the mantle edged with semicircular patches of
white, there are numerous white spots upon the head and neck, and the
white breast and underparts are barred with ash-grey. The elongated
tail-feathers are just sprouting, and are about an inch in length. This
bird is very interesting from its mealy condition of plumage. Another
sent to us from Barnstaple has the tail the full length of thirteen inches,
the two central feathers projecting eight inches beyond the others, but
shows that the full adult dress has not yet been attained in the grey bars
which still appear upon the throat and breast, and in the absence of the
yellow hair-like feathers from the cheeks. We are informed that the
shore-shooters at Barnstaple termed these Skuas “ Fork-tailed Petrels.”
The Rey. Marcus Rickards has written to tell us that some were seen as
high up the Bristol Channel as at Clevedon, where one was shot, and
described in a local paper as a “ Buffoon’s Skaw ” (sic).

Mr. E. A. 8. Elliot wrote to us that on October 14th, 1891, a flock of
Skuas came into bigbury Bay near Thurlestone, and that eleven of them
were killed. Mr. Elliot himself shot another on the following day near
the same place, as it rose from the pool formed at the exit of Milton Ley.
All these birds proved to be Buffon’s Skuas; and one that Mr. Elliot was
good enough to send to us to examine was very like the Exmouth speci-
men, but had the central tail-feathers better developed, and had more
black on the head. There were a few white spots on the back, and a good
deal of white on the underparts. Mr. Elliot tells us that the other birds
varied very much; one was in fairly good adult plumage, and one was
very dark, probably a bird of the year. Most of them were dark grey
with lighter edgings to the feathers,

A Buffon’s Skua was killed at the Mewstone in October 1833 (E. M., Mag. Nat.

Hist. 1837, p. 360). A fine specimen in full summer dress was shot on Kingsbridge
estuary by Mr. Beechy on June 6th, 1860, and it was in company with another

398 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

(H. N., MS. Notes, and Zool. 1860, p. 7106). An immature specimen was shot on
Torbay in the winter of 1863; and Mr. Gatcombe records an adult killed near
Plymouth (E. P., Trans, Devon. Assoc. viii. p. 299). There is an immature bird,
believed to belong to this species by Mr. Gatcombe, and said to have been shot on the
estuary of the Exe, in the collection formed by the late Mr. Byne, which came into the
possession of the late Mr. Marsh-Dunn of Teignmouth. Another immature specimen
from Exmouth was in Mr. Cecil Smith’s collection, and on 18th October, 1891, two
were shot at that place, a dozen at Kingsbridge, and one at Ilfracombe.

Mr. Rodd states that Buffon’s Skua was a very rare bird in Cornwall
and that the only two instances he knew of were adults—one found inland
in the parish of St. Buryan, in September 1861; the other sent to
Mr. Vingoe at Penzance from the neighbourhood of Falmouth in the first
week of October 1874, which was said to have been shot at a distance of
ten miles from the coast. To these we can add a third, also an adult,
which we saw in the Truro Museum, which had been shot at Polperro.

In Somerset we only knew of two examples previous to the irruption of
this species in the autumn of 1891—one an immature bird shot by
Mr. C. Haddon, of Taunton, on the coast at Stolford, in September 1873 ;
and the other an adult in perfect plumage, which was shot on the estate
of Mr. W. Ayshford Sanford, at Nynehead, as it rose off a dead Wood-
Pigeon which it was eating. This was towards the end of October, 1862,
Mr. Mansel-Pleydell knew of no Dorsetshire examples, but his county
partook in the visitation of this species we have so often referred to
above.

Buffon’s Skua nests upon the ground on the fells of Sweden and Lapland
and is said to feed upon the lemmings, upon crowberries, large beetles,
&c. Formerly a few pairs nested in Caithness in Scotland, but were all
destroyed by a gamekeeper. This Skua is also said to have nested
occasionally on Holy Island and on the island of Hoy.

Mr. Howard Saunders says that an unfailing distinction at all ages is
to be found in the colour of the shafts of the primaries: in the Long-
tailed or Buffon’s Skua only the two outer ones on each side are white
and the others are dusky; in the Arctic or Richardson’s Skua all the shafts
are white (Yarrell’s B. Birds, 4th ed. vol. ili. p. 684).

Order TUBINARES.
Family PROCELLARIIDZ.
THE PETRELS.

The Petrels are denizens of the wide ocean, where
they are ever flitting restlessly about, roosting upon its
surface, never approaching land except at the nesting-

9

PROCELLARIID&. 399

season, when they visit the rocky islets, where they breed,
and where they are rarely seen, as they keep in their holes
throughout the day, only coming forth to feed at dusk.
Although in our arrangement immediately following the
Gulls they have little or no connection with those birds,
as they differ from them in many respects. First, there is
the peculiar position of the nostrils, which, in the Petrels,
are placed in bony tubes attached to the ridge of the
upper mandible; another point of dissimilarity is furnished
by their eggs, the Petrels laying but one white egg, some-
times having a zone at one end of small red or violet
spots; they differ also in their young being helpless when
hatched, and when the adult birds rest upon the rocks
they recline upon the full length of the tarsus instead of
standing upright upon their feet, but we have occasionally
noticed Gulls doing the same. In their plumage the true
Petrels are either black or greyish black, have a white
patch above their tails, very slender legs, with webbed feet,
and as they fly low above the surface of the sea, rising over
the crests of the waves and dropping again into the suc-
ceeding trough, they may be seen every now and then to
hover, and as it were pat the water with their feet as they
are on the look-out for the small marine creatures or the
greasy substances thrown overboard from some vessel in
whose wake they may be following. Another characteristic
of the whole family of Petrels is the quantity of oil they
produce, which is contained in their stomachs and used
both for the purpose of feeding their young and, in some
species, for their own defence, as they immediately vomit
it when handled. ‘There are two species of small Petrels,
the little Storm-Petrel and the Fork-tailed or Leach’s
Petrel, which nest on islands off the Western and North-
western coasts of the United Kingdom; and another of
them, Wilson’s Petrel, whose home is on the Southern

400 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

Oceans, has occasionally, but rather rarely, occurred as a
straggler to our shores. Besides these smaller species we
have the Fulmar,a fine bird with gull-like plumage, whose
breeding-place in the British Islands is on St. Kilda; and
the various Shearwaters (Puffinus), Petrel-like birds, of
which the Manx Shearwater is indigenous and the com-
monest representative of the family on our Devonshire
waters. Occasionally in the autumn the southern coasts
of the county are visited by two larger species, the Greater
and the Sooty Shearwaters, the former sometimes appear-
ing in great flocks off Plymouth, and then not being seen.
again for years. In spite of these birds being sometimes
very numerous a little distance from land they are but
rarely obtained upon the coast, except after violent gales,
when examples of our native species, and, at rarer intervals,
a chance specimen of some Petrel of the southern hemi-
sphere, are blown inland. We possess examples of the
Storm- and Leach’s Petrels, as well as of the Fulmar, all
obtained after rough weather in the streets of Barnstaple,
and the two former have also been found in the streets of
the city of Exeter. Oceanic birds may be expected to
occur from all parts of the world upon the English
shores, when driven out of their ordinary course by storms ;
hence the appearance upon the list of British Birds of
such southern species as Wilson's Petrel, Dusky Shear-
water, Cape Pigeon, and Capped and Bulwer’s Petrels,
all blown northwards from their usual haunts, and all of
them unconnected with the Ornis of our latitudes, Of
these, Wilson’s Petrel is the only one which has been
detected on the Devonshire coasts. The Rev. Charles
Swainson informs us that “ the Petrel is so named from the
French pétre/, a diminutive of Pétre, 7. e. Peter; and the
allusion is to the Apostle walking on the Sea of Galilee.
Whilst skimming along the waves its legs hang down, and

THE EDDYSTONE.

PROCELLARIID.Z. 401

the feet seem to touch the water, presenting the appearance
of walking on the surface of the water.” (¢ Provincial
Names of British Birds,’ p. 211.)

Storm-Petrel. Procellaria pelagica, Linn.
[Mother Cary’s Chicken, perhaps derived from Mater cara. |

Resident, but generally keeps well out at sea. Breeds occasionally on
Lundy Island (Trans. Devon. Assoc. viii. p. 308). It is rarely met with
near the shore except after violent gales, especially in autumn and winter,
when specimens are not unfrequently picked up dead, or in an exhausted
condition, even far inland, having been driven ashore by the force of the
wind.

This, the smallest of the Petrels, is by far the commoner of our two
British species of Procellaria, and nests along the western side of the
kingdom from the Scilly Islands to the Hebrides. A few, perhaps, breed
on Lundy ; and some certainly do on Skomer, an island on the northern
side of the entrance to the Bristol Channel. The Storm-Petrel is a late
breeder, not depositing its single egg until the second or third week in
June, so that when we visited an old wall on the top of a cliff on Skomer
at the end of May we were too early to find the birds nesting in its holes
and chinks, although we detected about the masonry the unmistakable
Petrel scent which clings to eggs of the true Petrels (Procellaria) and also
to those of the Fulmar for many years after they have been blown, as it
also does to their skins. Like all the Petrels, this species is so full of oil
that it is said the inhabitants of the Feeroe Islands, by merely passing a
wick through the bodies of the birds and lighting the end, supply them-
selves with light. Owing to its nocturnal habits the Storm-Petrel is very
seldom seen, and may nest at places on the cliffs of the mainland where
its presence is not suspected.

Storm-Petrels are occasionally killed by flying against the Start Lighthouse (R. P. N.,
MS. Notes). Dr. E. Moore says that “some are frequently caught in winter in
Plymouth Harbour by flying against the lanterns of the Breakwater Light Vessel ;”
and ‘that great numbers are killed every winter by flying against the lantern of the
Eddystone Light. Five were caught alive June 15th, 1830, in Plymouth Sound”
(Trans. Plym. Inst. 1830, p. 336; Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837, p. 360). From the Migration
Reports of the British Association it would also appear that this species is commonly
captured at the Eddystone Lighthouse on November nights. ‘ Twenty-one Storm-
Petrels were captured between 6 and 12 p.m. at the Eddystone on November 21st,
1886. They came to the lights in twos and threes, striking the lantern very gently ”
(Mr. Ainger).

On August 16th, 1876, several were captured in un exhausted state in Plymouth
Sound. The weather was fine with a nice breeze, but the day after it blew a gale
from the east accompanied by a tremendous thunderstorm, A very young specimen
was caught by a cat in the centre of Plymouth in October 1883. One was killed by a
Herring-Gull in the Great Western Docks, Plymouth, June 22nd, 18835. After a
heavy gale in October 1886 some Storm-Petrels were driven inland near Plymouth,
and were mostly found dead, but one taken alive lived in a cage for nearly a fortnight,

2D

402 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

being fed on minute-scraps of fat. It drank freely of water when offered (J. G:, Zool.
1876, p. 5110; 1883, p. 421; 1884, p. 54; 1887, p. 377).

Storm-Petrels are sometimes picked up dead, after severe storms, near Kingsbridge
(E. A.S. E., MS. Notes).

This Petrel has occurred several times in Torbay, and specimens captured there are
in the Torquay Museum. Four were obtained in November 1891 (W. E.).

A Storm-Petrel in the A. M. M. was driven into the windows of a shop in the High
Street, Exeter, in 1824 (R. 8.); and another was picked up alive on the road at Upton
Pynes, near Exeter, after the great storm of October 15th, 1877. One occurred at
Topsham, October 16th, 1886 (W. E. P., ‘ Birds of Devonshire,’ p. 187), and one at
Exmouth, October 18th, 1891.

One was obtained at Seaton, November 28th, 1881 (‘ Field’ for December 30, 1881).

Two were picked up dead after storms in November 1859 near Barnstaple,

This minute Petrel is hardly larger than a Common Swallow, and Col.
Montagu found that it only weighed an ounce. A friend of the Colonel’s
received eggs taken in June from nests “ on the rocky coast of the north
of Cornwall,” and in the summer of 1866 Mr. Gill of Falmouth found a
nest on the Gull Rock in the fine harbour, containing two (?) eggs. “So
closely did the female bird sit that she allowed herself to be caught on
the eggs, and the male was also secured.” Mr. E. H. Rodd also states
that on fine summer evenings at sunset small flocks of Storm-Petrels
may be seen “ five or six miles out in Mount’s Bay, flying and hawking
about in pursuit of small insects, in the manner of the Swallow tribe,
sometimes dipping, but seldom alighting on the sea, skimming for a few
seconds with open wings, and mounting again in the air. Whilst thus
engaged they appear to be quite regardless of danger, and of the presence
of man.” In August and September little flocks of a dozen or twenty
may often be seen to the westward of Portland (Mansel-Pleydell, ‘ Birds of
Dorset,’ p. 114).

Leach’s Petrel. Procellaria leucorrhoa, Vieillot.
[Fork-tailed Petrel. }

A casual visitor during the autumn and winter months, when individuals
are driven inland by violent gales. It has occurred all along the southern
coast of the county on numerous occasions, and several times on the
north coast.

This Petrel is a rather larger bird than the preceding species, and may
readily be known by its forked tail; its black plumage is browner on the
underparts, and the wings possess a pale alar band. We have no nesting-
station of Leach’s Petrel in the South of England, but it breeds on some
of the islands of the Outer Hebrides. It is no rarer in our 8.W. Counties
than the Storm-Petrel, and is frequently picked up on the coast, or some
way inland, after heavy gales. Many were obtained in this manner after
the severe storms of October 1891. We possess two very perfect speci-
mens, one from the streets of Barnstaple, the other found dead upon the
Braunton Burrows; and we ourselves one day met with another on the
banks of the Taw, which was too much battered by the weather to make
into a skin,

PROCELLARIIDA. 403

The first recorded example from this county was killed in 1823 (Shaw’s ‘ Zoology’).
In December 1831 two were caught alive in the streets of Plymouth, where another
was obtained in November 1835. Bolitho had five and Drew two specimens (EH. M.,
Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837, p. 860). One was picked up in an exhausted state at Millbay
Pier, Plymouth, November 9th, 1852; and another, also in an exhausted condition, on
the rocks in Plymouth Sound during a heavy gale December 27th, 1852 (J. G.,
‘ Naturalist,’ 1853, pp. 84, 228); one at Plymouth in January 1856; one taken alive
in a court in Richmond Street, Plymouth, after a gale December 35rd, 1865, and
another on the Tamar about the same time (J. B. R., Zool. 1866, p. 102; and MS,
Notes). One November 30th, 1865 (B., MS. Notes). Two November and one
December 1872 off Plymouth. A bird of the year was picked up dead near Cargreen
on the Tamar, September 5th, 1883 (Zool. 1875, pp. 34U0, 3445 ; 1884, p. 53; J. G.,
in litt.).

One was caught alive at Kingsbridge, near the estuary, November 17th, 1878. Mr.
H. Nichoils has two specimens shot at Thurlestone (E. A. 8. E., MS. Notes). One
was picked up on the beach at Kingsbridge in October 1891, and thirty or forty
Petrels were seen under the lee of an island off the coast during the 8.W. gale of
October 14th, 1891 (A. H. Palmer in ‘ Field’ for October 24th, 1891). A Leach’s
Petrel was captured at 10 a.m. on November 22nd, 1886, resting inside one of the
ventilators at the Start Light (Migration Report, 1886).

One occurred at Paignton November 26th, 1870 (J. H. G., Zool. 1871, p. 2443). One
was found in the bottom of a boat in Torquay Harbour after the storm of November
11th, 1891, being the first ever obtained at that locality (W. E., i litt.), One was cap-
tured at Teignmouth in November 1865 (C. S8.).

A specimen found dead in the marshes opposite Topsham in 1859 isin the A. M. M.
A Fork-tailed Petrel was seen by ourselves flying over Southernhay, Exeter, during
a gale from the 8.W., November 26th, 1865; anuther occurred at Starcross, in the
Exe estuary, in 1866. One was taken at Seaton in the winter of 1882-3.

The habits of Leach’s Petrel are very similar to those of the Storm-
Petrel, and it is a widely-distributed species, being found both on the
eastern and western coasts of North America. Dr. Bullmore states
that off the south of Cornwall Leach’s Petrel is not at all uncommon
in winter, and is quite as numerous as the Storm-Petrel. He writes
in his ‘ Cornish Fauna’ :—‘“ During the prevalence of one of the gales of
last winter [7.¢. 1866] a pair were observed at the mouth of Falmouth
harbour, trying all they could to get up the river. In vain did they
attempt to forge to windward, dipping from time to time in the trough
of the sea, and as rapidly emerging from the hollow, just tipping the
crest of the wave with their tiny feet. While thus occupied a violent
gust drove them both on board a fishing smack that was working into the
harbour. One struck against the mast, and fell dead in the boat. The
other struck the vessel’s side, and disappeared beneath the waves.”
Leach’s Petrel has been also picked up dead in various places in Somerset,
and has occurred not unfrequently on the Dorset coast as well as inland
in that county.

Wilson’s Petrel. Oceanites oceanicus (Kuhl).

An accidental visitor, of rare occurrence. One is said to have occurred
at Sidmouth in December 1870. Besides this example there is also one
in the collection of British Birds formed by the Rev, Alan Furneaux
(received from Capt. Creyke, R.N.) in the Museum of the Plymouth

2D 2

404 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

Institution, but we have not been able to obtain any information about
it. Mr. Seaward, a bird-stuffer in Exmouth, had a specimen which he
states was brought to him in the flesh on November 15th, 1887, having
been obtained at that place.

Two at least, if not three, examples of this Petrel, which comes inter-
mediate in size between the Storm- and Leach’s Petrels, have been
obtained in the south of Devon, and another was picked up dead in a
field near Polperro, in Cornwall, many years ago in the month of August,
One of the Devonshire specimens, that from the beach at Exmouth, where
it was shot November 13, 1887, is before us as we write, and we find
that this species is to be easily distinguished from our two indigenous
Petrels by its longer legs, by the webs of its feet having yellow patches,
and by a slender white line across the wings. ‘The bird is said to carry
its long legs trailing behind and projecting beyond the tail, so as to
appear like two elongated feathers. It is an inhabitant of the Atlantic,
Indian, and Pacific Oceans. Flocks are stated to have been occasionally
seen at the entrance of the English Channel, notably one close off the
Land’s End, by Mr. J. Gould, in May 1838. The only authenticated
breeding-station of Wilson’s Petrel yet known is one on Kerguelen
Island, discovered by the Rey. A. E, Eaton, Naturalist to the Transit of
Venus Expedition.

On our return voyage from the Cape of Good Hope, in October 1861,
several specimens of this species were captured by means of a fine cotton
line let out from the stern of the steamer. By careful management in
pulling the thread tight, and then letting it fall slack, just as a Petrel
passed under it across the wake of the vessel, the bird’s wings became
entangled, and it was easily hauled in. This mode of capturing Petrels
can only be used in calm weather, as when there is any wind a fine line
will not touch the water. No weight (excepting sometimes a cork), hook,
nor bait is required. We have ourselves captured, and seen other persons
capture, Cape Pigeons and Gulls in this way, only using a stronger line.
It all depends upon the line becoming so tightly twisted by the motion of
the vessel that it kinks when slacked and twists around anything it
touches. ‘The last Wilson’s Petrel we saw was about eighty miles north
of Madeira, in latitude 34° 4’ N., longitude 16° 52’ W. In some years
this species comes further north, and enters both the English and St.
George’s Channels. (W. D’U.)

Manx Shearwater. Puffinus anglorum (Temm.).
{Mackerel Cock (Torbay ), Cuckle or Cockle (Lundy Island). }

Partially resident, but most numerous in spring and autumn.
Owing to its breeding on Lundy, on the Scilly Islands, and on Skomer
and Skokolm, islands off the 8.W. coast of Pembrokeshire *, this bird is

* Caldy Island, off Tenby, has been erroneously added to the list of breeding-
stations of the Manx Shearwater in the S.W. of England. We have ascertained that
none nest there.

PROCELLARIIDA. 405

extremely numerous on the seas off the South-western Counties of
England, although few people, perhaps, have seen it alive, because it very
rarely indeed enters any of our estuaries, and would never do so were it
not occasionally driven in by violent gales, after which it is sometimes
picked up far inland. We have seen great numbers of Manx Shearwaters
in Torbay in October, skimming in flocks over the surface of the water,
and every now and then cutting through the crests of the waves, a habit
from whence they derive their English name. We secured several
examples, all of them having ash-grey underparts, which we judged to
signify the first year’s plumage. Two adults, with pure white breasts,
were obtained on the Barnstaple river after the very rough weather in
October 1891. Anyone who in the summer visited a breeding-station of
the Manx Shearwater would have little suspicion of the vast bird-
popu.ation concealed beneath his feet, for in the daytime all the birds are
in their burrows, and do not venture out until the night is well advanced.
One beautiful summer’s night when we were on Skomer Island for the
express purpose of being introduced to the myriads of Shearwaters
resorting there to breed, we found no birds stirring at 10 p.., so returned
to our friend’s hospitable house for another game of whist, and going out
again a little before 11 o’clock discovered that the hosts of Shearwaters were
ouly then beginning to awake. Presently the air all around us was filled
with the strange wailing of the birds; they were flitting on either side
and crossing us about the height of our head, coming close to our face as
they passed like ghosts; we could see them issuing from their holes at
our feet, and flapping a little distance upon the ground before they could
rise on wing, a circumstance which was taken advantage of by an old dog
from the farm which had joined us, and which caught and brought the
Shearwaters to our hand until we called out “ hold, enough!” Each bird
we took immediately vomited a quantity of oil, when, as we were in no
need of specimens, we tossed it into the air and let it go. At the first
streak of dawn the noise of the birds gradually ceased, and when the sun
was up silence again reigned, and all had returned to their burrows. In
the summer-time when we have been on the water small parties of Shear-
waters have sometimes crossed our boat flying rapidly and silently onward,
so that there are a few abroad in the daytime. The birds nest in their
burrows, which are either stolen from the rabbits, or excavated by them-
selves in the light sandy soil, and deposit a single white egg, about the
size of a hen’s egg.

“ Often met with by our fishermen in the vicinity of the Eddystone. In October
1832 seven were obtained in the Sound by Mr. Drew. Two were brought alive to
Mr. Magrath in the summer of 1833, and two others are in the collection of Bartlett,
a bookseller in Plymouth” (Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837, p. 360). Two specimens at Ply-
mouth, April 20th, 1855 (B., MS. Notes). Some off the Eddystone in August 1871 ;
hundreds in the Channel off Plymouth, March 1877, and at the end of April 1878, and
one about August 22nd, 1878.

From the late Mr. Gatcombe’s notes, the Manx Shearwater appears to be sometimes
very numerous in the Channel, some distance out at sea, off the south coast in March
and April (Zool. 1877, p. 279; 1878, pp. 418, 432; and MS Notes), and a few are seen
in August. Mr. Cecil Smith says it is by no means uncommon on both the north and

406 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

south coasts of the county as an autumnal straggler (‘ Field’ for October 21st, 1882),
The late Mr. Ross observed that it is often seen in Torbay after herrings and sprats, and
according to our own observations it follows mackerel-fry in October, and is well known
to the boatmen as the “ Mackerel Cock,” and is sometimes very numerous (M. A. M.,
Zool. 1869, p. 6330). But according to Baron A. von Hiigel (Zool. 1874, p. 3906),
it seldom enters Torbay, although very large flocks are said to be occasionally seen
some distance out at sea, and a few are obtained on the Bay in winter; whence speci-
mensin the Torquay Museum and in the A. M. M. were procured. One was obtained in
Torbay, November &rd, 1875, and several were shot there in November 1890 (W. E.).
One was killed on Kingsbridge estuary in 1874 (R. P. N.). The Manx Shearwater is
very numerous, and breeds on Lundy Island, where it is well known under the name
of “Cuckle” or “Cockle.” Mr. Wright, the tenant of the island, informs us that
they may be heard wailing on any fine night during the summer.

The Manx Shearwater is also numerous off the Cornish coast in the
autumn, and flocks are sometimes seen in Poole Harbour in that season,
but in Somerset it appears to be unknown.

Sooty Shearwater, Puffinus griseus (Gmelin).

A very rare accidental visitor.

Mr. J. H. Gurney has seen a specimen of this species in Mr. Gould’s
collection labelled “ Plymouth,” which was sent to him by Mr. Gatcombe,
and a second seems to have occurred at the same locality (H. Saunders,
Yarrell’s B. Birds, 4th ed. iv. p. 18).

This is a larger species than the Manx Shearwater, and is of a uniform
dark plumage. Jt was for some time considered to be either a dark form
or the immature state of the Greater Shearwater. Itis an oceanic bird
with an enormous range, being met with from Greenland in the far north
to New Zealand inthe south. ‘wo examples appear to have been obtained
on the South Devon coast, and one in Mount’s Bay, Cornwall, the last as
long ago as 1838, and another in Poole Harbour, in Dorsetshire, in June
1887, which seems to be the most recent occurrence recorded from the
south-western coasts. Mr. Gatcombe stated that it was occasionally seen
off Plymouth. According to Mr. Dresser (‘ Birds of Europe,’ vol. viii.
p- 524), there is an example of the Sooty Shearwater in the Frome
Literary Institution, which formerly belonged to the collection of Mr.
Horner of Mells Park, but this is a mistake; the only Shearwater among
the birds now there is a small species, labelled ‘* Dusky Shearwater,
Puffinus obscurus,” which after examining and comparing with a Manx
Shearwater we took there for the purpose we ascertained to be without
any doubt only an ordinary and badly mounted specimen of that common
bird. But little is known as yet of the changes of plumage in this species.
It is abundant off the coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador, and in the
Bay of Fundy goes by the name of the “ Black Hagdon,’—‘ Hagdon ”
being a name given to the Greater Shearwater. There is a great nesting-
place on the Chatham Islands off the east of New Zealand, and the Maoris
are said to be very fond of the young birds, which are enormously fat.
The actions of the Sooty Shearwaters at the nesting-season are those
of the Manx Shearwater on an exaggerated scale; the noise they make at

PROCELLARIIDA. A407

nights is described as a dreadful mixture of the squalling of children and
the caterwaulings of thousands of cats; they lay a single egg in their
burrows, and are very fierce when their nests are interfered with.

The figure given by Mr. Dresser is taken from an example obtained in
Plymouth Sound. In Lord Lilford’s ‘ Coloured Figures of the Birds of
the British Islands’ is a beautiful plate giving two Sooty Shearwaters
taken from specimens from the Yorkshire coast. |

Greater Shearwater. Puffinus major, Faber.
[Hackbolt.]

An irregular winter visitor from the Atlantic to the south coast of
Devon, sometimes in large numbers. It generally keeps far out at sea,
but early in November 1574 numbers visited the south coast after an almost
‘total disappearance for many years (J.G., Zool. 1874, p. 4262; 1875,
p. 4300). This Shearwater was first distinguished from P. anglorum by
Dr. E. Moore in his “ Cat. Birds of Devon” (Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837).

This is another large species of Shearwater belonging to the Atlantic
Ocean, commonly seen every autumn off the Scilly Isles, and occasionally
met with in large flocks off the Cornish coast, at Mount’s Bay, off
Looe and Polperro, and also in Plymouth Sound, where Mr. Gatcombe
obtained several examples. It has also been seen further to the east in
the English Channel off the Dorset coast, having occurred in Poole Har-
bour, Swanage Bay, &c. We have in our collection a fine adult specimen
which was caught at Penzance in January 1872, and was forwarded to us
with a note that at that time there was only one other specimen existing
in that town, which had been shot at the Land’s End. We have never
heard of this Shearwater on the North Devon coast, but as it never comes
into the estuaries it has probably been undetected, for it must occasionally
enter the mouth of the Bristol Channel and occur off Lundy and Clovelly.
Mr. Joseph Dunn, who some years ago was well known as a dealer in birds’
eggs and skins at Stromness, in Orkney, once wrote to inform us that, one day
when he was out in his boat fishing in the summer-time, and had no gun
with him, he was suddenly surrounded by a great flock of these large Shear-
waters, which kept near him for some time. In its flight and actions this
species closely resembles the Manx Shearwater, and although it is widely
distributed, nothing certain is as yet known respecting its breeding-
stations, although eggs, purporting to belong to it, have been brought
from South Greenland. Our specimen, which we have before us, has
pure white underparts, a lightish brown cap upon the head, the back
brown, with paler margins to some of the feathers, and the tail and wings
dark brown.

There is a specimen of the Greater Shearwater in the Torquay Museum, which was
taken with a hook and line in Torbay in 1860 (Zool. 1874, p. 3909); and another was
taken in the same way outside Torbay in 1865 (F. Pershouse, Jun., Trans. Devon,
Assoc. viii. p. 298). One occurred off Berry Head in February 1869 (A. von H,, Zool.
1869, p. 1720).

408 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

Mr. Gatcombe had one sent him from Seaton in 1874. Another was
taken alive in Plymouth Sound in November 1852 (J. G., ‘Naturalist,’ 1853,
p. 84); and a pair in an exhausted state were taken alive by two trawl boys
December 11th, 1852 (J. B., op. cit. p. 204); one of these was figured in Dresser's
‘Birds of Europe.’ In 1867 an adult female was captured in an exhausted condition
on a trawler; three were taken November 6th, 1874; and an adult bird was killed oft
Plymouth at the end of July 1876 (J. G., Zool. 1868, p. 1295; 1874, p. 4262; 1876,
p. 5127). There is a specimen from Plymouth in the A. M. M., and another was in
Mr. Cecil Smith’s collection.

[ Observations.—Writing of the Dusky Shearwater (Puffinus obscurus) in
Dorsetshire, Mr. Mansel-Pleydell calls it “A rare spring visitant, I have
only heard of one haying been procured in this county. This, as I am
informed by Mr. E, Hart, was canght alive in Poole Harbour, June 8th,
1877.” But, subsequently, in the ‘ Zoologist’ for 1888, p. 143, this
statement is corrected, the bird proving to be a Sooty Shearwater (Puffinus
griseus). There appear to have been two undoubted specimens of the
Dusky Shearwater obtained in the United Kingdom—one in Valentia Har-
bour, May 11th, 1853, which was exhibited at a Meeting of the Linnean
Society, June 7th, 1853, and the other near Bungay in Suffolk about 10th
April, 1858, which was exhibited by Mr. Osbert Salvin at a Meeting of
the Zoological Society, May 16th, 1882. (Yarrell’s ‘ British Birds,’ ed. 4,
vol. iv. pp. 28,30.) This species nests on the Desertas, some small islands
near Madeira, and belongs to the Southern Oceans. It is something like
a small Manx Shearwater, but the upper parts are much blacker, the bill
more slender, and it is without the dark band behind the thighs which
occurs in the Manx Shearwater. |

Fulmar, Fulmarus glacialis (Linn.).
[ Mollymew or Mollymauk. ]

A casual visitor, of rare occurrence, during the winter months.

An inhabitant of northern seas, this bird very seldom wanders to the
south. In the breeding-season it resorts in incredible numbers to
St. Kilda, and confers immense benefits on the inhabitants of that sterile
island. They derive their supply of oil for their winter lamps from it; its
eggs and young afford highly relished food, and countless numbers of the
birds are salted down for winter consumption, while its feathers give them
bedding, &c.,—what the Reindeer is to the Lapps, the Fulmar Petrel is to
these poor people. It lays a single white egg of considerable size, and
from a large basketful fresh from St. Kilda we once picked out one which
was red all over. We know of only a single instance of the occurrence
of the Fulmar in North Devon, one in the bluish-grey plumage of the
first vear which was shot February 2nd, 1859, as it was flying over the fish
market at Barnstaple. We examined this bird in the flesh, and found
upon its neck a large osseous tumour, bare of feathers, and weighing nearly
three ounces ; it was round, and about the size of a Mandarin orange,
and appeared to us to have been caused by some injury, possibly from
a shot-wound, to the cervical vertebra, from which it was probably

COLYMBID-£. 409

exfoliated. We made a section through it, and then forwarded it to
Mr. Yarrell, who was much interested with it. In spite of having to
carry about such a burden, the bird was fat and in excellent condition.
(Zool. 1859, p. 6448.)

A Fulmar occurred near Plymouth, November 1844 (W. 8. H., Zool. 1845, p. 879).
There is a nearly adult specimen in the A. M. M. which was killed with an oar on the
Exe just above Topsham; Mr. Ross records it in his MS. ‘ British Laride,’ but gives
no date. A calcareous concretion was taken out of the vent and was preserved. One
occurred at Bigbury Bay (J. B. R., Trans. Plym. Inst. 1862-3, p. 82). Another was
picked up alive near Dawlish, November 30th, 1866 (C. S., Zool. 1867, p. 562), and
another is recorded by Mr. G. P. R. Pulman in his ‘ Book of the Axe’ (2nd ed. p. 27).
A female was captured alive at Plymouth, October 24th, 1867 (J. H. G.).

Four or five have been obtained on the Cornish coast, most of them
picked up either dead or in an exhausted state; we saw an example in
the Museum at Truro. There appears to be no record of this species from
Dorsetshire ; and only two from the county of Somerset—one reported by
ourselves in the ‘ Zoologist’ (1869, p. 1644), an adult which was shot at
Weston-super-Mare in the winter of 1868, among the numerous Gulls
which came into the bay after the shoals of sprats ; and the other, according
to Mr. Cecil Smith (‘ Zoologist,’ 1884, p. 145), was obtained near Taunton on
29th December, 1883. We have seen the Fulmar alive off the N.W.
coasts of Scotland and Ireland, and off Newfoundland. It resembles a
Herring-Gull in its plumage, but may be readily distinguished by its
skimming flight, and when it approaches close its singular-shaped beak,
with which it can give a very vicious bite, makes it at once known. It
is fond of attending on the fishing-boats, coming fearlessly near to seize
any rejected fish which may be thrown overboard, and in particular
delights in blubber, and is a constant companion in the Polar regions of
the ships which pursue the whale and seal.

Order PYGOPODES.

Family COLYMBIDA,
THE DIVERS.

In this family there is but one genus, containing only
three well-determined species, all of which occur in this
county. ‘They are large heavy birds, with their legs placed
so far behind the centre -of gravity that they are quite
unable to walk on land, but are pre-eminently fitted for
diving, which they can accomplish with such rapidity as to

410 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

easily escape the discharge from a gun, disappearing under
water simultaneously with the flash. They are not in-
ferior in their diving and swimming powers even to the
Cormorants, although they use only their legs and not
their wings in swimming, and are consequently most de-
structive to fish, on which they almost exclusively feed,
often pursuing them to great depths in the sea. They are
all dispersed over the whole Northern hemisphere, are
migratory, and breed in high northern latitudes, construct-
ing large rude nests of rushes by the waterside, and lay
two or three dark olive eggs, sparingly spotted with darker
brown. ‘The nestlings, like young Ducks, can swim almost
as soon as hatched. ‘The Divers have extremely compressed
tarsi, and the broad feet are completely webbed. ‘They
principally visit us in autumn and winter, generally keep-
ing to our bays and estuaries, seldom venturing inland,
although in North America we used to see the Great
Northern Diver or “Loon” on every freshwater lake we
visited.

Great Northern Diver. Colymbus glacialis, Linn.
[Loon, Imber (young). ]

A winter visitor, of frequent occurrence, both on the north and south
coasts ; and it has also been observed afew times insummer. ‘The speci-
mens obtained are usually either immature birds, or adults in winter
plumage, but old birds in partial summer plumage are not unfrequent ;
examples in full breeding-plumage are very rare.

The Great Northern Diver is the largest of the three species of Diver
(Colymbus) which visit our waters in the autumn, and remain off our
coasts during the winter, and is also the one which selects the most
northerly stations for its breeding-quarters, its nest never having been
(according to Mr. Dresser) detected anywhere in the United Kingdom.
In their breeding-dress the adults are extremely handsome birds, but in this
stage of plumage they are rarely obtained in the south, and the adult
birds do not so frequently enter our estuaries as the young birds of the
year, but keep out on the salt water. We have seen them occasionally off
lifracombe, where one day three splendid old birds tlew together along the
shore, and we have also seen a fine-plumaged adult close to the little

COLYMBID.2. 411

landing-stage at Lundy. Hardly a winter passes without one or two
immature birds being seen on the Barnstaple river, and occasionally
examples approaching the full plumage have been obtained. These birds
are splendid divers ; as they plunge under water at the flash of a gun they
are not easily shot, and it is often a very long chase before one is secured.
Only the head and a portion of the neck are visible when the bird comes
up to breathe, as it is able to keep its body submerged.

The Rey. Thos. Johnes records a specimen which he saw alive in full plumage at
Plymouth in the month of July about twelve years before he wrote (1832). It was
taken at sea by some fishermen, who were carrying it about as a curiosity for exhibition
(Bray’s ‘Tamar and Tavy,’ vol.i. p. 354). The same writer says of the ‘Great Imber,’
the young of this species, that it is often seen on the coast in Whitsand Bay in the
summer, and very high up the Tamar in the winter (op. cit.). The Great Northern Diver
seldom visits Plymouth Sound, according to Mr. J. Gatcombe, before November, re-
maining there until March. On one occasion towards the end of winter he counted
between twenty and thirty birds, apparently in pairs, in the Sound (J. G., Zool. 1878,
p-. 53; 1879, p. 112; 1882, p.62). The late Mr. KE. Burt states that this Diver usually
leaves Torbay in April, or even earlier ; but in 1864 a number returned at the end of
May in full breeding-dress, and a pair were killed there which are now in the Torquay
Museum. Many were seen on the Kingsbridge estuary in November and December
1850, and immature birds were unusually numerous on Torbay in December 1869
(A. von H., Zool, 1870, p. 2058; 1874, p. 3908); and at Plymouth in the winters
of 1872-3, 1874-5, in December 1876, February 1877, February 1879 (J. G., MS.
Notes; and Zool. 1875, pp. 5444, 3445; 1877, pp. 46, 162; 1879, p. 207) ; and on the
Taw in 1857-8 and 1878 (M. A. M., Zool. 1858, p. 6014; 1878, p. 129). Great
Northern Divers are numerous in winter in Start Bay off Slapton (W. V. Toll) ; some
are occasionally obtained on the Exe estuary ; and examples of this species are not rare
off Teignmouth.

Adult specimens occurred at the following dates in addition to those mentioned
above:—One on the Exe, May 1829 (E. M., Trans. Plym. Inst. 1830, p. 334); one
taken alive in Bigbury Bay, June 1838, in full plumage, and five seen off Rame Head on
September 17th, 1832 (J. O. B., Nat. Hist. 8. Devon, p. 214); one on the Taw,
November 1859 ; one in moult killed by Mr. Gatcombe off Seaton, June 15th, 1861;
another on the Kingsbridge estuary, May 1865, and another in May 1867 (H. N., MS.
Notes); one in full plumage May 30th, 1866, off the south coast (Cecil Smith, ‘ Birds
of Somerset,’ p. 535); an old male in full summer plumage October 30th, 1867, in
Plymouth Sound; one November 11th, 1875; another November 27th, 1880 (J. G.,
Zool. 1872, p. 2940; 1876, p. 4783; 1881, p. 52); an adult female and two others
shot in Torbay, December 26th, 1872 (J. H. G., Zool. 1873, p. 8493); two shot on the
Taw near Barnstaple in nearly full summer plumage at the end of November 1880
(G. F. M., Zool. 1881, p. 68).

The recorded occurrences of immature birds are too numerous to
mention.

Mr. E, A. S. Elliot obtained an adult male with traces of summer
plumage which weighed 16 lbs.; this example has some of the characters
of the Arctic form, the White-billed Northern Diver, C. adamsi, Gray,
but has been determined to belong to the typical C. glacialis by competent
authority.

The Great Northern Diver is rarely seen off the North Somerset coast,
where the waters of the Channel are too opaque for it to fish in ; but there
is an instance of one in immature plumage having been shot on the
Barrow Waterworks, not far from Bristol, on January 20th, 1881, which
is said to have weighed 6 lbs. 10? 0z, (Zool. 1881, p. 64). Mr. Cecil

412 . THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

Smith states that the only Somerset specimens he knew of had occurred
on inland sheets of water.

In Poole Harbour, on the Dorset coast, little flocks of eight or ten have
been seen as late as May by Mr. Pike in full breeding-dress, who informed
Mr. Mansel-Pleydell that ‘* East Looe, a boat-channel in Poole Harbour
close to the main beach, is a favourite fishing-ground of these Divers, and
in 1883 hardly a day passed from October to March without one or two
being visible in it” (M.-P., ‘ Birds of Dorset, p. 119). On the Cornish
coast the Great Northern Diver is common in the winter, coming into the
bays after the schools of herrings, as many as twelve having been seen in
one day off Mevagissey, and Mr. Rodd thought it was increasing in numbers
annually. He had occasionally received examples obtained in October in
the full adult dress, It is a question whether the old birds when they have
once assumed the full plumage lose it again, as so many have been seen and
have been shot in the winter months which still retained it. At any rate
the changes they undergo in the autumn moult appear to be but slight,
and are rapidly effected.

The Great Northern Diver breeds in Iceland, Greenland, &c., selecting
small islands on the edges of lochs, where it makes a nest of dead herbage
and lays two large olive-brown eggs, with a few black or dark brown
spots,

Black-throated Diver. Colymbus arcticus, Linn.

A casual visitor, of rather rare occurrence, from October to March in
Plymouth Sound, Kingsbridge estuary, Torbay, and the estuary of the
Taw. The specimens met with are nearly always immature birds.

Although this beautiful Diver nests by some of the lochs in the north of
Scotland, and in Sutherlandshire is stated to be even more common than
the Red-throated Diver, it is not so numerous a species as the preceding,
and but few are to be noticed in the autumn and winter on our Devon
waters, while an example in the full breeding-plumage is extremely rare.
Immature birds have occurred a few times to ourselves on the Taw, on
which river we have never known one to have been shot in the adult
dress. As might be expected, this Diver is more often seen and obtained
on the finer waters of the south of the county.

‘“‘ Drew had a specimen of this bird to prepare a few years since, which was shot on
the Tamar” (E. M., Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837). One in full plumage was shot on
Slapton Ley by the late Mr. H. L. Toll, 8th November, 1865, which is now in Sir
Lydstone Newmai’s collection (R. P. N., MS. Notes; H. N., Zool. 1866, p. 527). One
January 1867 at Plymouth (J. G., MS. Notes). One December 24th, 1869, on the Taw
(G. F. M., Zool. 1872, p. 2929). One February 24th, 1875; another November 21st,
1876; two February 4th, 1879; and one March 8th, 1881, at Plymouth (J. G., Zool.
1875, p. 4448 ; 1879, p. 207; 1882, p. 62). The Rev. J. C. Green, of Modbury, Ivy-
bridge, has informed us that he possesses an immature bird with white throat, which
was shot on the Erme in 1887. A fine specimen was shot October 26th, 1889,
on the Kingsbridge estuary (FE. A. 8. E., MS. Notes), where Mr. R. P. Nicholls thinks
that immature birds are not uncommon.

COLYMBID.%. 413

Both Dr. Bullmore and Mr. Rodd speak of the Black-throated Diver as
rare off the Cornish coast, and were apparently unaware of any specimens
in the adult plumage. However, we are indebted to the Rev. J. C. Green,
of Modbury, near Ivybridge, South Devon, for the account of two
secured near Falmouth in the middle of September 1890, of which he has
kindly sent us the following interesting particulars :—* Last June I was
stayiug with a nephew of mine at Portscatho on the Cornish coast, near
Falmouth, and he told me that a grocer in the town had two stuffed
Divers, but did not know what they were. I went with him and saw
that they were two lovely adult Black-throated Divers, the one with a
perfect black throat, as in the picture in Yarrell, the other with the
throat mostly black, but white feathers coming out over the black in
many places. ‘The way they were obtained was this :—the man has a boat,
and goes out constantly putting down a trammel-net and taking it up in
the morning. In the middle of the previous September (1890) he had,
on taking up his net one morning, found the bird with the perfect black
throat drowned in it. About three weeks later, that is, in the early part
of October, he found the second bird, and noticing the difference of
plumage he supposed it was the female of the other. He had them
both very well stuffed and cased in Falmouth. The bird-stuffer called his
attention to the fact that the second bird did not seem to be losing its
feathers as in a moult, but that the white feathers were coming out over
the black ones. He did not catch any more during the winter, but early
in March he caught another in the same way, and this was in a transition
state from the white to the black, as the other had been from the black
to the white.”

In Somerset the Black-throated Diver is very rarely seen. Mr. Cecil
Smith knew of no examples at the time he wrote his book, but some years
after was able to inform Mr. Dresser of an adult slightly changing to
winter plumage, which was shot at Williton, on Lady Egremont’s property,
in December 1875, on some flooded land (‘ Birds of Europe,’ vol. viii.
p. 616). On the Dorset coast this Diver is said by Mr. Mansel-Pleydell
to appear almost every winter, but generally in the immature plumage.

The young of the Black-throated Diver are to be readily known
from those of the Great Northern Diver by their much smaller size, and
from those of the Red-necked Diver by the absence on their backs of the
humerous white spots which have given that species one of its names,
**the Speckled Diver.”

In its habits, nesting, and the colour of its eggs, this species exactly
resembles the Great Northern Diver, and is very common in the summer-
time throughout Scandinavia.

Red-throated Diver. Colymbus septentrionalis, Linn.

(Herring-Bone, Sprat Loon, Loon (NV. D.), Speckled Diver, Wabble
(young on the Exe). |

A winter visitor, arriving about the end of October; sometimes nume-

414 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

rous in the estuaries of the larger rivers and on the sea-coasts, following
the shoals of herrings and sprats. This Diver is more frequently seen on
the south coast than on the north, and was especially numerous in the
springs of 1855, 1856, 1870; also in January and February 1879. The
specimens obtained are usually in immature plumage, but adult birds
have not uncommonly occurred, and some have been killed in spring in
full breeding-dress. But for some years past this bird has not been so
common as formerly on the Exe, and Mr. Gatcombe noticed its decrease
in 1878 at Plymouth; however, in the following year it was again
numerous in Plymouth Sound in January and February (Zool. 1879,
p. 207). In 1885 it had once more become scarce (Zool. 1885, p. 21).

Of the three British species of Colymbus, this is by far the most common,
and is a regular visitor every autumn and winter to our Devon coast,
both in the north and south of the county. On the Barnstaple river
we have seen three or four in a day, and have shot specimens both
flying past our boat, as well as diving, but, not wanting examples for our
collection, have generally refrained from killing them. Like most of the
aquatic birds, this Diver is more plentiful in the south of the county,
where on Torbay we have seen it in flocks of a dozen or more, and in
October have met with some still with red throats, although the colour
was not so bright as it is at the nesting-season.

A specimen was shot off Turnchapel on the Cattewater, Plymouth, on August 1st,
1833 (E. M., Mag. Nat. Hist., 1837; J. C. B., Nat. Hist. S. Devon, p. 215). These
Divers were numerous at Plymouth in March, April, and May 1855 (B., MS. Notes),
and one was shot there on May 5th of that year, having a few red feathers on the
neck (T. L. P., Zool. 1855, p. 4762). They were ayain very plentiful in the spring of
1870. One December 22nd, 1872; two March 1875; a few in February 1877; a pair
in full breeding-plumage in the Sound, April 2nd, 1878; very numerous in Janua:
and February 1879 (J. G., MS. Notes; and Zool. 1870, p. 2106; 1873, p, 3444; 1877,
p- 163; 1878, p. 250; 1879, pp. 206, 207).

The Red-throated Diver is not uncommon on the Kingsbridge estuary, where
one was shot in almost perfect summer plumage, October 15th, 1858 (M. A. M.,
Zool. 1859, p. 6330); and a male in full dress in May 1866 (H. N., Zool. 1866,
p. 527); and others occurred in December 1890 (E. A. S. E.).

Some may be seen in most years in Torbay. Many were seen in the spring of 1870,
and one in full plumage was procured at the beginning of March (A. von H., Zool. 1870,
p. 2098) ; this Diver is also frequently seen on the coast at Teignmouth. One changing
to winter plumage was killed on the Exe estuary in October 1841, and a second a few
days after ; while one in full breeding-dress was shot in the spring of 1855 (F. W,
L. R., MS. Journ. iii. p. 121); and we ourselves saw many immature birds, or
“ Wabbles,” on the same estuary in 1855 and 1856. A specimen shot on the Clyst,
April 20th, 1863, was in nearly full breeding-plumage (W. D’U.). One was obtained
off Exmouth, March 28th, 1867, in full plumage (C. 8., MS. Notes), and another at
Dawlish, May 5th, 1880; another off Exmouth early in May 1890, with red throat

(R. Green).

Mr. Rodd, who often watched the “ graceful and wonderful movements”
of this species in the water, remarked “ the ease with which it captures a
fish, and the large size of those which it can swallow whole” (B. of C.
p. 155). For the same reasons we have already given for the scarceness
of Terns and Divers off the coast of Somerset, this common species is
rarely seen in that county, and the only one Mr. Cecil Smith could

PODICIPIDA, 415

mention was picked up dead by the side of a small pond near Taunton,
In the clear waters off Dorsetshire the “ Sprat Loon,” as it is there called,
is common enough, and examples with the red throats have been often
procured, especially off Weymouth. Mr. Pike has shot them in this
plumage “ with the wing-feathers moulting to such an extent that the
birds were incapable of flight ’—a proof, Mr. Mansel-Pleydell believes, that
these birds “‘ must swim down the coast from their northern breeding-
haunts, or else that, like the Penguins, they moult very rapidly” (B. of D;
s LST).

. In their speckled plumage, when the head and the whole of the back
are of a dark lead-blue plentifully dotted with white spots, and with all
the underparts pure white, the immature birds are very handsome, quite
as much so, we consider, as the adult birds, whose red throats hardly
compensate for the loss of this pretty speckled dress.

The Red-throated Diver breeds commonly in the north-west of Scotland,
where its wild cry is one of the summer sounds, and is considered to
portend rain, hence obtaining for the bird the name of ‘ Rain Goose.”

Family PODICIPIDA.

THE GREBES.

All the five species of Grebe upon the British List have
been met with in Devonshire. Only one of them is a
resident, viz. the Little Grebe, or Dabchick; all the rest
being autumn, winter, and spring visitors, and none of
them are very common. In their habits the Grebes are
very similar, as they all resort to freshwater ponds and
lakes at the breeding-season, and build nests of aquatic
plants on the muddy banks, or on masses of vegetation
floating upon the water. The eggs are two to four in
number, white when they are first laid, but soon becoming
stained of a clay colour from the muddy feet of the birds.
The nestlings are at first covered with down marked with
longitudinal stripes. In the autumn and winter all the
northern species migrate to the south, and are then
commonly met with in salt water. ‘The adults are remark-
able for their singular plumage in the nesting-season,

416 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

some of them presenting a grotesque appearance with
their hoods, tippets, ears, and horns, as the feathers around
the head developed in spring have been variously termed.
In winter these feathers are either wholly or partially
lost. The tail is quite rudimentary, being represented by
a tuft of downy feathers. One of the finest species, the
Great Crested Grebe, has been well-nigh exterminated,
owing to the fashion which prevailed at one time amongst
ladies to carry muffs made of the skin of the silvery-white
breast, which was also used for tippets and for trimming
hats. The toes of the Grebes are not webbed like those
of the Divers, but most curiously flattened out and covered
’ with scales, closing one over the other so as to offer as
little resistance as possible to the water in making the
forward stroke when swimming. They are most expert
divers, and difficult to shoot, as they disappear under water
like a flash when alarmed, and when they come up to
breathe they are able to keep their bodies submerged, and
only show their heads and necks, or even only the tip
of the bill, above water. Some of them continually pluck
and swallow their own feathers. ‘Their food consists of fish,
mollusks, insects, and worms.

Great Crested Grebe. Podiceps cristatus (Linn.).
[Tippet Grebe, Great Dabchick. ]

A winter visitor, of frequent occurrence off the coasts and in the larger
estuaries, but seldom seen inland, and never abundant, being generally
met with singly, and only rarely in small parties. It is seldom obtained
in full breeding-plumage, and does not often occur in spring.

In its full adult summer plumage this, the largest of our British Grebes,
is a very singular-looking bird. It formerly bred on many lakes and
ponds throughout the kingdom, particularly on the Norfolk Broads, but it
has been almost exterminated, and now nests only on a few sanctuaries
where it is carefully protected. In the autumn and winter it is far from
a rare bird on our Devon waters, and appears to be especially fond of
Torbay, where many specimens, some in full breeding-dress, have been
obtained. In the Gallery of British Birds at the South Kensington

PODICIPIDA. 417

Museum we have seen a fine pair labelled “ Torquay,” which were pre-
sented by Mr. Coningham. On the North Devon rivers we have our-
selves seen this Grebe in the winter, and have known several to have
been procured in immature plumage, while in October 1891 one in
perfect adult dress was shot near Barnstaple. We know of no instance
of the Great Crested Grebe having been detected nesting in the county,
although the South Devon Leys, if they were less disturbed, would seem
to offer very tempting situations for them to breed in. Although it
always resorts to freshwater ponds at the breeding-season, this Grebe is
not averse to the salt water, where we have ourselves frequently seen it,
and it has been met with at some distance from the shore. It is one of
the species of Grebe which plucks and swallows its own feathers, even the
nestlings indulging in this curious habit, which Mr. Meves considered was
for the purpose of protecting the stomach from being injured by the large
fish-bones which are often swallowed by the birds.

At Plymouth a Great Crested Grebe occurred March 5th, 1853; another January 7th,
1854, and another December 8th, 1855 (B., MS. Notes); several more in February
1870; one on January 3rd, 1875, “the first seen for a long time there”; another
December 1879, and another January 1881 (J. G., Zool. 1870, p. 2100 ; 1875, p. 4372;
1880, p. 48; 1881, p. 195).

Many immature specimens have been shot on the Kingsbridge estuary in winter
(R. P. N., MS. Notes). Two in full dress, having the tippet fully developed, have
occurred near Kingsbridge (H. N., MS. Notes); and we ourselves saw an example of
this Grebe at Slapton Ley in January 1856. A female was obtained near the mouth
of the Avon, December 24th, 1875 (R. P. N., Zool. 1876, p. 4804).

In Torbay the Great Crested Grebe was noticed in small parties in March and April
1859 (H. S., Zool. 1860, p. 6794); others in the winter of 1864-5 (C.8.); and a few
are seen in Torbay usually every winter (Von H., Zool. 1874, p. 3907).

On the Exe estuary the Great Orested Grebe has occurred as follows :—An old
bird and a young one in May 1829 (E. M., Trans. Plym. Inst. 1830, p. 333); a female
January 15th, 1838 (F. W. L. R). One in November 1848 (R. C.); an adult male in
full breeding-plumage, February 1855 (F. W. L. R.); an immature bird January 15th,
1877 (W. 8. M. D’U., Zool. 1877, p. 105); and another immature specimen, October
1881.

Along the whole of the 8.W. coast from the Land’s End to Poole
Harbour the Great Crested Grebe is not uncommon in the winter, flocks
of twenty or more having been seen off Poole in November 1882. To
the county of Somerset it is a rare visitor, one occasionally being obtained
on ornamental waters inland, and an immature specimen was seen by
us at Weston-super-Mare.

The Great Crested Grebe is met with commonly throughout Central
and Southern Europe, in Africa and Asia, being numerous in Northern
India, and is stated to occur as far to the East as Japan,

Red-necked Grebe. Podiceps griseigena (Bodd.).

A casual visitor, of occasional occurrence, in late autumn and winter
in our bays and estuaries. Immature birds were especially numerous in
the early months of 1850, 1870, and 1881. Some adults have been

‘
2E

418 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

obtained on Slapton and other Leys and on Kingsbridge estuary. Young
birds have the neck striped, occasionally with some bright red on the
upper part of the breast.

The Red-necked Grebe comes next in size to the Great Crested Grebe
among our five British species, and is by far the rarest, especially in the
S.W. counties. We know of only three examples from North Devon—one
which was shot from the North Walk at Barnstaple in full summer
plumage many years ago, another near that town in February 1850
(Zool. 1851, p. 3035), and another in February 1870 in immature
plumage, which we have in our collection. More have been procured in
the south of the county. Mr. J. Gatcombe saw a specimen of this Grebe
in the market at Plymouth on 10th January, 1881, and at the time he
recorded it (Zool. 1881, p. 195) added the following note:—*“ With
regard to the Red-necked species, I have often been puzzled with its
great variation in size; so much so, indeed, that I have almost been
inclined to think there might be two species or at least races of it [he was
quite correct]. I have also met with specimens like that mentioned by
Mr. D’Urban in the ‘ Zoologist’ a short time since, having stripes on the
cheek and neck; but these markings are undoubtedly indicative of
immaturity, as in the young of the Great Crested Grebe ; yet the examples
I have seen so marked happened to be unusually large ones. The bills of
the Red-necked species, too, I find vary considerably both in length and
thickness.” The large-billed birds had probably wandered from America.
On February 17th, 1880, Mr. Gatcombe had seen two examples of the
Red-necked Grebe in Plymouth Market, aud had examined them and
found in their stomachs small fish, portions of crabs, sand, and a great
quantity of feathers; “but I am sorry to add,” he writes, “that the
skins of these scarce birds were cut up for the purpose of decorating
ladies’ hats ” (Zool. 1880, p. 248).

Latham, in the supplement to his ‘Synopsis of Birds’ (1787-1801), speaks of a
Red-necked Grebe having been shot at Teignmouth in January. Five specimens were
seen together at Slapton Ley early in 1809, and four of them were shot (Montagu,
Orn. Dict., Suppl.). One killed in the month of June near Plymouth was in
Mr. Drew’s collection (E. N., Trans. Plym. Jnst. 1830); and another was obtained
there October 1861; another March 1870; two in the Market, February 1880; two
more January and February 1881 (J. G., Zool. 1861, p. 7848; 1870, p. 2142; 1880,
p. 240; 1881, pp. 195, 198).

Three immature birds were shot on Torbay, February 1870; another January 19th,
1871; another October 1876 (Zool. 1870, pp. 2098, 2142; 1871, p. 2631; 1876,
p- 5161). One at Teignmouth in January 1850, and another in changing plumage
February 22nd, 1870 (C. 8., Zool. 1870, p. 2106).

Messrs. Henry and R. P. Nicholls have found this Grebe fairly common on the
Kingsbridge estuary; and Mr. Elliot says he has had one or two well-marked birds
brought to him in the autumn; one occurred near Kingsbridge in February 1888
(‘ Field’ for February 25th, 1888). ;

An immature bird was procured at Topsham in 1850 (F. W. L. R.). Two were seen
by us, and one shot, in a flooded marsh above Topsham in December 1852; and a
young male with striped neck fell to the gun of Mr. John D’Urban Tyrwhitt-Drake, on
the Exe estuary, off Starcross, January 8th, 1881 (W. 8. M. D’U., Zool. 1881, p. 58).

The Red-necked Grebe has never been known to breed in the British

PODICIPID.Z. 419

Tslands. It nests commonly in Denmark, in the south of Sweden and
Norway, in various parts of Russia and Germany, also in N. Africa, and
a large-billed form is said to occur in Asia and in N. America (Dresser,
B. of E. vol. vii. p. 643). Mr, Cordeaux considered, from his experience of
this species in Lincolnshire, that it was more marine than any other of
the Grebes.

It is smgular that Mr. Rodd should have considered the Red-necked
Grebe a common species in Cornwall, stating that it was quite as numerous
as the Great Crested Grebe. A beautiful adult specimen was shot at
Durgan in the spring of 1866. Mr, Mansel-Pleydell mentions several
from Dorsetshire waters, and considered it rare. In Somerset it is very
rare ; one was obtained at Taunton in February 1870, and another in the
same month in the following year on the moors at North Curry.

Sclavonian Grebe, Podiceps auritus (Linn.),
[Horned Grebe, Dusky Grebe. ]}

A winter visitor, of not uncommon occurrence in bays and estuaries,
In North Devon this species was formerly obtained on the Taw with some
regularity nearly every winter (M. A. M., Zool. 1858, p. 6015); and
according to Baron A. yon Hiigel the Sclavonian and the Great Crested
Grebes are the most numerous of the family in Torbay (Zool. 1874,
p- 3907). The Sclavonian Grebe was unusually abundant in February
and March 1870, both on the north and south coasts of the county. The
specimens obtained are generally in immature plumage, adults being
extremely rare, but one in the Torquay Museum was obtained on Torbay.
Individuals vary considerably in size. This species is of northern distri-
bution.

This is a smaller species than the two Grebes we have already described,
and one which some years ago was quite common as a winter visitor to
the north and south coasts of Devonshire, and was on the Barnstaple
river by far the most numerous of the family, often occurring to ourselves
off the Black Rocks at Instow. Although so plentiful in comparison, we
have no record of one in the breeding-plumage from the north of the
county, nor has this species ever been detected as nesting in the United
Kingdom. In Scotland it is, according to Mr. R. Gray, very common on
the western lochs, where it assembles and remains until it migrates north-
wards towards the end of April, and examples in full breeding-plumage
are frequently obtained. The gambols of these birds in the spring, when
they are chasing and shrilly calling to one another on the water, are
described as very entertaining. ‘lhe Sclavonian Grebe has been detected
diving and carrying at the same time its young under its wings! In the
south of the county many examples have been recorded at various times
by Mr. J, Gatcombe from the neighbourhood of Plymouth, but he had to
state that Grebes of all kinds were yearly becoming scarcer on the Sound,
Many have been obtained on Torbay, the only locality from which one of
these Grebes in full breeding-plumage has been reported.

25 2

420 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

A Sclavonian Grebe was shot at Plymouth, December 1853 (B., MS. Notes), and
some were obtained there in February and March 1870 (Zool. 1870, p. 2106). One
March 25th, 1871 (B., MS. Notes); one December 1878; another January 11th, and
a pair January 13th, 1879; others in January 1881, and one November 5th, 1881
(Zool. 1878, p. 115; 1879, pp. 205, 206; 1881, p. 195; 1882, p. 65).

Immature birds have been shot on "Kingsbridge estuary (E. A. 8. E.), and one
which had been just shot at Slapton Ley was seen by us January 21st, 1856 (Zool.
1856, p. 5065), and we believe that we saw another there a few days later.

A Sclavonian Grebe occurred on Torbay in the winter of 1864-5 (C. S., in litt.) ; two
young birds December 20th, 1869; one January 9th, 1870; and another March 8th,
1870 (Von H., Zool. 1870, pp. 2059, 2098) ; another January 7th, 1871 (J. H. G.,
Zool. 1871, p. 2631).

One in immature plumage was shot on the Exe estuary, October 5th, 1839 (F. W.
ong MS. Journ, ii. p. 126); another October 11th, 1877, and two early in December

Mr. Gatcombe has recorded a Sclavonian Grebe obtained at Seaton, March 1870
(J. G., MS. Notes).

Respecting this Grebe in Cornwall we find Mr. Rodd writing: ‘* A good
deal has appeared in the papers about the rarity of the Sclayonian or
Horned Grebe, but in the different inlets and creeks of Falmouth Har-
bour, where rushes and reeds offer a suitable retreat, such as St. Just
Creek, under Mesack, the Lamorran Creek, the Tresillian River, and the
Fal, up to the morass and rushes under Trewarthenick, various species of
Grebe, from the Great Crested to the little Dabchick, may be seen every
year and throughout the year.” However, he considered the Sclayonian
a less common species than either the Great Crested or Red-necked Grebes.
On the Dorset coast it is said to be “‘ the commonest of the genus next to
the Little Grebe, especially in salt water,” and one was shot in Poole
Harbour in mature plumage in March 1872 (M.-P.,‘ Birds of Dorset,
p- 123). Mr. Cecil Smith knew of only two Somerset specimens.

The Sclavonian Grebe is a northern species, very rare in the south of
Europe, and breeding in the northern parts of the Continent, in British
N. America, &c.

Eared Grebe. Podiceps nigricollis, C. L. Brehm.

A casual visitor, in winter and spring, from the South to both North
and South Devon.

This is a smaller species than the Sclavonian Grebe, and is not so
numerous on our Devon waters, but more examples have been noticed in
the full adult plumage in the spring, in proportion to its numbers, than
of any of the members of the Grebe family we have already described.
It cannot be considered a rare bird on our coasts, as examples in the
winter plumage are also occasionally obtained, and have occurred to
ourselves on the Barnstaple river. The smaller size and the slightly up-
turned beak make it easily to be distinguished from examples in the
winter plumage of the Sclavonian Grebe, and in their summer plumages
the two species are very unlike. We have in our collection a very perfect
example of the Eared Grebe in the summer dress, which was shot by one
of the river pilots, out of a little flock of five, close to Barnstaple bridge,
on 7th April, 1865; and on April 18th, 1874, Mr. Cecil Smith received

PODICIPIDA, 491

one which had been caught alive close to that town. The bird afforded
us great entertainment when we saw it running about the floor of his
library at Lydeard House, perfectly tame and self-possessed. It was in
beautiful adult plumage, and, unfortunately, only lived a week, having
received a severe bruise at the time of its capture. Mr. Cecil Smith fed
it on small fish, worms, and a few beetles. Several adults in summer
plumage have been obtained in the south of the county, as will be seen
trom the list we append.

An Eared Grebe was secured at Plymouth, February 2nd, 1864 (B., MS. Notes) ;
another, an adult in breeding-plumage, March 1870; another March 23rd, 1871, and
an immature bird October 1871; one December 16th, 1875 (J. G., Zool. 1870, p. 2142 ;
1872, pp. 2646, 2940; 1876, p. 4785).

Mr. E. A. 8. Elliot has shot immature birds on the Kingsbridge estuary. He obtained
one there in November 1891.

An adult, in full breeding-plumage, was shot off Paignton in May 1853, and is now
in the Torquay Museum (Von H., Zool. 1874, p. 8908); and another adult was obtained
at Torquay, January 7th, 1871 (J. H. G., Zool. 1871, p. 2631).

A perfect example of an adult in full dress, secured at Dawlish, March 22nd, 1874,
was seen by us in the flesh. An immature bird occurred on the Exe estuary in
November 1851 (#. W. L. R.), and another near Topsham, December Ist, 1863; also
an adult December 1867 (E. P., Trans. Devon. Assoc. viii. p. 296); and an immature
bird November 1891.

In Cornwall, both Mr. Rodd and Dr. Bullmore considered the Eared
more common than the Sclavonian Grebe, the former having in his col-
lection a fine specimen in the summer plumage from the Helford river,
and meutioning another, which we have also seen, in the Truro Museum,
said on the label attached to it to have been caught under St. Just, in
Falmouth Harbour. Further to the east this species becomes rarer, and,
according to Mr. Mansel-Pleydell, is the scarcest of the genus on Dorset
waters, although one or two have been obtained in the adult plumage.
We have no record of this Grebe from Somerset. The Eared Grebe is a
southern species, nesting commonly in Italy, N.E. Africa, &c., and is very
rare in the northern countries of Europe.

Little Grebe. TZachybaptes fluviatilis (Tunstall).
{Dabchick, Dipchick. ]

Resident, numerous and generally distributed, inhabiting quiet pools
and ponds. Breeds. Most frequently seen in winter (November and
December), when probably immigrants arrive from other parts, and its
numbers are greatly increased. It then frequents the estuaries on the
south coast, the Exeter Canal, and sheets of water adjoining the sea. At
the end of November 1863, several ascended drains discharging into the
river Exe, from a house on its banks, a mile above Topsham, and were
captured, The Little Grebe occasionally visits Lundy Island (Trans.
Devon. Assoc, villi. p. 309), This, the smallest member of the family, is
also the most common, being the only species resident throughout the
county, The changes in its plumage are not so conspicuous as in the
larger Grebes, the chief one being that in the summer the adult malo

499, THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

assumes a dark red throat, which is lost in the winter dress. Like all
the other Grebes, this small species passes the breeding-season on ponds
and lakes, and on sluggish streams which are fringed with aquatic
herbage, wandering off in the autumn towards the coasts, and in the
winter may be encountered on the tideway. We have sometimes met
witb little flocks of a dozen or more on streams in the winter, and after
carefully stalking them in the belief that they were Teal, have been much
amused on getting near them to discover what they were as they dived
and disappeared. The Dabchick has received from some a bad reputation
as a deyourer of fish-spawn, but we can affirm that it can get on very
well without that dainty, as we have detected it on several occasions
passing the summer on cattle-ponds which were quite devoid of fish. On
our fishing excursions, in the summer-time, we sometimes came across a
jamily party of Little Grebes, the two old ones swimming and diving
about among the white water-lilies, attending on the striped infant
Dabchicks (which occasionally climb up on the parent’s back), making a
charming picture, as it is faithfully rendered in Mr. Dresser’s beautiful
book (‘ Birds of Europe,’ vol. viii. p. 659).

The Little Grebe has a wide range, being met with from Scandinavia
to the Cape of Good Hope ; in Asia as far east as Japan ; alsoin Australia
and New Zealand.

Family ALCIDZ.
THE CLIFF-BIRDS : GUILLEMOTS AND AUKS.

Resident for three parts of the year on the sea itself,
where they live entirely upon fish, the Guillemots and
Auks resort to the coast and to various rocky islands only
at the nesting-season. ‘They havea general resemblance in
their plumage, which is dark on the upper parts and white
below, and are most of them remarkable for their num-
bers. ‘Three of them—the Common Guillemot, the Razor-
bill, and the Puffin—breed either upon or in close
proximity to our Devonshire shores, and are to be met
with in the English and Bristol Channels throughout the
year. The Black Guillemot, a very abundant species on
the N.W. coast of Scotland and on its “islands gay,”
seldom migrates, and only occurs by accident very rarely
in the south. The Little Auk, the smallest member of

ALCID&. . 423

the family, wanders from its Polar summer-quarters, and
is not rare as a winter visitor; while the Great Auk, once
the king of all the Cliff-Birds, and at the beginning of the
century still perhaps resident on some cf our northern
islands, has been extinct for the last fifty years, and has
only a very doubtful connection with the Devon Ornis.
Periodically the Cliff-Birds are visited by great mortality,
due to gales occurring at the end of the summer when
they are in the midst of their moult. They are then
unable, in their weakened state, to capture the fry on
which they solely subsist, and probably the fish in stormy
weather leave the surface and plunge into the undisturbed
deeper water. On several occasions we have found the
sands of Barnstaple Bay littered with vast numbers of
dead Razorbills, Guillemots, and Kittiwakes, with a few
Puffins; and the tide has floated their bodies far up Taw
and Torridge. ‘Those we examined were only feather and
bone, showing that their deaths had been due to starva-
tion. ‘There was a great destruction of Cliff-Birds at the
end of September in 1859. The Razorbills appear to
suffer more than either the Guillemots or Puffins; severe
storms in 1872, and again in 1880-81, caused death to a
vast number, On the coast of Brittany, myriads of Puffins
also perish when a gale comes upon them while they are
in moult. But hardly a season passes without a few of the
Cliff-Birds being found dead upon our Devon coasts after
gales in the autumn and winter,

Razorbill. Alcea torda, Linn.
[Razor-billed Murre. |

Resident and abundant, breeding on Lundy Island in some numbers,
and also sparingly on some of the cliffs of the north and south coasts; but
on the latter it is most numerous in winter (Zool. 1877, p. 164). It is
sometimes very plentiful at Plymouth, large flocks of adult birds assem-
bling outside the breakwater in January and Iebruary, and some are

424 THE BIRDS OF DEVON,

brought in by the mackerel boats (Zool. 1874, p. 3944). Many are
destroyed by south-west gales in early spring (J. G., Zool. 1873, p. 3011),
as was the case in February 1872 (M. 8. C. R., Zool. 1872, p. 3023), and
some, principally young birds, are driven inland by stormy weather, and
are then picked up in most unlikely places. Mr. J. B. Gould, of the Pro-
bate Court, Exeter, brought us a young Razorbill, a bird of the first year,
in the flesh, on February 16th, 1872, which was stated to have been
killed with a Woodcock (!) by the same discharge of a gun near Exminster
(W. D’U.). Great numbers are also frequently found dead on the shore in
autumn after heavy gales, especially on the north coast of the county (ef.
M. A. M., Zool. 1859, p. 6762). Many Razorbills were thrown up dead
on the beach at Seaton after a gale in October 1863. .

We have seen Razorbills in August off Teignmouth and Dawlish (1874
and 1883). A young bird still in downy plumage was shot on Torbay,
July 7th, 1869 (A. von H., Zool. 1869, p. 1846), and young birds were
seen near Plymouth in September 1878 (J. G., Zool. 1878, p. 433).

The Razorbill breeds on Lundy Island, but is not so numerous there
as the Common Guillemot, and in all the great nesting-stations of cliff-
birds which we have visited we have noticed the same fact. At the end
of April or beginning of May the birds arrive at their favourite cliffs,
where there is then a great assemblage of Guillemots, Puffins, Gulls, and
Cormorants. The noise made by the different birds is sometimes almost
deafening, and as one looks down upon them from the top of the cliff the
constant arrivals and departures of the birds, the passing to and fro of
little parties, the amount of life and motion, as the black and white forms
are continually presenting themselves to the eye, have also a bewildering
effect upon the senses until they are gradually accustomed to the busy
scene. The Razorbill flies beneath the water after the small fish it feeds
upon, and may be met with in little parties of from six toa dozen at some
distance from the nesting-station, and throughout the autumn and winter
these parties may be encountered far up the Bristol Channel, where we
have met them off Clevedon and Portishead. In the summer-time we have
seen young Razorbills, not long from the nest, on the Poul at Appledore,
and gave chase to one on one occasion, being deceived by its resemblance
to a Little Auk; but it is a rare thing for any of these birds to enter the
estuaries, though we have had specimens brought to us taken high up the
estuary of the Exe. The Razorbill lays one large egg, elliptical in shape,
on the bare ledges of the cliffs, of a reddish colour, boldly marked with
darker blotches, and as there is a great variety in the tints and markings
very beautiful specimens are sometimes obtained.

[Great Auk, <Alca impennis, Linn.
[Gare Fowl.]

A Great Auk is stated to have been picked up dead near Lundy Island
in the year 1829, The original account, which appeared in Dr. E,
Moore’s ‘ Catalogue of the Web-footed Birds of Devonshire,’ published in

ALCID. 425
the ‘ Magazine of Natural History,’ new series, vol. i. p. 360, 1837, is as
follows:—‘ Great Auk. Mr. Gosling, of Leigham, informed me that a
specimen of this bird was picked up dead near Lundy Island in the year
1829; and Professor Jameson suggests that it might have been one which
had been obtained by Mr. Stevenson at St. Kilda, and had escaped from
the lighthouse keeper at Pladda, about that time, when on its way to
Edinburgh (see Edinburgh New Phil. Trans. October 1831).” Mr. J. H.
Gurney, Jun., in the ‘ Zoologist’ (1868, p. 1446), remarks that “‘ Mr. T.
E. Gosling is more than once referred to as an ornithologist in Bellamy’s
‘Natural History of South Devon.’ This catalogue, written subsequently
to Moore’s, does not even allude to the Great Auk, from which we may
infer Mr. Bellamy partly discredited the specimen said to have been
washed ashore at Lundy Island.” It should be remembered, however,
that Bellamy’s work related to the southern portion of the county only,
and he might not have thought it necessary to allude to a bird said to
have occurred in North Devon.

It is, indeed, only a slender link of evidence that connects this inte-
resting bird, once an inhabitant of St. Kilda, the Orkney and Faroe Isles,
which has now been extinct for half a century, with our Devonshire Ornis,
We have given above full particulars of all that it is possible to ascertain
repecting the alleged discovery of a dead Great Auk off Lundy in 1829, and
consider it remarkable that no trace of the bird remains, and that there is
no information as to whether its skin was even preserved. But if the
statements can be relied upon that early in the present century examples
of the bird were occasionally obtained upon the French coast, three having
been reported from the neighbourhood of Cherbourg, and two more from
that of Dieppe *, there would be no inherent improbability that a Great
Auk, in swimming south off our western coasts, should put in at Lundy.
At the date when it was said to have been met with it was not known
that this species was fast approaching extinction, and the great value
attaching to each specimen, since this fact was realized by naturalists, had
not then accrued. There are even traditions, handed down from early
inhabitants of Lundy, which seem to point to the Great Auk’s having
formerly nested upon the island, and even since Mr. Heaven’s family
became its proprietors a large egg was brought to the house which was
positively asserted to have been produced by one of these birds. This egg
(most probably a double-yelked egg of the Common Guillemot) was kept
on the mantelpiece in the dining-room as an ornament, and children in the
house were permitted to play with it as a toy, until one day it was
smashed! Although it is extremely improbable that the Great Auk ever
had a nesting-station so far to the south of its usual habitats (which were
rocky islets off the coast of Iceland, and a few other places in the far
north), we reproduce the Lundy folk-lore for what it may be worth.

The Rev. H. G. Heaven was kind enough to write us the details in a
letter which we communicated to the ‘ Zoologist’ for 1866 :—‘* Lundy

* Fide Professor Newton on the Gare Fowl and its Historians in the ‘ Natural
History Review’ for October 1865.

496 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

Island, September 6th, 1865. With regard to your question whether
we have ever seen the Great Auk, 1 must answer in the negative. There
is strong presumptive evidence, however, that the Great Auk has been
seen alive on the island within the last thirty years; at least, I cannot
imagine what other bird it was. The facts are as follows, and I must
leave it to more experienced ornithologists to draw the conclusion :—In
the year 1838 or 1839 [this is Just five years before the last Great Auk
was obtained in Iceland] as nearly as I can recollect, not, however, more
recently, one of our men in the egging season brought us an enormous
ege, which we took for an abnormal specimen of the Guillemot’s egg, or,
as they are locally termed, the ‘ pick-billed Murr.’ This, however, the
man strenuously denied, saying it was the egg of the ‘King and Queen
Murr,’ and that it was very rare to get them, as there were only two or three
‘King and Queen Murrs’ ever ontheisland. On being further questioned
he said they were not like the ‘ Picked-bills,’ but like the ‘ Razor-billed
Murrs’ (7. e. the Razor-billed Auk); that they were much larger than
either of them; and that he did not think they could fly, as he never saw
them on the wing nor high up the cliffs like the other birds, and that they, as
he expressed it, ‘scuttled’ into the watery, tumbling among the boulders,
the egg being only a little way above high water. He thought they had
deserted the island, as he had not seen them or an egg for (I believe)
fifteen years till the one he brought to us; but that they (7. e. the
people of the island) sometimes saw nothing of them for four or five years,
but he accounted for this by supposing the birds had fixed on a spot
inaccessible to the eggers from the land for breeding purposes. The shell
ot the egg we kept for some years, but, unfortunately, it at last got
broken. It was precisely like the Guillemot’s egg in shape, nearly, if not
quite, twice the size, with white ground and black and brown spots and
blotches. We have never, however, met with bird or egg since, but as
the island has become since that time constantly and yearly more
frequented and populous, it may have permanently deserted the place.
The man has been dead some years now, being then past middle age, and
I think he had been an inhabitant of the island some twenty-five or thirty
years. He spoke of the birds in such a way that one felt convinced of
their existence, and that he himself had seen them; but he evidently
knew no other name for them than ‘ King and Queen Murrs,’ which he
said the islanders called them ‘ because they were so big, and stood up so
bold-like.’ In colour they were also like the ‘ Razor-billed Murr.’
Nobody, he said, had ever succeeded in catching or destroying a bird, as
far as he knew, because they were so close to the water, and scuttled in
so fast. The existence of these birds had been traditional on the island
when he came to it, and even the oldest inhabitants agreed that there
were never more than two or three couple. He himself never knew of
more than one couple at a time.’’|

ALCID.E. f 427

Common Guillemot. Zomvia troile (Linn.).
{Mers, Mairs, Murre, Pick-bill Murre, Brown-bill, Willock, Eligoog. }

Resident and numerous all along the coasts in spring and summer, but
usually keeps out at sea in winter. Lreeds on Lundy Island in immense
numbers, on the north coast near Baggy Point, where there are a few,
and on some of the cliffs of the south coast in certain localities. Bellamy
obtained a young bird, July 23rd, 1830, from Oreston. Mr. Gatcombe
mentions one in full breeding-dress December 21st, 1872, at Plymouth,
and another on February 7th, 1874 (Zool. 1873, p. 3493; 1874, p. 3943).
Great numbers were thrown up dead on Braunton Sands after a heavy
gale at the end of September 1859 (M. A. M., Zool. 1859, p. 6762),
Sometimes the Common Guillemot is driven inland, and we were once
shown a specimen which had been killed near Topsham Bridge on the
river Clyst. A singular variety of a pale colour, almost white, was shot
by Mr. Else on Torbay, November 27th, 1883 (W. Pengelly, Zool. 1884,
p. 71), and a pure white specimen was killed by Mr. Drummond, also on
Torbay ; both these birds are in the Torquay Museum.

The variety known as the Bridled or Ringed Guillemot is met with off
Plymouth, according to Mr. Gatcombe, individuals being sometimes
brought in by the mackerel boats in spring mixed with specimens of the
ordinary form, but only two or three, out of many hundreds of Guillemots
examined, belonged to this variety (Zool. 1872, p. 2983). Mr. Gatcombe
believed that the aperture of the eye is larger than in the normal form,
and informed us that the figure of the “ Bridled Guillemot” in Morris's
‘ British Birds’ was drawn by himself. Specimens of this variety oc-
curred at Slapton in 1852 (C, Prideaux, Zool. 1852, p. 3474); on the Tamar,
January 29th, 1853 (J. G., ‘ Naturalist, 1853, p. 228); on Torbay in
1851, October 15th, 1869, and January 27th, 1872 (Von H., Zool.
1870, p. 1984, and J. H. G., Zool. 1872, p. 3134); also at Plymouth,
April and October 1867 (J. B. R., MS. Notes); one on the sands seven
miles from Kingsbridge, February 18383, being the only one seen there
for eighteen years (R. P. N., in litt.). Mr. E. A. 8. Elliot, however,
informs us that he has had many of this variety, both in summer and
winter plumage, brought to him, and that he has shot some himself on
the coast in the Kingsbridge district. It has also been met with at
Lundy Island, but is said to be rare (Howard Saunders, Yarrell’s B. Birds,
4th ed. iv. p. 73).

Examples of the Bridled Guillemot have also been met with on the
Cornish and Dorset coasts.

The Common Guillemot is a very abundant species in both the Bristol
and English Channels, and numbers are to be seen on the salt water off
both the north and south coasts throughout the year. In April the birds
resort to their breeding-stations, of which there are several very populous
ones on either side of the entrance of the Bristol Channel, on Lundy off
the coast of North Devon, and on Skomer, Skokholm, and the “ Eligoog ”

428 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

Stacks, off the coast of Pembrokeshire, with various smaller nesting-
stations on the cliffs fronting the sea on the mainland. The single large
egg of the Guillemot is placed on a bare ledge on the cliff, without any
nest being made, and in its colour and markings is among the most
beautiful of all eggs laid by birds, the Guillemot’s eggs from Lundy
ranking high for the boldness and variety of their markings. In shape
the Guillemot’s egg is more pyriform than that of the Razorbill, and is
ornamented with a greater profusion of delicate scroll-work and blotches
of various shades; while the ground-colour of the egg ranges through
numerous tints of white, green, and red. ‘The intertwisted line-markings
and blotches upon the eggs of the Guillemots are fancifully ascribed by
some to the birds as they sit upon the rocks continually seeing beneath
them the long ribbons of the seaweed moved to and fro by the waves!
—a theory reminding us of the Patriarch Jacob and his ewes. There is
another ingenious idea respecting the egg, which is said never to be
blown off the ledges by the wind, however rough it may be, because,
*“‘ owing to the centre of gravity,” it only revolyes upon its axis on the
same spot! But alas! for theory when confronted by fact, for after
rough winds numerous eggs may be seen smashed upon the rocks and
shingle beneath, and often the clumsy Guillemot herself, as she flies off
towards the water, rolls her own egg over to destruction. While we have
been watching them we have sometimes wondered how each bird knew
her own egg, when there have been so many closely resembling one
another deposited on almost identical ledges. The Guillemots are said
to carry their young down to the water, but there is some conflicting
testimony as to how they do it.

On Torbay we have found Common Guillemots very abundant in the
autumn, when they have been in great variety of plumage, some having
then light grey backs, both immature birds and old birds in a transition
stage being equally common, Mr. J. Gatcombe recorded from Plymouth
the early date at which the old birds resumed the full breeding-dress,
noticing some which appeared in it in the first week of January, and con-
sidered that this early assumption of the summer plumage had led
Col. Montagu to suppose that the Common Guillemot did not vary in its
dress at any time of the year. Like the Razorbill, the Common Guillemot
very rarely comes into the estuaries, but little parties may be encountered
almost anywhere on the salt water at a short distance from the shore at
any time of the year. The Common Guillemot flies under water in its
pursuit of fish, as we have witnessed the birds doing which are kept in
tanks at the Brighton Aquarium, and in the Fish-house at the Zoological
Gardens, little silvery bubbles of air ascending upwards to the surface of
the water from the birds’ bodies.

In the summer-time the farmers who reside around St. David’s, in
Pembrokeshire, fatten their calves with custard made from the eggs of
the Common Guillemot taken on Ramsey Island, and large quantities are
used by sugar refineries.

The Guillemots off the South Devon coast are mainly supplied from the
Scilly Isles, and from various nesting-stations along the Dorset coast.

ALCIDA. 429

[ Observation.—Brinnich’s or Thick-billed Guillemot (Lomvia bruennichi,
Sabine). A single example of this Guillemot has been recorded by Dr. Bull-
more in his Cornish Fauna as having been shot some years ago at Rose-
mullion Head. It is an inhabitant of the Arctic seas, and very rarely
wanders to the south. It differs from the Common Guillemot (of which
some ornithologists consider it only a race) in having a stouter beak and in
having the base of the upper mandible of a horn colour, and in a specimen
which we have now before us we notice that the basal edges of the upper
mandible overlap the lower considerably. |

Black Guillemot. Uria gryile (Linn.).

A casual visitor, of rare occurrence, in autumn and winter, to the
south coast of the county, principally to Plymouth Sound and Torbay,
having only once been detected in the north.

Of this pretty species of Guillemot Col. Montagu writes, ‘““ We have
seen it rarely on the coast of Wales near Tenby, where a few breed
annually ; but nowhere else that we could find from thence to St. David's.”
Now, from our familiarity with the whole of the Pembrokeshire coast,
we are inclined to believe that this is all a mistake. Wishing, if we
could, to confirm the Colonel’s assertion, we have questioned all the likely
people we have met, and have also examined every local collection of
birds to which we could obtain access, and in not one of these did we
find a Black Guillemot, nor had any of the men who were well acquainted
with the various breeding-stations of cliff-birds ever seen or heard of this
species. Had the Black Guillemot. nested, even in small numbers, on the
Pembrokeshire coast, it would certainly have occurred some time or other
on the opposite shores of Devonshire, where it is almost unknown. The
only North Devon specimen we have ever heard of was one which was
picked up dead by the side of the Taw in the autumn, and was a
young bird of the year.

“Rare; one (black) is in Pincombe’s Collection, and a spotted one in Drew's”
(EB. M., Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837). An adult in winter plumage was obtained near Ply-
mouth, January 1863 (J. B. R., Trans. Plym. Inst, 1862-63; and J. J. R., Zool. 1863,
p. 8448). An immature specimen on the Exe estuary, October 1872 (Rev. C. R. Carr).
One in winter plumage which occurred in Torbay, and another at Hope’s Nose,
Torbay, February 1880, are in the Torquay Museum. One in ‘“ weather-worn winter
plumage” brought to a Stonehouse bird-stuffer, January 16th, 1883 (J. G., Zool.
1883, p. 166), is now in the A. M. M. A young one in the pluinage of the first year
was obtained in Plymouth Sound, December 9th, 1886 (J. G., Zool. 1887, p. 378).

Mr. Rodd knew of only two in Cornwall; four are mentioned hy
Mr. Mansel-Pleydell from Dorsetshire, and there is but a single one from
Somerset, an adult in winter plumage obtained some years ago near
Quantockshead.

The Black Guillemot is very well known in the far north of the British
Islands, where we have seen numbers off the N.W. coast of Scotland. It
is the familiar “ Tysty” of the inhabitants of Orkney and the Hebrides,

450 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

and the ‘Doveky” of the whaler and Polar explorer. In the summer
its plumage is all over a rich greenish black, with the exception
of a white patch on the wings; while in the winter it becomes almost
entirely white, with a few black spots on the top of the head and
neck, and some black bars upon the back and rump, and with the tail
and wings black, the white patch on the wings remaining as in summer,
This singular change of colour is doubtless protective ; the white plumage
of the birds in the winter would correspond with the snow-covered cliffs,
and render them less liable to be discovered by foxes and birds of prey.

The Black Guillemot does not appear to wander far from its summer
stations, or there would be more instances of its appearance on our
Devonshire coasts,

Little Auk. Mergulus alle (Linn.).

A casual visitor, of occasional occurrence, generally in the autumn and
winter months; usually found either dead or in an exhausted condition
after storms, on both the north and south coasts of the county. It was
very numerous in 1868, and again in 1875, when specimens occurred at
Plymouth, Mothecombe, Torquay, and Barnstaple.

This is the smallest of the cliff-birds, and is a native of Polar seas.
It appears as an irregular winter visitor to our southern coasts, and
cannot be considered very rare, being occasionally picked up dead after
stormy weather, sometimes at places far inland. In North Devon we
received one which had been found dead on the sands on the Barnstaple
river. This was a young bird with bluish-grey cheeks ; others have been
secured near Barnstaple in various years. An adult in winter plumage
was captured in the autumn by a friend of ours when bathing at Torquay.
He saw the little bird swimming near him on the water, and, diving
beneath it, caught it with his hand. The adults in the summer plumage
have black throats, which become white in the winter dress. The Little
Auk or ‘ Rotche’ is described as an oceanic bird, keeping far out at sea,
and approaching the cliffs only at the nesting-time. It is a common winter
visitor to the Orkneys.

One was knocked down with a stone by a boy under Plymouth Hoe, December 19th,
1850 (R. A. J., ‘ Naturalist, 1851, p. 60; and B., MS. Notes). Another on the Hoe,
December 1856; one November 1862 (J. B. R., MS. Notes). One was shot near
Plymouth in October 1863; another December 19th, 1867; another was knocked
down with a stone at Cann Quarry on the Plym, six or seven miles from the coast,
December 19th, 1869; one in the spring of 1870; one shot in Plymouth Sound,
January 26th, 1875 (J. G., Zool. 1863, p, 8832; 1870, pp. 2026, 2143; 1875, p. 4373;
and MS. Notes; B., MS. Notes).

Montagu met with two specimens, one found dead on the coast of South Devon,
December 4th, 1804, and another taken alive in a pool of fresh water close to the
estuary of Kingsbridge (Orn. Dict.). One was picked up dead on the shore at Mothe-
combe in Erme Mouth, December 6th, 1874, and several have occurred of late years
on the Kingsbridge estuary and on the adjacent shores (H. N., MS. Notes). One was

ses by a dog near Blank’s Mill, on the Kingsbridge estuary, December 2nd, 1886
(H. A..S. E., MS. Notes).

ALCIDA. 4351

One was picked up dead in Torquay Harbour in 1856 (Von H., Zool. 1874, p. 3908),
and another caught by two fishermen in Torbay in 1875 is in the Torquay Museum.

Turton and Kingston mention one that was shot in the neighbourhood of Teign-
mouth,

A Little Auk was found dead on the cricket-field at Exmouth in January 1890
after violent westerly gules.

An immature bird was found dead on the sands at Barnstaple in August 1859.
Three were picked up dead on the banks of the Taw, between Barnstaple and Instow,
at the beginning of September 1868 (G, F. M., Zool. 1868, p. 1460). One from North
Devon, Vecember 7th, 1869 (C. 8.), and another was caught on the Taw near
Barnstaple about December 22nd, 1875 (M. A. M., Zool. 1876, p. 4814).

Other specimens have occurred in the county besides those mentioned above, but
the dates were not recorded. Curiously enough, the Little Auk was obtained in three
years on the same day, viz. 19th December (1850, 1867, and 1869), at Plymouth.

Respecting its appearance in Cornwall Mr. Rodd writes: “ During the
winter months this small sea-bird comes to us from the north in little
parties of ten or a dozen, which soon get broken up and dispersed,
and single individuals find their way into our harbours and estuaries.”
Mr. Mansel-Pleydell states that it is not rare as a winter visitor on the
Dorset coast, being chiefly picked up after heavy gales. Mr. Cecil Smith
mentions two which had come beneath his notice—one caught alive near
Taunton, and another picked up dead on the shore at Burnham ; and there
are other instances of its occurrence in Somerset.

Puffin. Pratercula arctica (Linn.).
[Sea Parrot, Lundy Parrot, Coulter-neb, Nath, Pope: Dev. ]

Resident, being found on some parts of our coasts at all times of the
year. It is scarce on the south, but very abundant on the north coast in
summer, Great numbers breed in burrows on the slopes of Lundy Island,
arriving there early in May. This island derives its name from the
Scandinavian Jwnde, a puffin, and ey, an island (H. Saunders, Yarrell’s
B. Birds, 4th ed. iv. p. 91). On the south coast adults occur occasionally
in summer, as well as in winter, but they are most numerous in February,
when examples are sometimes picked up dead on the shore. Young
birds have also been obtained several times in summer on the south coast.

Unless one actually visits Lundy and Skomer Islands in the months
of May and June it is impossible to form any conception of the in-
eredible number of Puffins which annually frequent them at that season.
At some places in both those great nesting-stations of cliff-birds it
would seem at that time as if there would not be room for another
Puffin. The water beneath the cliffs, almost as far from land as the eye
can reach, is black with a multitude of the birds; little flocks and single
birds are flying to and fro, some of them as they come towards the land
having bunches of small fish depending like ribbons from the edges of
their mandibles, being on their way to feed their young. ow upon row
they are seated upon the rocks and upon the edges of the cliffs; fresh
ones are continually arriving, as one after another from the line becomes
restless and flies off towards the sea. Besides the countless numbers

432 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

before the eye, there is a vast Puffin population underground in their
innumerable burrows, which tunnel a few inches beneath the soil in all
directions, so that when the ground is sandy or friable the foot of the
visitor frequently slips through, causing panic to the patient bird brood-
ing over her freshly hatched young, or sitting on her white, grey-blotched,
egg. The Puffins as often dispossess the rabbits of their earths as they
dig out their own abodes. Sitting down among the sea-pinks, briar-
roses, and snow-white bladder campions, near the edge of a cliff, we have
contemplated with amusement the busy scene, having rows of the birds
perched within a few feet, staring at us inquisitively with their comical
little eyes. One day a snow-white Puffin, with only its wings black,
flew within a yard or two of where we were reclining, and we have seen
a perfect albino, but varieties appear to be rare.

After the nesting-season is over (that is, about the beginning of August)
the Puffins leave the cliffs and spend the rest of the year far out upon
the sea, being oceanic birds, diving and (like the Auks and Guillemots)
flying atter the fish beneath its surface. We have occasionally picked up
dead Puffins on the northern coasts of Devon and Cornwall, but have
found but few lying upon the sands at those seasons when a great
mortality has occurred among the other cliff-birds. Young Puffins re-
semble immature Little Auks in having grey cheeks, and a curious fact
respecting the autumnal moulting of the adults of this species is their
shedding the horny covering of their strangely coloured beaks, which
after this moult become less in size and different in shape, as was ascer-
tained by Dr. Louis Bureau from observations on the coast of Brittany,
and communicated by him to the ‘ Transactions of the Zoological Society
of France.’ There is an epitome of his paper, accompanied by an inter-
esting illustration, in the ‘ Zoologist’ for 1878. The curious puckered
yellow skin, forming a kind of rosette on either side of the gape, is also
modified, so as almost to disappear, at the same time; and another
change is effected in the region of the eyes, the horny patches of skin
above and below the orbits being lost until the following spring.

Montagu says the Puffin occurs occasionally in winter in the south of Devonshire,
and mentions a specimen that was brought to him on February 27th, 1811 (Orn.
Dict.). Dr. E. Moore knew of only one obtained in Plymouth Harbour (Mag. Nat.
Hist. 1857). Bellamy speaks of a very young bird having been captured there (Nat.
Hist. S. Devon, p. 214), and another occurred July 24th, 1855; an adult July 6th,
1857; and a young one August 8th, 1863 (B., MS. Notes). A fine specimen was
secured at Plymouth, January 15th, 1853, and another on January 3rd, 1873; but
Mr. Gatcombe observes that its occurrence in winter is very uncommon on our
southern coast (‘ Naturalist, 1853, p. 228; and MS. Notes). Mr, J. Brooking-Rowe
has two specimens from Plymouth Sound in his collection. One was obtained at
Plymouth, June 7th, 1872; one January 3rd, and another was found dead on the
beach February 5th, 1873 ; some off Plymouth in February 1874; one at the end of
July 1880 (J. G., Zool. 1872, p. 3167 ; 1878, p. 38445; 1874, p. 8944; 1881, p. 51).

A young bird was shot in the mouth of the river Erme in July 1852 (J. B.,
‘ Naturalist,’ 1853, p. 204); specimens have also been met with at the mouth of the
Kingsbridge estuary (H. N.).

We had an adult brought to us which was taken alive on Torbay, May 13th, 1853.
One was picked up dead on the beach near Torquay, February 9th, 1870, where Baron
A. von Hiigel observes that Puffins are unusual visitors (Zool. 1870, p. 2098).

ADDENDA AND CORRIGENDA. 433

A young bird was shot in September 1844 on the Exe estuary, where Mr. Ross
considered the Puffin to be very rare (MS. Journ. iv. p. 86). Mz, Cecil Smith met
with one or two off Exmouth in winter (‘ B. of Somerset,’ p. 553).

Numerous Puffins nest on the Scilly Isles ; also along the Dorset coast,
where Mr. Mansel-Pleydell states that they appear “almost to a day
during the last week in March.”

Puffins wander up the Bristol Channel, and are sometimes seen off the
North Somerset coast,

ADDENDA AND CORRIGENDA.

White’s Thrush (p. 6).—A second Cornish example was obtained on

the Scilly Isles early in December 1886 (TI. Cornish, Zool. 1887,
p. 114).

Ring-Ouzel (p. 8).—In Carrington’s ‘ Dartmoor,’ published in 1826,
the bird which appears to the members of the Oxenham family before
death is described ‘ with a white crest.” This is probably a misprint
for ‘“‘ white brest,” as it is given in ‘ Familiar Letters’ of James
Howell, from whence Carrington derived his information (cf. R. W.
Cotton in Trans. Devon. Assoc. vol. xiv. (1882), p. 221). In his
‘ History of Devonshire’ Mr. R. N. Worth has recorded a very recent
instance of the Oxenham “Omen.” A white bird is said to have
appeared “ outside the windows of a house in Kensington a week
before the death of Mr. G. N. Oxenham, then head of the family, in
1873. The bird refused for some minutes to be driven away, and a

sound like the fluttering of wings is stated to have been heard in the
bedroom.”

Wheatear (p. 9).—Mr. E. A. S. Elliot sometimes meets with very
large males in his district.

Black Redstart (p. 12).—The young males, in their second year’s
plumage, when the alar patch is very faintly indicated, were by
some ornithologists considered a distinct race, and were called
Stuticilla cairvt. It is said that they both sing and breed in this
plumage, and Mr. O. V. Aplin has informed us that in Switzerland
they were to be found lower down on the mountains than the full-
plumaged adults, which keep very high up. On account of the
valuable communications made by Mr. J. Gatcombe on the Black
Redstart to the ‘ Zoologist’ and to various ornithological works, we
have selected this species to be the subject of one of our plates, and
have figured an adult male, as well as a young male in the cairit
dress, the latter taken from one shot by ourselves towards the end of
March in our garden at Bishop’s Lydeard, near Taunton.

Lesser Whitethroat (p. 18).—This species is marked as occurring at
Kousdon in Sir Henry Peek’s Catalogue.

2F

454 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

Blackcap (p. 19).—Mr. T. R. A. Briggs found that this Warbler fed
much on the berries of Leycesteria formosa in August. The Robin
will also eat these berries, which have a very strong and peculiar
flavour. We have seen Blackcaps eating pears in October (1887) at
Exmouth. To the quotation from the ‘ Zoologist’ for 1891 add: “and
a pair frequented a garden at Ilfracombe up to January 8th, 1891.”

Dartford Warbler (p. 20).—We find the following entry in a note-
book belonging to Col. Montagu, apparently written in February
1799 :—“ I saw two or three Dartford Warblers in November in a
turnip-field. ‘The turnips were exceedingly thick, under the leaves
ot which they secreted themselves {so| that it was impossible to shoot
them. They moved a great distance under concealment, so that
*twas very difficult to make them take wing.”

Goldcrest (p. 21).—According to observations made by Mr. Briggs, the
Goldcrest sings through the greater part of the year, from January
to October. He found nests from April to August with unincubated
eggs, and thought the same pair built more than once in the season,

Fire-crest (p. 22).—<As we are frequently having adult male Goldcrests
forwarded to us for this bird, it may be useful to state that the
Fire-crest, in all stages of plumage, is to be easily recognized by the
white line above the eye.

Wood-Warbler (p. 24).—Mr. Briggs records the dates on which
he first heard the song of this bird in fifteen years: once on
April 14th (1869); four times in the third week of April; six times
in the last week of April; and four times in the first week of May.
On June 18th, 1870, he heard one having a remarkable variation in
its song—sometimes, instead of the final long note, the bird introduced
others which resembled the chattering notes of the Common Wren.
Mr. Briggs observed that the nest of this Warbler is composed of fine
dry grass without a single feather, and is lined with the same
material, a few hairs being sometimes used; and occasionally the
outside of the nest is constructed of dead leaves.

The Wood-Warbler is marked as occurring at Rousdon in Sir
Henry Peek’s Catalogue.

[Icterine Warbler (p. 24).—According to Mr. Howard Saunders
(‘Manual of B. Birds,’ p. 70), Hypolais icterina (Vieillot) is very
abundant in the north-east of France, extending westward as far,
perhaps, as the mouth of the Somme, to the west of which river a
very closely-allied species, H. polyglotta, is found. ‘The latter is
common round Paris and west of the line of the Seine, as well as in
the southern provinces; also in Portugal, Spain, and N.W. Africa.
Most probably Bellamy’s bird belonged to this western form. |]

Grasshopper Warbler (p. 28).— Marked as having been seen in the
parish of Rousdon in Sir H. Peek’s Catalogue.

Dipper (p. 30).—Mr. Briggs heard one or two Dippers singing from
alder branches overhanging the Plym River, September 6th, 1887,

ADDENDA AND CORRIGENDA. 435

and observed that the song had considerable variety, reminding him
of some of the notes of the Thrush (but given with much less power),
mingled with one or two of those of the Redbreast, and was of the
character of the melody appertaining to the Thrushes. In our wading
up the North-Devon streams when trout-fishing, we have come across
numerous nests of the Dipper, which we have found to be constructed
of very varying materials; some are built entirely of dead oak-leaves,
others of moss and dead leaves interwoven, resembling large nests of
the Common Wren. ‘The nests are generally dome-shaped, and are
sometimes built in holes in masonry or in rocks. We were one day
leaning against a moss-covered rock by the side of a stream, and in
so doing inadyertently imprisoned a Dipper, which flew out of her
nest when we moved, Like many nests we have seen of the Common
Wren, it harmonized so well in its materials with its surroundings
that it had easily escaped our notice. It contained fresh-laid eggs.

Blue Titmouse (p. 35).—The grub in the centre of the hard round galls
on the oak made by Cynips kollari is a favourite food of the Blue Tit.
The oaks in Devonshire were completely covered with these galls
about 1853, so much so as to attract general attention to them ; but,
thanks to the Tits which picked open the galls and extracted their
occupants, they are now comparatively scarce.

Marsh-Titmouse (p. 35).—This Tit is very fond of thistle-seed, and
in the autumn may be frequently seen clinging to the thistle heads,
extracting the seed with its beak, and carrying them to a neighbouring
hedgerow to pick out the contents. On 5th June, 1870, Mr. Briggs
saw a Marsh-Tit carrying something away from a plant of Mer-
curtalis perennis, and found it had lost some of its seeds, one having
been probably taken by the bird; and detected another Marsh-Tit
extracting the seeds from the berries of the honeysuckle (on September
4th, 1876). Marsh-Tits, like Blue Tits, sometimes obtain a meal
from the horse-droppings on the highway; they are very fond of
seeds, and will pick up and carry off grains of maize thrown out for
poultry. Mr. Briggs generally found the nest of this Tit in a hollow
apple-tree [we have found willows the usual trees selected by this
species], but on May 25th, 1871, he found one in a hole between
some stones on a bank near Upperton, Bickleigh; the bird hissed at
him when on the nest.

Pied Wagtail (p. 39).—A pair of these Wagtails were seen pulling
the fur from off a dead mole in the court at Fursdon, May 2nd, 1855
trae A.B.)

Grey Wagtail (p. 40)—Mr. Briggs found a nest containing three
nearly full-grown young ones, which was built against a bank
of earth at Tamerton Foliot, near a mill-stream. ‘The nest was
small, and not very neatly constructed, and the old birds were agitated
and vociferous, This was on 24th July, 1860, and, from the lateness
of the date and the slovenliness of the nest, we believe that the birds

.) ¢
2F2

436 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

had met with some accident to their first or even second brood, as
all the nests we have taken of this Wagtail have been singularly
compact and well made.

Golden Oriole (p. 46).—The Rey. Dr. Kerr obligingly informed us
that one of these birds was seen by him near St. Mary Clyst in 1890.
He first saw it in his orchard in the month of August quite close to
him, and it did not seem at all wild. He watched carefully for
another sight of it, and had nearly given up all hope of it, when it
appeared again in September, and, after remaining afew days, finally
disappeared.

Spotted Flycatcher (p. 52).—On 31st May, 1883, Mr. Briggs found
a nest of this bird at Fursdon with five eggs, that was built on the
top of a Hedge-Sparrow’s nest in which a brood had been hatched
that season. It was placed in a hollow behind some ivy stems
ugainst the bole of a spruce, and on 6th July following there was a
second nest with four eggs on the same site.

Pied Flycatcher (p. 53)—Marked as occurring in the parish of
Rousdon by Swaysland in Sir H. Peek’s Catalogue.

Serin (p. 62).—A specimen of the Serin was captured by an old bird-
catcher between Exmouth and Budleigh Salterton, November 29th,
1891 (W. E. H. Pidsley, Zool. 1892, p. 114). Mr. Cecil Smith
(B. of Somerset, p. 180) recorded an example of this small Finch
which was shot at Taunton in January or February 1866, and was
added to Mr. Byne’s collection. Mr. Smith, however, considered that
it had, in all kelihood, escaped from a cage. The Serin is a native
of Southern Europe and North Africa.

Hawfinch (p. 63).—We have seen Hawfinches in the month of June in
the beautiful vale of Wrington in Somerset, where they were doubt-
less nesting. Mr. Mansel-Pleydell mentions two instances of a nest
haying been found in his county of Dorset, to which he considered
the bird was chiefly an occasional winter visitant.

Tree-Sparrow (p. 64).—Occurs at Rousdon (Sir H. Peek’s Catalogue).

Mealy Redpoll (p. 67).—This species is absent from the Dorsetshire
list of birds.

Twite (p. 68).—Also marked in Sir H. Peek’s Catalogue as having
occurred at Rousdon.

Common Crossbill (p. 71).—In addition to the occurrences of this
bird which we have given, we may mention a small flock reported by
Bellamy to have visited Yealmpton at the beginning of October 1835 ;
another seven years before he wrote (1835), and another twenty-five
years before (N. H. 8. D. p. 383).

Cirl Bunting (p. 75).—Mr. Briggs observes that this Bunting and the
Common Bunting appear to be as much summer and early autumn
songsters as the Yellow Bunting. He thought that as a rule the
Cirl Bunting sings from a greater elevation than the Yellow Bunting,

ADDENDA AND CORRIGENDA. 437

and noted that it commenced to sing in February and continued its
song until April and May, resuming it again in August until
December. The Cirl Bunting was much less common around him
at Fursdon in 1886 than it had been in the previous year, owing to
a severe intervening winter. It is marked as occurring at Rousdon.

Snow-Bunting (p. 77).— Has been obtained at Rousdon. Mr. E. ALS.
Elliot shot an adult male in a turnip-field close to Bolt Head on
9th October, 1891.

Rose-coloured Pastor (p. 81).—This bird, according to Mr. Mansel-
Pleydell, is an irregular autumnal visitor to Dorsetshire, where the
specimens obtained are mostly in immature plumage.

(Red-winged Starling (Ageleus pheniceus (Linn.)).—This well-
known American bird has occurred about a dozen times in the United
Kingdom, and has been said to have been obtained in North Devon,
but we have never seen any specimen from the county. However,
one was certainly captured at the Nash Lighthouse on the opposite
side of the Bristol Channel on 27th October, 1886, at 3 a.m. One
was also shot at Swanpool, near Falmouth, in August 1881 (Zool.
1881, p. 384. ]

Jay (p. 86).—In April 1853 we saw a Jay struck down by a Sparrow-
Hawk, but it recovered and escaped.

Magpie (p. 87).—We observed a pair of Magpies nesting at Exmouth as
early in the year as February in 1890. ‘he late Mr. F. W. L. Ross,
of ‘Topsham, possessed a very tame Magpie for many years which he
kept in his garden. Somehow or other it managed to break off its
lower mandible close to the head, and Mr. Ross, having carefully
modelled a substitute out of very hard wood, riveted it on to the
stump with brass wire. The Magpie seemed none the worse for the
operation, and not in the least incommoded, but ate and talked as
well as ever, and when we saw it in March 1853, appeared in
perfect health. ‘The artificial mandible was so well made that it
could hardly be detected.

Rook (p. 93).—Evyeryone who has lived near a Rookery must be
acquainted with the fact that in the night, when the moon is
bright, the Rooks are liable to sudden panics, dashing off from the
trees with piercing shrieks very detrimental to sleep. We attribute
these alarms to Owls passing near the Rookery ; a Hawk flying past
in the daytime produces similar commotion.

Raven (p. 96).—Lord Portsmouth has kindly informed us that Ravens
used to build in some old oaks in the Deer Park at Eggesford until
within a few years. We learn from Mr. O, Greig that a pair of
Rayens came to the neighbourhood of Holsworthy in the autumn of
1891; he had also seen Ravens at Bude and Morwenstowe.

Shore-Lark (p. 104).—We have omitted to record two Shore-Larks
that were shot in the parish of St. Merryn, not far from Padstow

438 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

(see Zool. 1879, p. 489). Three have been obtained in the county
of Dorset.

Great Spotted Woodpecker (p. 111).—“ Heard some young birds
making a noise in Saltram Wood in a hollow oak, and saw a Great
Spotted Woodpecker near, so discovered the noise proceeded from a
brood of the species (14th June, 1860). The Great Spotted Wood-
pecker visited Fursdon this season ; one or two have been noticed
for a week past or more, attracted very possibly by the wild cherries
now about here (léth July, 1886).” (T. R. A. B.)

Wryneck (p. 114).—Mr. Mansel-Pleydell states that the Wryneck is
well known jn Dorset as a summer migrant, but we should doubt its
being numerous in the extreme west of that county. In Cornwall,
according to Mr. Rodd, it is only seen rarely in the autumn, and in
the neighbourhood of the coast.

Roller (p. 117).—To the West Country Rollers we can add an example
that was shot near Dorchester in 1868, the only Dorsetshire speci-
men known to Mr. Mansel-Pleydell. In addition to the four recorded
by Mr. Rodd is another shot at Falmouth in October 1842, that was
described by Dr. Bullmore in his ‘ Cornish Fauna.’

Bee-eater (p. 118).—Mr. Mansel-Pleydell states that the Bee-eater
shot at Chideock is now in the Bridport Museum.

Cuckoo (p. 121).—This bird very frequently lays its eggs in the nest
of the Robin, and according to observations made by Mr. Henry
Nichoils it would appear probable that it sometimes selects that of
the Swallow. (Zool. 1869, p. 1866.)

“A Titlark flew up from a nest on Crownhill Down, in which I
discovered a very recently hatched young Cuckoo perfectly bare of
feathers, and on the edge of the nest a Titlark quite as young which
the Cuckoo had no doubt turned out of it. I replaced it in the nest,
and the Cuckoo soon began to endeavour to again eject it. By
means of the tips of its wings and its claws, which it stuck into the
materials of the nest, it lifted it up to the brim, but did not succeed
in getting it out whilst I watched it, as the branches of ling and
coarse grass growing outside the part of the nest whither it brought
its burthen prevented its falling over. The only place where it
seemed possible for it to effect its purpose was that where I found it
at first, on account of the impediments the ling and grass presented
all around the other portion of the nest. Its back was remarkably
flat, and the tips of its wings had a remarkable curvature that
enabled it to use them as if they had been claws in elevating its
burthen.” (T. R. A. B.)

Snowy Owl (p. 134).—Mr. Mansel-Pleydell states that a Snowy Owl
shot at Langston Copse in Dorsetshire (he mentions no date) is in
Mr. Farquharson’s collection.

ADDENDA AND CORRIGENDA. 439

Little Owl (p. 137).—Mr. Rodd mentions one obtained near Helston in
Cornwall many years ago.

[Scops Owl (Scops giu (Scopoli)).—A single example of this tiny eared
Owl was recorded by Mr. W. Thompson as having been killed many
years ago at Buckland Ripers in Dorsetshire (Mansel-Pleydell, B. of
Dorset, p. 15). Two are also included among very rare stragglers
to Cornwall : “ one, captured at Scilly, in April 1847, has been figured
by Mr. Gould in his beautiful folio work ‘ The Birds of Great Britain,’ ”
Mr. Rodd also mentions ancther from Trevethoe, near Hayle, obtained
in January 1871.]

Montagu’s Harrier (p. 143).—The Rev. W. Willimott has informed
us that during the time he resided in Cornwall he had several nests
of this Harrier brought to him from the Goonhilly Downs, where the
birds were not rare. Mr. Henry Nicholls received an adult male
from Goodrington, which had a slow-worm in its crop. In addition
to the numerous Devonshire specimens of Montagu’s Harrier which
we have recorded, we may mention a pair of adults in Mr. Elliot’s
fine collection.

Buzzard (p. 145).—“ Satisfactory evidence of the existence of Buteo
vulgaris in the Pleistocene of Devonshire is afforded by three speci-
mens in the British Museum from brixham cave, near Torquay.
One of these specimens is an imperfect sacrum and pelvis, which
exhibits the sudden deflection of the hinder part of the ilia so
characteristic of the Accipitres.” (Mr. R. Lydekker, ‘ Ibis,’ 1891,
p. 387.)

White-tailed Eagle (p. 150).—Mr. J.C. Williams, of Caerhays Castle,
St. Austell, saw an Eagle at the end of December 1891, which
several times approached within twenty yards of him. From his
familiarity with the bird in Scotland, he believed that he recognized
it to be a Golden Eagle, but it was more probably a specimen of the
White-tailed Eagle. For information of this interesting occurrence
we are indebted to the Rev. W. Willimott.

Mr. O. Greig has informed us that he saw two Eagles near Mor-
wenstowe, in N. Cornwall, not long since.

Kite (p. 155).—A male in fine plumage was shot by the keeper at
Clewance, near Camborne, in Cornwall, the seat of the Rev. St.
Aubyn St. Aubyn, in the spring of 1882. ‘This bird had been seen at
several places in the neighbourhood previously. (I. Cornish, Zool.
1882, p. 190.)

Honey-Buzzard (p. 157).—Mr. Mansel-Plevdell states that this bird
goes by the name of the “ Capped Buzzard” in Dorsetshire, where
it is an occasional summer migrant. Mr. G. B. Corbin, of Ringwood,
described a fine female which had been killed early in June 1887 at
Wimborne (Zool. 1887, p. 350) that had its feet covered with cow-
dung in which it had evidently been scratching for grubs. In its
gizzard were the remains of Cockchafers, Karwigs, and of the larvee
of the common * Gamma” moth,

440 THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

Merlin (p. 165).—Mr. James Rowe, of Barnstaple, has received seven or
eight at different dates.

Red-footed Falcon (p. 167).—In addition to the two Cornish speci-
mens we have mentioned Mr. Rodd states (‘ B. of Cornwall, p. 307)
that Mr. W. B. Cocks, of Falmouth, a very good observer, saw one at
Budock, near that port, which rose out of furze within three yards of
him, in May 1551.

Cormorant (p. 174).—Mr. James Rowe, of Barnstaple, once took a
2-lb. Salmon Peal from the stomach of one of these birds.

Gannet (p. 177).—A young Gannet was captured by a fisherman, whilst
fast asleep, on the banks of the Avon in October 1891 (A. H. Palmer).

Heron (p. 182).—Mr. James Rowe, of Barnstaple, has informed us that
he once received an old Heron which had the breast-feathers reaching
below the knees, while the feathers of the crest were over a foot in
length!

Besides the Somerset Heronries we have mentioned there are two
others: one at Halswell, near Bridgwater (Mr. C. Kemeys-Tynte),
where Mr. Cecil Smith ascertained that there were about fifty nests
in trees in the park in 1883; and another in the woods at Brockley,
near Bristol (Mr. Cecil Smyth-Pigott).

Purple Heron (p. 183).—We have omitted to mention a female Purple
Heron in the Rev. W. 8. Hore’s collection which he obtained from
Pincombe, of Piymouth, ‘and closely inspected the body immediately
after the bird was skinned.” (W. 8. H., tm litt.)

Bittern (p. 191).— We regret to state that three Bitterns were killed at
Slapton Ley in January 1892. Mr. W. V. Toll had seen two of

them within fiftcen feet of him a short time previously, and had left
them unmolested.

Grey Lag Goose (p. 205).—*‘ On 25th October, 1889, I winged a male
Grey Lag Goose. It was caught the next day by a visitor at the
Sands Hotel called Pierce, of Clifton. I wrote to him, and he had
the bird preserved—a very good specimen.” (Walter V. Toll, ia
litt.)

Wigeon (p. 221).—On the 6th of August, 1891, Mr. W. V. Toll, when
shooting with Mr. Lucas, killed three ‘‘ Yellow-polls” (adult Common
Wigeon) on Slapton Ley.

Common Teal (p. 228).—According to Mr. W. YV. Toll, numbers of
Teal breed on Slapton Ley.

Shoveller (p. 230).—A young Shoveller was shot on Slapton Ley on

6th August, 1891, by Mr. W. VY. Toll when in company with
Mr. Lucas.

Pheasant (p. 262).—In September 1625, at two banquets provided on
the occasion of a visit from Charles I. to Plymouth, amongst other

ADDENDA AND CORRIGENDA. 44]

birds there were seven Pheasants at the first and five at the second.
(Trans. Devon. Assoc. vol. x. p. 255.) Pheasants have been turned
down on the Scilly Isles, where they do well, but, according to
Mr. 'T. Cornish, never attain to any large size.

Corn-Crake (p. 280).—Mr. William Leir shot one of these birds at

Combe Head, Bampton, on 12th January, 1892. (‘ Field,’ 16th Jan.,
1892.)

Coot (p. 28+4).—Mr. Walter V. Toll, speaking of Slapton Ley, says :—

** A fairly large number of Coots breed here, but not a great many in
the Ley proper. As the breeding-season draws near the Coots that
do not migrate come up to our [the Strete] portion of the Ley and
nest, quite twenty to one to what they do at the other end of the
Ley. No doubt a large number come to the Ley, sometimes late,
sometimes early: last year (1891) late—middle of December; and

the late cold weather brought in a lot more” (in litt. Jan. 17th,
1892).

Great Bustard (p. 290).—Mr. Gatcombe had an opportunity of ex-

amining the Bustard killed in the parish of Bratton Clovelly on
December 31st, 1851. It proved to be a female, and the stomach
contained a large quantity of turnip-leaves mixed with several flat
flinty stones about the size of a sixpence. The bases of the feathers
on the breast and back were of a beautiful rose colour.

x, We presume the sea was ascertained by dissection. When
we saw this fine specimen we judged it, from its size, to be a male
bird (M. A. M.).

Little Bustard (p. 293)—In his ‘Gleanings of Natural History,’

vol. iv. (London, 1758), Mr. George Edwards gives a coloured plate
of a Little Bustard which was sent up from Cornwall, and exhibited
before a meeting of the Royal Society in London in 1751, when no
one present was able to say what it was, and it was accordingly
forwarded to him for his opinion uponit. (Vide ‘ Transactions R. 8.’
for 1754.)

Ivory Gull (p. 371)—Having recently had an opportunity of examin-

ing a number of skins of this rare species which were obtained at
Jan Mayen in March 1891 we noticed that the adults varied greatly
in size, some being at least two inches longer than others. Our
friend Mr. J. Gatcombe has recorded how greatly some other Gulls
(Herring, Iceland, &c.) differed in size, so that it is interesting to be
able to add the Ivory Gull to the list. The Torquay specimen is
nearly adult.

Kittiwake (p. 371).—Mr. G. F. Mathew, R.N., has informed us that

when he was on a voyage to Halifax in November 1891 on board
H.M.S. ‘ Tyne’ he noticed Kittiwakes every day all the way across
the Atlantic, and that these Gulls were also plentiful in Halifax
harbour. On nearing the coast the Kittiwakes were joined by Black-

449 _ THE BIRDS OF DEVON.

backed, Herring-, and Glaucous Gulls, while Little Auks, Fulmars,
Guillemots, &c. were in hundreds (G. F. M., in litt. Dec. 19th, 1891).

Sabine’s Gull (p. 387).—Mr. T. Cooper, taxidermist, of Poole, Dorset,
forwarded a list of rare birds that had recently been obtained in
Poole Harbour to ‘Land and Water’ for March 19th, 1892. In it
is included a Sabine’s Gull, but the state of plumage and the date of
capture are not mentioned, and we suppose that it occurred at the
same period when several other examples of this species were secured
on the 8.W. coasts, viz. after the heavy October gales in 1891.

Buffon’s Skua (p. 397).—Mr. T. Cooper also reports two Buffon’s
Skuas from Poole Harbour, probably shot in October 1891, when
these birds visited other parts of the S8.W. coasts.

Great Northern Diver (p. 410).—The Divers are extremely inquisi-
tive. Mr. J. Tarratt has informed us that in the far north of
Norway a lure of red cloth displayed upon the shore would often be
successful in attracting the Great Northern Divers to swim within
range of a gunner posted in ambush. In Zool. for 1876, p. 4785,
Mr. J. Gatcombe records that on Dec. 19th, 1875, there were three
of these birds off Firestone Bay, “two of which would turn almost
completely over on their backs, with one leg in the air, during the
act of preening the feathers of the breast; they had also a singular
habit, whilst swimming, of thrusting out one leg from behind, which
they waved high above the water, like a fan.”

INDEX.

[Brackets denote names of birds not admitted into the Census of Species
found in Devonshire. |

‘ Aberdevine’ (Siskin), 62.

Accentor, Alpine, 29.

Accentor collaris, 29.

modularis, 29.

ACCENTORING, 29.

Accipiter nisus, 153.

ACCIPITRES, 159.

‘Ackmal’ (Great and Blue Tit-
mouse), 54, 35.

Acredula rosea, 54.

Acrocephalus { palustris), 27.

phragmitis, 27.

streperus, 27.

[turdoides)|, 27.

[ Actiturus longicauda], 311, 345,

| Adriatic Gull |, 387.

Aédon galactodes, 25,

Ayialitis cantiana, 302.

‘euronica |, 304,

hiaticula, 305.

—— intermedia, 304.

—— [vocifera), 304.

Ar sponsa, 221.

‘African Heron’ (Purple Heron), 183.

{ Ageleus pheniceus |, 437.

Alauda arborea, 101,

arvensis, 100.

cristata, 102.

ALAUDID&, 99.

Alcea \impennis), 424.

torda, 423.

ALCEDINID&H, 115,

Alcedo ispida, 115.

ALCIDE, 422,

ALECTORIDES, 2:6,

Alpine Accentor, 29,

Swift, 107.

American Littern, 193.

American [Egret |, 185.
(Green Heron], 194.
Green-winged Teal, 229.
—— [Snow-Goose (Cassin’s) |, 201.
—— Stint, 311, 335.

—— [Trumpeter Swan], 217.
| Wigeon ], 225,
AMPELID#, 51,

Ampelis garrulus, 51,

Anas boscas, 225,

ANATID#, 200,
ANISODACTYLA:, 115.

[| Anous stolidus |, 358.
ANSERES, 200.

Anser albifrons, 207.

-— [brachyrhynchus |, 207.
cinereus, 205.

segetum, 206,

Anthus obscurus, 46.
pratensis, 45.

—— richardi, 44.

—— rupestris, 46.

—— spipoletta, 45,

trivialis, 44.

Aquatic WarBLErs, THR, 26.
Aquila | chrysaétus |, 150.
[elanga)\, 149.
Archibuteo lagopus, 147.
(sancti~johannis |, 145,
‘Arctic Skua’ (Richardson’s), 395.
Tern, 359.

Ardea alba, 184.

—— bubuleus, 185.
(candidissima |, 185.
— cinerea, 180,

— [egretta}, 185.

—— yarzetta, 185.

purpurea, 133.

444 INDEX.

Ardea ralloides, 186.

ARDEID#, 179.

Ardetta minuta, 188.

‘Ash-coloured Falcon’ (Montagu’s
Harrier), 143.

Asio brachyotus, 130.

otus, 129.

ASIONID#&, 129.

| Astur palumbarius |, 152.

Athene noctua, 137.

‘ Atterflitter ’ (Jack Snipe), 329.

Auk [Great], 424.

, Little, 430.

, Razor-billed, 423.

[Australian Black Swan], 217.

Avocet, 312,

[ Baillon’s Crake}, 2
‘ Bald Coot’ ed BL
Balearic Crane |, 286.
Balearica pavonina |, 286.
‘ Bank Martin’ (Sand-Martin), 59.
[Barbary Partridge |, 266.
‘ Barley Bird’ (Common Gull), 379,
Barnacle Goose, 209.
Barn-Owl, 126,
| Barrow’s Golden-eye], 287.
3ar-tailed Godwit, 352.
| Bartram’s Sandpiper], 311, 345.
Bean-Goose, 206.
Bearded Titmouse, ‘ Reedling,’ 32.
‘ Bee-bird ’ (Whitethroat), ive
Bee-eater, 118, 438.
Bernicla brenta, 208.
canadensis, 210.
leucopsis, 209,
ruficollis, 211.
Bewick’s Swan, 215.
‘ Billy-biter’ (Blue Titmouse), 3 Bo.
Bittern, American, 193.
, Common, 191, 440,
= Little, 188,
* Blackbill’ (Carrion-Crow), 91.
[Black- billed Cuckoo }, 124.
jlackbird, 6.
B lackcap, 19, 484,
Black Cock (Grouse), 272.
‘ Curlew’ (Glossy Ibis), 198.
Guillemot, 429.
— ‘Kite’ (Buzzard), 145.
Redstart, 12, 433.
— Stork, 196.
— Tern, 367.
—— ‘Wigeon’ (Tufted Duck), 232.

‘Black Drush’ (Blackbird), 6.
‘Duck’ (Common Scoter),

242,
[ Black-headed Bunting], 73.
—— ‘Bob’ (Great Titmouse},

bd.

— ‘Tit’ (Marsh Titmouse),

Gull, 382.
Warbler, 18.
Black-tailed Godwit, 353.
Black-throated Diver, 412.
—— [Wheatearj, 9.
Black-toed Gulls (Skuas), 390.
Black-winged Stilt, 315,
‘ Blossom Bird’ (Goldtinch), 61.
‘ Blue Bill’ (Scaup), 233.
‘ Blue Bird’ (Fieldtare), 4
‘Bluecap’ (Blue Titmouse), 35.
‘Blue Darr’ (Black Tern), 368,
‘Blue Hawk’ (Peregrine), 160,
(Hen-Harrier), 141.
Blue-headed Yellow Wagtail, 41.
Blue Rock’ (Rock-Dove), 255.
‘ Blue Spick’ (Blue Titmouse), 35.
Bluethroat, Red-spotted, 14.
, White-spotted, 14.
Blue Titmouse, 35, 435.
Blithpecker ’ (Blue Titmouse), 35,
‘ Boatswain Gull’ ( ey ge oS and
Richardson’s Skuas), 392, 3
Bohemian Waxwing, 51.
[| Bonaparte’s Gull], 386.
Sandpiper, 311, 531.
‘Bonxie ’ (Common ’Skua), 391.
Botaurus le ontiginosus, 193,
stellaris, 191.
‘ Bottle Tit ’ (Long-tailed Titmouse),

Brambling, 65.

Brent Goose, 208.

‘Bridled Guillemot’ (Common
Guillemot), 427.

British Coal Titmouse, 35.

— Long-tailed Titmouse, 34,

( Broad- -billed Sandpiper], 312,

‘Brownbill’ (Common Guillemot),
427,

‘Brown Linnet’ (Linnet), 66.

‘Owl’ (Tawny Ow)), 132.

‘Snipe’ (Red-breasted Snipe),
Bol.

(Briinnich’s Guillemot], 429.

| Bulo ignavus |, 137.

INDEX. 445

‘ Budfinch,’ ‘ Budpicker’ (Bullfinch),
G9.

Buthbacked Heron, 185.

Buff-breasted Sandpiper, 311, 342.

Buffon’s Skua, 397, 442.

Bullfinch, 69.

[ Bulwer’s Petrel j, 400.

Buntirg [Black-headed], 73.

, Carl, 75, 436.

‘a Corn, 74.

—— {Lapland}, 74.

—— {Little}, 73.

— | Ortolan], 73.

——, Reed, 76.

—— [Rustic], 73.

, snow, 77, 437.

—,, Yellow, 75.

Buntincs, Tu, 73.

‘ Bunting Lark’ (Corn-Bunting), 74.

‘ Burgomaster ’ (Glaucous Gull), 373.

‘Burrow Duck’ (Sheldrake), 219.

Bustard, Great, 290, 441.

, Little, 293, 441.

, Macqueen’s, 290.

——,, Thick-kneed, 294,

BustTarps, THR, 239.

‘Butcher Bird’ (Red-backed
Shrike), 49.

Buteo vulgaris, 145.

| Butorides virescens |, 194.

‘Butter Ball’ (Buttel-headed Duck),
238.

Buzzard, 145, 439.

, Honey, 157, 459.

——, Rough-legved, 147.

—. ” « Moor? (Marsh- Harrier), 140.

Caccabis [ petrosa), 266.
rufa, 265.
Calandra Lark, 103.
[ Calandrella brachydactyla), 102.
Calidris arenaria, 541.
*Calloo’ (Long-tailed Duck), 239.
Canada Goose, 210,
Capped Petrel |, 400.
JAPRIMULGIDZ, 107.
Caprimulqus [egyptius |, 109.
europeus, 107.
(ruficollis |, 109.
Carduelis elegans, 61.
Carrion-Crow, 91.
Caspian Tern, 363.
‘ Cathead,’ Catpoll ’
Ploy er), 803,

(Ringed

Certhia familiaris, 60.

CERTHID, 60.

Chaffinch, 65.

‘Channel Goose’ (Gaunet), 177.

Charadrius {dominicus |, 301.

[ fulvus], 300.

pluvialis, 299.

CHARADRIIDS, 297.

Cuats, THR, 8.

Chaulelasmus streperus, 226.

‘ Chauk’ (Jackdaw), 90.

Chelidon urbica, 58.

Chenalopex egyptiacus, 201.

‘ Chickell’ (Wheatear), 9

Chiffchaff, 23.

Chimney-Swallow (Swallow), 57.

‘ Chink’ (Chaffinch), 65.

Chough, 83.

Chrysomitris spinus, 62.

Ciconia alba, 195.

nigra, 196.

Crconup»®, 194.

CrncLips, 30.

Cinclus aquaticus, 30.

Circus eruginosus, 140.

cineraceus, 143.

cyaneus, 141.

Cirl Bunting, 75, 436.

Clangula albeola, 238.

glaucion, 236.

tslandica, 237.

Currr-Bmps, THE, 422.

* Cliff-Culver’ (Rock-Dove), 25

‘Clit}Hawk’ (Peregrine), 160.

‘Climb-tree’ (Tree-Creeper), 60.

‘Coal Tit,’ 35.

‘Coal-hood’ (Bullfinch), 69.

‘Cobb’ (Great Black-backed Gull),
380.

Coccothraustes vulgaris, 68.

COCCYGES, 121.

Coccyzus americanus, 124.

[erythrophthalmus], 124.

: oy, Noddy’ (Common Gull),

379.

[Collared Pratincole |, 296.

[Collared Turtle }, 257.

*Colly’ (Blackbird), 6.

Columba livia, 255.

nas, 252.

—- palumbus, 251.

COLUMBZ:, 24),

CoLuMBID™®, 249,

CoLyYMBID&, 400,

446

Colymbus [adamst}, 411.

arcticus, 412,

—- glacialis, 410.

septentrionalis, 415.

Common Crossbill, 71,436.

Guillemot, 427.

Gull, 379.

Sandpiper, 544.

Scoter, 242.

— Sheldrake, 219.

—— Skua, 391.

—— Snipe, 324.

—— Teal, 228, 440.

— Tern, 360.

‘ Thick-knee,’ 294.

Coot, 234, 441.

‘Coot-footed Sandpiper’ (Grey
Phalarope), 315.

‘ Copperfinch ’ (Chaffinch), 65,

Coractas garrulus, 117.

Coracup#, 117.

Cormorant, 174, 440.

, ‘Crested,’ 176.

,* Green,’ 176.

Cormorants, THE, 172.

Corn-Bunting, 74.

Corn-Crake, 280, 441.

Corvip», 82.

Corvus corax, 96.

corm, 92,

corone, 91.

— fruyilegus, 95.

monedula, 90.

[ Cosmonetta histrionica |, 238.

Cotile riparia, 59.

Coturnix communis, 269,

‘Coulter-neb’ (Puffin), 431.

Courser, Cream-coloured, 298.

‘Cracky’ or ‘Crackil’? (Wren),

37.
Crake { Baillon’s], 278.
, Corn, 280, 441.
— , Little, 279.
, Spotted, 277.
Crane, 287.
[Balearic], 286.
—— | Demoiselle], 286.
Siberian], 286.
‘Crane’ (Heron), 180.
Cranes, THR, 286.
‘ Crasset-Hawk ’ (Kestrel), 168,
Cream-coloured Courser, 298.
Creeper, Tree-, 60.
Crested Cormorant, 176.

INDEX.

Crested Lark, 102.

Titmouse, 36.

Crex pratensis, 280,

‘ Criss Hawk’ (Kestrel), 168.
Crossbill, Common, 71, 436,

, Parrot, 72.

, White-winged, 73.

Crow, Carrion, 91.

, Hooded, 92.

——,, ‘ Mussel,’ 92.

——,, ‘ Red-legged’ (Chough), 83.
, ‘ Royston,’ 92.

‘Cuckle’ (Manx Shearwater), 404.
Cuckoo, 121, 458.

(‘American Black-billed ’],

124.

, American Yellow-billed, 124.
‘Cuckoo Curlew’ (Whimbrel), 354.
‘Cuckoo’s Mate’ (Wryneck), 115.
CucuLipa, 121.

Cuculus canorus, 121.

‘Cuddy Vran’ (Wren), 37.
‘Culver’ (Ring-Dove), 251.
[Cuneate-tailed Gull], 387.
Curlew, 355.

, ‘Cuckoo’ (Whimbrel), 354.
—— [Esquimanx ], 311, 356.
—-, ‘ Jack’ (Whimbrel), 354.
——,, Stone, 294.

——,, ‘Stone’ (Whimbrel), 354.

, ‘ Whistling,’ 355,

Curlew Sandpiper, 336,

Cursorius gallicus, 298.

‘Cur Wigeon’ (Golden-eye), 236.
(Pochard), 235.
‘Curwilly’ (Ringed Plover), 303.
“Cutty ’ (Wren), 37.

Cyanecula leucocyana, 14.

suecica, 14.

Cygnus | americanus}, 217.

—— |atrata], 217.

bewicki, 215.

—— [buecinator), 217.
emmutabilis, 214,

musicus, 214,

olor, 212.

CYPSELIT, 105.

CypsELips®, 105.

Cypselus apus, 105,

melba, 107.

‘Dabchick,’ ‘Dipchick’ (Little
Grebe), 421.

INDEX. 447

‘Dabchick, Great’ (Great Crested
Grebe), 416.

‘ Daffinch’ (Chaffinch), 65.

Dafila acuta, 224.

Dartford Warbler, 20, 454.

Daulias luscinia, 15.

‘ Daw’ (Jackdaw), 90.

[Demoiselle Crane], 286.

Dendrocopus major, 111,

minor, 112.

[Desert Wheatear], 9.

© Devil’s Screecher’ (Swift), 105.

‘ Dinnick ’ (Hedge-Sparrow), 29.

Dipper, 30, 454.

‘Dish’ or ‘Ditch Washer’ (Pied
Wagtail), 39.

Diver, Black-throated, 412.

, Great Northern, 410, 442.

——,, Red-throated, 413.

[ White-billed], 411.

Divers, Tue, 409.

‘Diving Wigeon’ (Golden-eye), 2386.

‘Dor Hawk’ (Nightjar), 107.

Dotterel, 304.

, Ringed, 303.

‘Double Snipe’ (Great Snipe), 323.

Dove, Ring, 251.

, Rock, 255.

——.,, Stock, 252.

, Turtle, 256.

‘ Doveky’ (Black Guillemot), 430,

Dack, ‘ Black’ (Common Scoter), 242.

‘ Buffel-headed }, 238,

——, ‘ Burrow’ (Sheldrake), 219.

——,, Eider, 240.

a ‘Ferruginous’ (White-eyed),

236.

(Harlequin ], 238.

King bider], 241.

—.,, Long-tailed, 259.

——,, ‘ Pheasant’ (Pintail), 224.

—— ‘Spirit’ (Buttel-headed), 238.

—— ‘Spoon-bill’ (Shoveller), 240,

—— [Steller’s Western), 241.

—— Summer, 221.

— Tufted, 232,

—— Velvet (Scoter), 243,

—— White-eyed, 236.

— Wild, 225.

‘ Dulwilly’ (Ring-Plover), 303.

‘Dun Curre’ (Pochard), 235,

Dunlin, 332.

Dusky Grebe (Sclavonian), 419.

— Redshank (Spotted), 348.

Dusky Shearwater, 408.

‘Eagle, Black’ (Golden), 151.
(Buzzard), 145.

, Golden, 150.

—— [Spotted], 149.

——, White-tailed, 150, 439.
EaGuezs, Tur, 148.

Eagle Owl, 137.

Hared Grebe, 420.

[ Kastern Golden Plover], 301.
Eeret, Little, 185.

Egyptian Goose, 201.
[Vulture], 138.

Hider Duck, 240,

, King, 241.

, Steller’s, 241.

‘ Kligoog’ (Common Guillemot), 427
Emberiza cirlus, 75.

citrinella, 75.

—— miliaria, 74.

scheeniclus, 76.
EMBERIZINE, 75.

‘Emmet Hunter’ (Wryneck), 114.
Evithacus rubecula, 14.

‘Erne’ (Heron), 180.
(White-tailed Eagle), 149.
[Esquimaux Curlew], 311, 556.
Ludromias morinellus, 304.

Falco esalon, 165.

[cenchris |, 169.

—— peregrinus, 160.

subbuteo, 165.

Falcon, Greenland, 158.

, Gyr, 159.

, Iceland, 159.

—., Peregrine, 160.

, Red-footed, 167, 440.

FaLconip», 139.

Fatcons, Tur, 158.

‘Fern Owl’ (Nightjar), 107,

‘Ferruginous Duck’ (White-eyed),
236.

Fieldfare, 4.

Fincues, Tue, 60.

Fire-crest, 22, 454.

‘ Fire-tail’ (Redstart), 11.

Flycatcher, Pied, 58, 436,

[ Red-breasted |, 54,

—— Spotted, 52, 456.

| White-collared }, 54.

Frycarcurns, TuR, 52,

Fork-tailed Petrel, 402.

448 INDEX.

Fratercula arctica, 431.

‘Freckled Heron’
Bittern), 193.

‘French Partridge’ (Red-legged),265.

‘Pie’ (Great Spotted Wood-

pecker), 111.

‘Yellow Hammer’ (Cuil
Bunting), 75.

Fringilla celebs, 65.

montifringilla, 65.

FRINGILLID&, 60.

FRINGILLINA, 60.

‘ Frosty-back ’ (Pochard), 235.

Fulica atra, 284.

Fouricarip®, 274,

Fuligula cristata, 232.

ferina, 235.

marila, 235.

rufina, 231.

‘Full Snipe’ (Common Snipe), 324.

Fulmar, 408.

Fulmarus glacialis, 402.

‘ Furze-Chat’ (Whinchat and Stone-
chat), 10, 11.

‘ Furze-Kite’ (Hen-Harrier), 141.

(American

Gadwall, 226.

GALLINZA, 261.

Gallinago celestis, 324.

major, 323.

Gallinula chloropus, 283.

Gallinule [Green-backed], 282.

Martinique |, 282.

Purple], 282.

GAME Brrps, 261.

Gannet, 177, 440.

Garden- Warbler, 20.

‘Gare Fowl’ (Great Auk), 424,
Garganey, 227.

Garrulus glandarius, 86.
GAVIA, 357.

Geeinus viridis, 113.

GrEsE, THR, 200.

‘ Gladdy,’ ‘ Golden Gladdie’ (Yellow

Hammer), 75.

[ Glareola pratincola], 296.
GLAREOLIDA, 296,

Glaucous Gull, 373.

Glossy Ibis, 198.

‘ Goatsucker’ (Nightjar), 107.
‘Goddin ’ (Bar-tailed Godwit), 352.
Godwit, Bar-tailed, 352.

, Black-tailed, 353.

Goldcrest, 21, 434.

[Golden Eagle], 150.

Golden-eye, 236.

[ Barrow’s |, 237.

‘Golden Gladdy ’ (Yellow Hammer),

75.
Golden Oriole, 46, 436.
Plover, 299.
Goldfinch, 61.
‘(sookoo ’ (Cuckoo), 121.
‘Goolfinch’ (Goldfinch), 61.
Goosander, 245.
Goose [American Snow], 201.
Barnacle, 209.
—, Bean, 206.
—, Brent, 208.
——, Canada, 210.
—-, Egyptian, 201.
, Grev Lag, 205, 440.
— [Pink-footed], 207.
, Red-breasted, 211.
—— [Spur-winged ], 211.
, White-fronted, 207.
[Gos Hawk], 152.
* Gowk’ (Cuckoo), 121.
Grasshopper Warbler, 28, 434.
(Great Auk], 424.
(Great Black Woodpecker], 110.
Great Black-headed Gull, 381.
Bustard, 290, 441.

Crested Grebe, 416.

‘Dabchick’ (Great Crested
Grebe), 416.
Eared Owl, 137.
Grey Shrike, 48.
— Northern Diver, 410, 442.
— Plover (Stone-Curlew), 294.
— [Reed-Warbler], 27.
— ‘Skua’ (Common Skua), 391.
Snipe, 325.
—— Spotted Woodpecker, 111, 438.
Titmouse, 54.
| White Heron], 184.
Greater Black-backed Gull, 380.
‘ Redpole’ (Linnet), 66.
Shearwater, 407.
‘Grebe, Dusky’ (Sclavonian), 419.
, Eared, 420.
——, Great Crested, 416.
——,, ‘ Horned’ (Sclavonian), 419.
, Little, 421.
——,, Red-necked, 417.
——.,, Sclavonian, 419.
, ‘Tippet’ (Great Crested
Grebe), 416.

GreEBES, TuE, 415.

[Green-backed Gallinule], 282.

‘Green Cormorant’ (Shag), 176.

Greenfinch, ‘ Green Linnet,’ 63.

Greenland Falcon, 158.

‘Green Plover’ (Lapwing), 506.

Sandpiper, 345.

Woodpecker, 113.

Greenshank, 350.

‘Grey Bird’ (Song-Thrush), 3.

‘Drush’ (Song-Thrush), 3.

— ‘Hen’ (Black Grouse), 273.

— Lag Goose, 205, 440.

—— Phalarope, 315.

—— Plover, 301.

—— ‘Skit’ (Water-Rail), 276.

—— Wactail, 40.

[Griffon Vulture], 138.

Grosbeak [ Pine], 70.

(Hawfinch), 63.

‘Ground Isaac’ (Willow- Warbler),
23

Grouse, Black, 272.

[Red], 271.

» Pallas’s Sand, 258.

GRUID», 286.

Grus communis, 287.

leucogeranus |, 286.

virgo |, 286.

Guillemot, Black, 429.

—, ‘ Bridled,’ 427.

— [Briinnich’s], 429.

——, Common, 427.

—,, ‘Ringed,’ 427.

—— [Thick-billed], 429.

GUILLEMOTS AND AuKs, 422.

Gull, Black-headed, 382.

—— { Bonaparte’s], 386.

——, Common, 379.

——, Glaucous, 373.

—,, Greater Black-hacked, 880,

, ‘Great White-winged’
(Glaucous), 373.

——,, Great Black-headed, 381.

—, ‘Hacket’ (Kittiwake), 371.

——,, Herring, 375.

, Iceland, 374.

—,, Ivory, 371, 441.

—., Kittiwake, 371, 441.

——,,‘ Ladram’ (Herring-Gull), 8

——., Lesser Black-backed, 378.

eS, White-winged (Iceland),
374,

—, Little, 385.

75.

INDEX.

|
|

449

Gull, ‘ Pearl’ (Arctic Tern), 359.

, Peewit (Black-headed), 382.
—, ‘ Masked’ (Black-headed), 383.
—,, ‘Maddrick’(Black-headed), 382.
—, Red-legged(Black-headed) 382.
——,, Sabine’s, 587, 442.

Guts, THE, 369.

‘Gull-Teaser’ (Common Tern), 360.
‘Gutter Cock’ (Water-Rail), 276.

[ Gyps fulvus}, 138.

Gyr Falcon, 158, 159.

‘Hackbolt’ (Greater Shearwater),
407.

‘Hacket,’ ‘Hacklet Gull’ (1Gtti-
wake), 371.

‘Hackmall,’ ‘ Hickmall’
Titmouse), 54.

Hematopus ostralegus, 308.

‘Half Curlew’ (Whimbrel), 354.

‘ Half Snipe’ (Jack Snipe), 329.

Haliaétus albicilla, 150.

Hammer, Yellow, 75.

Harelda glacialis, 259.

[Harlequin Duck ], 258.

Harrier, Hen-, 141.

, Marsh-, 140.

—., Montagu’s, 145, 489.

——,, ‘ Ring-tail,’ 142.

Harriers, THE, 139,

Hawtinch, 63, 456.

Hawk [ Gos-], 152.

, ‘Passage’ (Peregrine), 162.

, Sparrow-, 153,

Hawk-Owl, 136,

‘ Hay-bird’ (Willow-Warbler), 25.

‘ Hay-sucker’ (White-throat), 17.

‘ Tleather-bleater ’ (Common Snipe),
324.

‘Teather Lintie’ (‘Twite), 68.

‘Heath Poult’ (Black Grouse), 272.

Hedge-Sparrow, 29.

Helodromas ochropus, 345.

Hen, Grey (Black Grouse), 272

Hen-Harrier, 141.

Hen, Moor-, 283.

‘Herne’ (Teron), 180.

HERODIONES, 179.

Heron, Bufl-backed, 185,

» Common, 180, 440,

, ‘Freckled’ (American Bit-

tern), 193.

[Great White ], 184.

—, ‘Little White,’ 185.

2G

(Great

450 INDEX.

Heron, Night, 189.

, Purple, 183, 440.

——, Squacco, 186.

Herons, THE, 179.

‘Heronshaw’ (Heron), 180.

‘Herring-Bone’ (Red-throated
Diver), 413.

Herring-Gull, 375.

Mierofaleo candicans, 158.

Himantopus candidus, 313.

HirvunDinip&, 54.

Hirundo rustica, 57.

Hobby, 163.

‘ Holm’ or ‘ Home Screech’ (Mistle-
Thrush), 2.

Honey-Buzzard, 157, 489.

‘ Hoodall’ (Green Woodpecker), 113.

Hooded Crow, 92.

Merganser, 247.

‘ Hoodpecker’ (Creeper), 60.

‘Hoop’ (Bullfinch), 69.

Hooper (Whooper), 214.

Hoopoe, 119.

‘Horned Grebe’ (Sclavonian Grebe),
419.

‘ Horniwink’ (Lapwing), 306.

* Horse-Lark ’ (Corn-Bunting), 74.

‘ House-Martin’ (Martin), 58.

‘ House-Sparrow,’ 64.

Hydrochelidon hybrida, 366.

leucoptera, 367.

—— nigra, 367.

{ Hypolais icterina}, 24, 434.

[ polyglotta), 434.

Ibis, Glossy, 198.

[Iceland Falcon], 159.

Gull, 374.

[Icterine Warbler], 24, 434.

Imber (Great Northern Diver), 410.

‘Trish Lords’ (Pomatorhine and
Richardson’s Skuas), 392, 395.

[Isabelline Wheatear }, 9.

‘Isle-of- Wight Parson’ (Cormorant),
174.

Ivory Gull, 371, 441.

Iynx torquilla, 114.

Jackdaw, 90.

Jack (Jack Snipe), 329.

‘ Jack Curlew’ (Whimbrel), 354.
Jack Snipe, 329,

Jay, 86, 437.

‘Jay Pie’ (Jay), 86.

‘Jer Falcon,’ 158.
‘ Jinty’ (Wren), 37.

Kentish Plover, 302.

Kestrel, 168.

, Lesser, 169.

Killdeer Plover, 504.

[King Eider], 241.

Kingfisher, 115.

‘Kit, ‘Kitt,’ ‘Keet,’ ‘Kite’ (Buz-
zard), 145,

Kite, 155, 439. |

_ ‘Black’ (Buzzard), 145, |

, ‘Fork-tailed, 155,

Kittiwake, 371, 441.

Kitty Tope (Wren), 37.

Knot, 338.

Lagopus mutus, 271.

scoticus, 271.

‘ Land-Rail’ (Corn-Crake), 280,
Laniip, 47.

Lanius collurio, 49.

excubitor, 48.

[ major |, 48.

minor, AY.

pomeranus, 50.

{Lapland Bunting], 74.
Lapwing, 306.

‘ Lapwink ’ (Lapwing), 306.
Larne, 357.

LARINZ, 369.

Lark { Calandra], 103.

——., Crested, 102.

, ‘Mountain’ (Meadow-Pipit),

43.

, Shore, 104, 437.
—— [{Short-toed], 102.
——,, Sky, 100.

——, White (Snow-Bunting), 77.
—., Wood, 101.

Larks, THE, 99.

Larus (affinis}, 377.
argentatus, 375.
(atricilla), 387.

canus, 379.
capistratus, 383.
fuscus, 378.

glaucus, 373.
ichthyaétus, 381.
leucopterus, 374.
marinus, 380.

— [| melanocephalus), 387,
minutus, 385.

INDEX. 451

Larus (philadelphia), 586.

ridibundus, 382.

‘ Laughing Goose’ (White-fronted),
207.

Laughing Gull], 387.
each’s Petrel, 402.

Lesser Black-backed Gull, 378.

Grey Shrike, 49.

— Kestrel, 169.

—— ‘ Pettychaps’ (Chiffchaff), 25.

— Redpoll, 67.

—— Spotted Woodpecker, 112.

Whitethroat, 18, 435.

Ligurinus chloris, 63.

Limicola platyrhyncha, 312.

LIMICOLAZ:, 294.

Limnocryptes gallinula, 329.

Limosa egocephala, 353.

lapponica, 352.

Linnet, 66.

, ‘ Brown,’ 66.

——, ‘ Fiery,’ 66.

, Green (Greenfinch), 63.

——,, ‘ Red,’ 66.

, ‘Rose,’ 66.

Linota canescens, 67.

cannabina, 66.

flavirostris, 68.

— linaria, 67.

Little Auk, 430.

Bittern, 188.

—— ‘Blue Hawk’ (Merlin), 165.

—— { Bunting], 75.

—— Bustard, 293, 441.

Crake, 279.

— Egret, 185.

—— Grebe, 421.

Gull, 385.

— Owl, 137, 439.

—— Stint, 333.

Tern, 362.

‘White Heron’ (Buff-backed
Heron), 185.

Locustella { luscinioides |, 29.

nevia, 28.

Lomvia { bruennichi], 429.

trowle, 427,

Long-eared Owl, 129.

Long-tailed ‘ Cap’n’ (Titmouse), 34,

Duck, 239.

—— ‘Pie’ (Titmouse), 34.

-— ‘Skua’ (Buffon’s Skua), 397.

—— Titmouse, 34.

‘ Long-tongue’ (Wryneck), 114.

Long-winged Screamer (Common
Gull), 379.

Loon (Great Northern Diver), 410.

Sprat (Red-throated Diver),

413.
‘Lords and Captains’ (Skuas), 392.
Loxia bifasciata, 75.
curvirostra, 71.
leucoptera, 73.
‘Lundy Parrot’ (Puffin), 431.

Machetes pugnax, 340.

‘Mackerel Bird’ (Common Tern),
360.

‘Mackerel Cock’ (Manx Shear-
water), 404.

[Macqueen’s Bustard], 290.

Macrorhamphus griseus, 311, 351.

‘Maddrick Gull’ (Black-headed), 382.

Magpie, 87, 437.

‘Magpie Woodpecker’ (Great Spot-
ted), 111.

Manx Shearwater, 404.

Mareca penelope, 221.

Marsh-Harrier, 140,

Titmouse, 35, 435.

Warbler, 27.

Martin, 58.

, ‘ Bank’(Sand), 59.

——,, ‘ House,’ 58.

, Sand, 59.

{Martinique Gallinule], 282.

* Martlet’ (Martin), 58.

Masked Gull (Black-headed), 382.

‘ May-bird’ (Whimbrel), 354.

* Maze Finch’ (Chaftinch), 65,

Meadow-Pipit, 43.

Mealy Redpoll, 67, 486.

Melanocorypha calandra, 108.

Melizophilus undatus, 20.

Merganser, Hooded, 247.

, Red-breasted, 246,

——, ‘ White’ (Smew), 248.

Mrraansers, THe, 245,

Mergulus alle, 430.

Mergus albellus, 248.

[eucullatus |, 247.

merganser, 245,

—— serrator, 246.

Merlin, 165, 440.

Merropip™, 118.

Merops apiaster, 118.

‘Mers, ‘Mairs’ (Common Quille-
mot), 427.

452 INDEX.

Milvus ictinus, 155.

‘Miret’ (Common Tern), 360.

Mistle-Thrush, 2.

‘ Mock-a-pie ’ (Magpie), 87.

€Mollymauk’ (Fulmar), 408.

[ Molothrus sericeus |, 80,

Montagu’s Harrier, 143, 439.

‘ Moor-Blackbird ’ (Ring-Ouzel), 7.

‘Moor-Buzzard’ (Marsh-Harrier),
140.

Moor-hen, 283.

Motacilla alba, 38.

Slava, 41.

— lugubris, 39.

melanope, 40.

‘neglecta,’ 41.

ran, 41,

MoraciILuip&, 37.

‘Mother Cary’s Chicken’ (Storm-
Petrel), 401.

MuscicapPip®, 52.

‘ Muff-cock’ (Woodcock), 318.

Muscicapa atricapilla, 53.

collaris, 54,

grisola, 52.

parea, 54.

‘Murre ’ (Guillemot), 427.

‘Pick-bill’ (Guillemot), 427.

‘ Razor-biled,’ 423.

‘ Mussel-Crow’ (Hooded Crow), 92.

Mute Swan, 212.

‘Nath’ (Puffin), 431.

Neophron percnopterus, 138,

‘ Nettle-Creeper’ (Whitethroat), 17.

‘Night-Crow’ (Nightjar), 107.

Night-Heron, 189.

Nightingale, 15.

Nightjar, 107.

| Keyptian], 109.

Red-necked], 109.

[Noddy Tern], 358.

‘Norfolk Plover’ (Stone-Curlew), 294.

‘Northam Hornywink’ (Lapwing),
306.

Nucifraga caryocatactes, 85.

Numenus arquata, 355.

[borealis |, 311, 356.

pheopus, 354,

Nutcracker, 85.

Nuthatch 36,

[Nyctala tengmalmt), 126, 138.

Nyctea scandiaca, 134,

Nycticorax griseus, 189, |

Nyroca ferruginea, 236,

Oceanites oceanicus, 405.

Gdemia fusca, 245.

nigra, 242.

perspicillata, 244,

CE DICNEMTD®, 294,

Qidicnemus scolopax, 294.

‘Old Hen’ (Common Skua), 391.

‘ Oodall,’ ‘Oodmall’ (Green Wood-
pecker), 115.

‘ Ore Cock’ (Water-Rail), 276.

Oriole, Golden, 46, 456,

OrrIoLIDs», 46.

Oriolus galbula, 46.

[Orphean Warbler], 19.

| Ortolan Bunting], 73.

Osprey, 169.

Oripip», 289.

Otis tarda, 290.

tetrax, 293.

Otocorys alpestris, 104.

‘ Otterling (Common Sandpiper),544.

Ouzel, Ring-, 7.

, ‘ Water-’ (Dipper), 50.

— , ‘Rock-’ (Ring-Ouzel), 7.

——.,, ‘ Tor-’ (Ring-Ouzel), 7.

Owl, Barn-, 126.

——,, ‘ Brown,’ 154.

—— | Eagle], 137.

-—.,, Hawk, 186.

——, Little, 187, 459.

, Long-eared, 129.

—— [Scops], 126, 459,

——,, Short-eared, 150.

——,, Snowy, 154, 438.

— ., Tawny, 152.

—— [{Tengmalm’s], 126, 158.

, ‘ Woodcock’ (Short-eared), 150.

Owns, THE, 125.

‘Ox-eye’ (Great Titmouse), 34.

— (Willow-Warbler), 25.

Oyster-catcher, 308.

Pagophila eburnea, 371.
Pallas’s Great Grey Shrike, 48.
Sand-Grouse, 258.
Pandion haliaetus, 169,
Panurip&, 32.

Panurus biarmicus, 32.
Parasitic Gulls, 389,

Parips, 33.

Parrot Crossbill, 72.
Woodpecker (Green), 113.

Parrot, Lundy (Puflin), 481.
, Sea (Puffin), 431.
Partridge, 267.

[Barbary ], 266.

——,, ‘ French,’ 265.

, Red-legged, 265.
Parus britannicus, 35.
ceruleus, 35.

cristatus, 36.

major, d4.

palustris, 35.

dresseri, 3).
[Passenger Pigeon], 251.
Passer domesticus. 64.
montanus, 64,
PASSERES, 1.

Pastor, Rose-coloured, 81, 437.
Pastor roseus, 81.

‘ Pearl Gull’ (Arctic Tern), 559.
Pectoral Sandpiper, 311, 350.
‘Peewit’ (Lapwing), 306.

‘Peewit Gull’ (Black-headed), 382.

PELECANIDS, 172.

Perdix cinerea, 267.

[petrosa], 266,

rufa, 265.

Peregrine Falcon, 160,

Pernis apivorus, 157.

Petrel [ Bulwer’s], 400.
[Capped }, 400.

—, Fork-tailed (Leach’s), 402.

——, Fulmar, 408.

—, Leach’s, 402.

——,, Storm, 401.

——., Wilson’s, 403.

Petre Ls, THE, 398.

Phalacrocorax carbo, 174.

graculus, 176.

Phalarope, Grey, 315.

, Red-necked, 314.

Puavarores, Tue, 314.

Phalaropus fulicarius, 315.

hyperboreus, 314,

PHASIANID™®, 262.

Phasianus colchicus, 262.

torquatus, 262,

Pheasant, 262, 440.

, ‘ Bohemian,’ 262.

——, Ring-necked, 262, 263,

, ‘Sea’ (Pintail), 224.

Pheasant Duck (Pintail), 224.

Phylloscopus rufus, 23.

sibilatrix, 24,

trochilus, 23.

INDEX. 453

‘ Piannet’ (Magpie), 87.

Pica nuttalli, 89.

rustica, 87.

PICARIZS, 105.

PICI, 109.

Picips#, 109.

Pick-bill Murre (Common Guille-
mot), 427.

[ Picus martius], 110.

* Pie’ (Magpie), 87, 437.

Pied Flycatcher, 58, 436.

Wagtail, 39, 435.

— ‘Wigeon’ (Tufted Duck), 252.

“Woodpecker ’ (Great Spotted
Woodpecker), 111.

Pigeon {American Passenger],
2651.

, ‘ Wild’ (Ring-Dove), 251.

——.,, ‘ Wood’ (Ring-Dove), 251.

Picrons, Tur, 249.

‘Pigmy Curlew’ (Curlew Sandpiper),
336

Pine-Grosbeak ], 70.

Pinicola enucleator], 70.
‘ Pink’ (Chaffinch), 65.
[Pink-footed Goose], 207.
Pintail, 224.
Pipit, Meadow-, 43.
—— [Red-throated], 43.
— , Richard’s, 44.
— , Rock-, 46.
—— [Tawny], 43.
——,, Tree-, 44.
, Water-, 45.
Prrits, Tue, 42.
Platalea leucorodia, 197.
PLATALEIDA, 197,
Plectrophenax nivalis, 77.
Plegadis faleinellus, 198.
Plover | Eastern Golden], 301.
, Golden, 299.
——,, ‘Great’ (Stone-Curlew), 294.
——, Green (Lapwing), 306.
——,, Grey, 301.
-— , Kentish, 302.
—— | Killdeer], 304,
—— | Little Ringed], 304.
——,, ‘ Mud’ (Grey Plover), 302.
, Norfolk (Stone-Curlew), 294.
, Ringed, 303.
—,, ‘ Ruddy’ (Sanderling), 341.
—, ‘Silver’ (Grey Plover), 301.
(Knot), 338,
‘ Ployer’s Page’ (Dunlin), 333.

454 INDEX.

Piovers THE, 297.
Pochard, 235.
, Red-crested, 231.
Ponicrprp»®, 415.
Podiceps auritus, 419.
cristatus, 416.
—— griseigena, 417.
mgricollis, 420,
‘Poker ’ (Pochard), 235.
‘Polish Swan,’ 214.
Pomatorhine Skua, 392.
‘ Pope’ (Puffin), 431.
Porphyrio (eeruleus |, 282.
—— | chloronotus |, 282.
Ee veteay 282.
Porzana [bailloni |, 278.
maruetta, 277.
parva, 279.
Pratincola rubetra, 10.
rubicola, 11.
Pratincole, Collared, 296.
Procellaria leucorrhoa, 402.
pelagica, 401,
PROCELLARIID®, 398.
| Ptarmigan ], 271.
PTEROCLETES, 258.
PrEROCLIDA, 258.
Puffin, 431.
Puffinus anglorum, 404.
griseus, 406.
major, 407.
obscurus, 408.
[Purple Gallinule}, 282.
Heron, 188, 440.
Sandpiper, 3387.
‘Purre’ (Dunlin), 532.
PYGOPODES, 409.
Pyrrhocorax graculus, 83.
Pyrrhula europea, 69.

Quail, 269.

Querquedula carolinensis, 229,
circia, 227.

crecca, 228.

Rail, ‘ Land-,’ 280.

, ‘Silver’ (Spotted Crake), 277.

, Water, 276.

Raits THe, 274.

Rain-bird’ (Green Woodpecker),
118.

Rain Goose (Red-threated Diver),
415.

RaLyip#, 274.

Rallus aquaticus, 276.

Raven, 96, 487.

Razorbill, Razor-billed Murre, 423.

Recurvirostra avocetta, 312.

Redbreast, 14.

[Red Grouse], 271.

‘Redocke’ or ‘ Ruddock’ (Red-
breast), 14.

Redpole, ‘Greater’ (Linnet), 66.

Redpoll, Lesser, 67.

, Mealy, 67, 436.

Redshank, 348.

, ‘ Dusky,’ 348.

, Spotted, 348.

Redstart, 11.

, Black, 12, 483.

Redwing, 4.

Red-backed Shrike, 49.

[| Red-breasted Flycatcher], 54.

Goose, 211.

—— — Merganser, 246,

Snipe, 311, 351.

(Bar-tailed God-

wit), 352.
Red-crested Pochard, 231.
Red-footed Falcon, 167.
red-legged Crow (Chough), 83.
Gull (Black-headed), 382.
Partridge, 265.
Red-necked Grebe, 417.
[Nightjar ], 109.
Red-spotted Blue-throat, 14.
‘ Red-tailed Warbler’ (Black Red-
start), 15.
Red-throated Diver, 413.
[Pipit], 45.
[ Red-winged Starling], 437.
Reed-Bunting, 76.
‘Reed Pheasant,’ ‘ Reedling’
(Bearded Titmouse), 32.
Reed-Warbler, 27.
[Great], 27.
Reeve (Ruff, female), 340.
Regulus cristatus, 21.
agnicapillus, 22.
| Rhodostethia rosea |, 387.
Richard’s Pipit, 44.
Richardson’s Skua, 395.
Ring-Dove, 251.
‘Ring Dotterel’ (Ringed Plover),
303.
Ring-Ouzel, 7, 433.
‘Ringed Guillemot,’ 427.
Plover, 303.

INDEX. 455

Ringed Plover [Little], 304.

Rissa tridactyla, 371.

‘ Robber Bird’ (Richardson’s Skua),
395.

Robin, 14.

Rock-Dove, 255.

* Rock-Lark ’ (Rock-Pipit), 46.

* Rock-Ouzel’ (Ring-Ouzel), 7.

Rock-Pipit, 46.

Roller, 117, 438.

Rook, 93, 437.

[Roseate Tern], 361.

Rose-coloured Pastor, 81, 437.

‘ Rotche’ (Little Auk), 430.

Rough-legged Buzzard, 147.

[Ruddy Sheldrake], 221.

‘Plover’ (Sanderling), 341.

Ruff, 340.

Rufous Warbler, 25.

[Rustic Bunting], 73.

Ruticilla ceairit, 433.

phenicurus, 11.

—— *tithys,’ 15.

titys, 12.

Sabine’s Gull, 387, 442.

‘Saddle-back’ (Greater Black-
backed Gull), 380.

Sanderling, 341.

(Dunlin), 332.

Sand-Grouse, Pallas’s, 258.

‘Sand Lark’ (Ringed Plover), 303.

(Rock-Pipit), 46.

Sand-Martin, 59.

Sandpiper {[ American Spotted], 311.

[ Bartram’s], 311, 345.

——,, Bonaparte’s, 511, 331.

—— [| Broad-billed], 512.

——.,, Buff-breasted, 311, 342.

——, Common, 344.

—,, Curlew, 336.

, Green, 345.

—, Pectoral, 311, 330.

——,, Purple, 337.

, Schinz's, 333.

—— [Solitary], 311.

, Wood, 346.

SANDPIPERS AND Snipes, Tue, 310.

Sandwich Tern, 364

‘Savi’s Warbler], 29.

‘ Saw-bill’(Red-breasted Merganser),
246,

Saxicola enanthe, 9.

Scaup, 233.

Schinz’s Sandpiper, 333.
Sclavonian Grebe, 419.
ScoLoPpacip», 310.
Scolopax rusticula, 318.
[Scops Owl], 126, 439.
| Scops giz}, 126.
Scoter, Common, 242.
, Surf, 244.
, Velvet, 243.
‘ Screecher, Devil’s’ (Swift), 105.
‘Sea Lark’ (Dunlin), 332.
(Ringed Plover), 303.
—— ‘Mew’ (Common Gull), 379.
— ‘Parrot’ (Puffin), 431.
— ‘ Pheasant’ (Pintail Duck), 224.
— ‘Pie’ (Oyster-catcher), 308.
—— ‘Swallows’ (Terns), 357, 360.
—— ‘Woodcock’ (Bar-tailed God-
wit), 352.

Sedge- Warbler, 27.
Serin, 62, 436.
Serinus hortulanus, 62.
‘Seven Whistlers’ (Whimbrel), 354.
Shag, 176.
Shearwater, Dusky, 408.
——,, Greater, 407.
—, Manx, 404.
, Sooty, 406.
Sheldrake, Common, 219.
fRuddy ], 221.
‘ Shell-apple ’ (Crossbill), 71.
Shoalster (Shag), 176,
Shore-Lark, 104, 437.
Short-eared Owl, 130.

Short-toed cure 102.

hoyelard (Spoonbill), 197.
Shoveller (Duck), 230, 440,
Shrike, Great Grey, 48.
, Lesser Grey, 49.
—,, Pallas’s Great Grey, 48.
—,, Red-hacked, 49.
——, Woodchat, 50.
Surikes, Tue, 47.
‘Silver Plover’ (Grey Plover), 301.
(Knot), 338.
— ‘ Rail’ (Spotted Crake), 277.
— ‘Winch’ (Chaflinch), 65,
Siskin, 62.
Sitta cesia, 36.
Srrrrm zz, 36.
‘Skeer Devil’ (Swift), 105.
‘Skiddy Cock,’ ‘Skip Cock,’ ‘Skitty

Cock’ (Water-Rail), 276,

Skua, Arctic (Richardson’s), 395.

456 INDEX.

Skua, Buffon’s, 397.

, Common, 391.

, Great (Common), 391.

——, ‘ Long-tailed,’ 397.

—.,, Pomatorhine, 392.

, Richardson’s, 395,

Sxuas, THR, 389.

Sky-Lark, 100,

Smew, 248.

‘Snake-bird ? (Wryneck), 114.

Snipe, ‘ Brown,’ 311, 351.

, Common, 324,

— , ‘ Double’ (Great), 325,

, Great, 525.

—, ‘ Half’ (Jack), 329.

— ,, Jack, 329.

——., Red-breasted, 311, 351.

, ‘Red-breasted’ (Bar-tailed

Godwit), 352.

, ‘Sabine’s’ (Common), 325.

—, ‘Summer’ (Common Sand-
piper), 344.

, ‘ Whole’ (Common), 324.

Snow-Bunting, 77, 437.

Snow-Goose, 201.

Snowy Owl, 154, 438,

‘Solan Goose’ (Gannet), 177.

[Solitary Sandpiper], 311.

‘Solitary Thrush ’ (Starling), 80.

Somateria mollissima, 240.

spectabilis |, 241,

stellert|, 241.

Song-Thrush, 3.

Sooty Shearwater, 406,

[Tern], 365.

[Southern Cow Bunting], 80.

Sparrow, Hedge-, 29.

, House-, 64.

, Tree-, 64, 436.

Sparrow-Hawk, 153.

Spatula clypeata, 280.

‘Spike-billed Wigeon’ (Merganser),
246.

‘ Spirit Duck’ (Buffel-headed Duck),
238.

Spoonbill, 197.

(Shoveller Duck), 230,
Spotted Crake, 277.

Eagle], 149.

—— Flycatcher, 52, 436.

— Redshank, 348.

—— [Sandpiper], 311.

—— ‘Skitty’ (Spotted Crake), 277.
—— ‘Snipe,’ 348.

‘Sprat Loon’ (Red-throated Diver),
413.

[Spur-winged Goose], 211.

Squacco Heron, 186.

Squatorola helvetica, 301.

‘Stare’ or ‘Steer’ (Starling), 78.

Starling, 78.

[American Red-winged], 437.

STEGANOPODES, 172.

Stercorarius catarrhactes, 391,

crepidatus, 395.

parasiticus, 397.

pomatorhinus, 392.

STEROCORARUNZ, 389.

Sterna |anestheta), 358.

anglica, 363.

cantiaca, 364,

caspia, 363.

—— [dougall], 361.

— fluviatilis, 360.

— [ fuliginosa], 358, 365.

—— macrura, 359,

—— minuta, 362.

STERNIN, 357.

Stilt, Black-winged, 313.

Stint, American, 311, 335.

, Little, 333,

, Temminck’s, 334,

Stock-Dove, 252.

Stonechat, 11.

Stone-Curlew, 294.

‘ Stone-Curlew’ (Whimbrel), 354.

Stork, Black, 196.

, White, 195.

Srorks, Tue, 194.

‘Storm-Cock’ (Mistle-Thrush), 2.

Storm-Petrel, 401.

Strepsilas interpres, 307.

STRIGES, 125.

Srricips#, 126.

Striv flammea, 126.

STURNIDA, 78.

Sturnus vulgaris, 78.

Sula bassana, 177.

Summer Duck, 221.

‘ Lark’ (Dunlin), 332.

—— ‘Snipe’ (Common Sandpiper),
344

Surf-Scoter, 244.

Surnia funerea, 136.

Swallow, 57.

, ‘Chimney,’ 57.

Swa.tows, THE, 54.

Swan [American Whistling], 217.

INDEX. 457

Swan, Bewick’s, 215,
[Black], 217.
— , Mute, 212.
— “Trams ”], 214.

—— | Trumpeter], 217.
——., Whooper, 214.
Swans, Tue, 212.

Swift, 105.

——, ‘ Alpine,’ 107.
——, White-bellied, 107.
Swirts, Tue, 105.
Sylvia atricapilla, 19.
cinerea, 17.

curruca, 18.

— erithacus, 13.
hortensis, 20.
melanocephala, 18.
[orphea |, 19.

—— tithys, 15.
SYLVIINZ, 17.

Syrnium aluco, 132.
Syrrhaptes paradoxus, 258.

Tachybaptes fluviatilis, 421.
Tadorna casarca, 221,
cornuta, 219.
‘ Tarrock’ (Kittiwake), 371.
Tawny Owl, 182.
| Pipit}, 43.
Teal, American Green-winged, 229.
, Common, 228, 440.
, ‘Summer ’ (Garganey), 227.
Temminck’s Stint, 334.
it engmalm’s Owl], 126, 138,
ern, Arctic, 359.
, Black, 367.
, Caspian, 363.
——, Common, 360.
——.,, Gull-billed, 363.
, Little, 362.
—— [Noddy], 358.
Roseate |, 361.
, Sandwich, 364.
a Sots, Sooty ], 358.

—— | Sooty], 365.

——, Whiskered, 366.

, White-winged Black, 367.

Terns, THE, 357.

Tetrao tetrix, 272.

TETRAONID#, 271.

‘ Thick-kneed Bustard’ (Stone-Cur-
lew), 294.

‘Thirstle,’ ‘ Throstle’ (Song-Thrush),
3.

Thrush, Mistle-, 2.

, Song-, 3.

, White’s, 5, 433.

[Thrush Nightingale], 27.

THRUSHES, THE, 1.

‘ Tidley Goldfinch ’ (Golderest), 21.

‘Tope’ (Wren), 37.

‘ Tiercel’ (Male Peregrine), 163.

Tinnunculus alaudarius, 168.

vespertinus, 167.

‘ Tit-Lark,’ ‘ Titty Lark ’ (Meadow-
Pipit), 48.

‘Titmal’ (Blue Titmouse), 35.

Titmouse, Bearded, 32.

, Blue, 35, 435.

, British Coal, 35.

——,, British Long-tailed. 34.

——.,, Crested, 36,

—,, Great, 34.

» Marsh-, 35, 488°

Tirs, THE, 33.

‘ Titterel’ (Whimbrel), 355.

‘Titty Todger’ (Wren), 37.

‘Tom Harry’ (Skuas), 391, 392.

‘ Tor-Ouzel’ (Ring-Ouzel), 7.

Totanus calidris, 348,

canescens, 350,

—— [ flavipes |, 311, 350.

Juscus, 348

— glareola, 546.

[solitarius], 311, 347.

‘Tree-Creeper,’ ‘ Tree-climber,’ 60.

Pipit, 44.

Sparrow, 64, 436,

Tringa alpina, 332.

canutus, 338.

Suscicollis, 311, 331.

—— maculata, 311, 330.

minuta, 333.

minutilla, 311, 335,

schinzii, 333.

striata, 337.

subarquata, 336,

temminchi, 354.

Tringoides hypoleucus, 344.

[macularius |, 311.

Troglodytes parvulus, 37.

TROGLODYTID&, 37.

Tryngites rufescens, 311, 342.

TUBINARES, 308.

Turpip™, l.

TURDIN®, 1.

Turdus iliacus, 4,

merula, 6.

2H

458

Lurdus musicus, 3.
pilaris, 4.

torquatus, 7.

varius, 5, 435.
viscivorus, 2.
Turnstone, 307.

Turtle Dove, 256.

Turtur communis, 256.
—— [risorius], 257.
‘Twink’ (Chaffinch), 65.
Twite, 68, 456.

‘ Tystie’ (Black Guillemot), 429.

‘Uckmal’ (Great Titmouse), 34.
Upupa epops, 119.

Upupip™, 119.

Uria grylle, 429.

Vanellus vulgaris, 306.

‘Vare-Wigeon’ (Smew, female),
248.

Velvet Scoter, 245.

‘ Vole-Viers’ (Fieldfares), 4.

[ Vulture, Kgyptian], 138.

(Griffon ], 138.

‘ Vuzz Kitt’ (Hen-Harrier), 141.

‘Wagel’ (Herring-Gull, young),
379.

Wagtail, Blue-headed, 41.

, Grey, 40, 455.

, Pied, 39, 455.

——., White, 38.

——,, Yellow, 41.

WaerTatrLs, THE, 37.

‘ Wall-plat’ (Spotted Flycatcher),
52.

Warbler, Black-headed, 18.

, Dartford, 20, 454.

——.,, Garden, 20.

——,, Grasshopper, 28, 454.

—— [Great Reed-], 27.

— poeael 24, 434.

Marsh-], 27.

—— fOrphean], 19.

——,, Reed-, 27.

——, Rufous, 25.

— [Savi’s], 29.

——., Sedge-, 27.

——,, Willow-, 23. 4

, Wood-, 24, 434

WARBLERS, THE, 17.

, THE AQUATIC, 26.

‘ Water-Ouzel’ (Dipper), 30.

INDEX.

Water-hen’ (Moor-hen), 283.

Pipit, 45.

Rail, 276.

Waxwing, 51.

Wheatear, 9, 433.

{ Black-throated ], 9.

— | Desert], 9.

{ Isabelline |, 9.

Whimbrel, 354.

Whinchat, 10.

‘ Whistling Curlew ’ (Common Cur-
lew), 355.

‘ White Drot’ (Whitethroat), 17.

— ‘ Lark’ (Snow-Bunting), 77.

‘Merganser’ (Smew, male),
248.

—— ‘Nun’ (Smew, male), 248.

— Stork, 195.

— Wagtail, 38.

‘Wigeon’ (Smew, male), 248.

White-billed Northern Diver, 411.

White-eyed Duck, 236.

White-fronted Goose, 207.

White-tailed Eagle, 150, 459.

Whitethroat, 17.

, Lesser, 18, 453.

White’s Thrush, 5, 433.

White-winged Black Tern, 367.

Crossbill, 73.

‘ Whittybeard’ (Whitethroat), 17.

‘Whole Snipe’ (Common Snipe),
324.

Whooper, 214.

‘ Wide-awake ’ (Sooty Tern), 365.

Wigeon, 221, 440.

, ‘ Black’ (Tufted Duck), 252.

—, ‘Spike-billed’ (Merganser),
246.

, ‘ White’ (Smew, male), 248.

Wild Duck, 225.

Witp Ducgs, Tue, 218.

‘Wild Pigeon’ (Ring-Dove), 251.

‘ Willock’ (Common Guillemot),
427,

Willow-Wren or Warbler, 23.

Wilson’s Petrel, 403.

‘Windell,’ ‘ Winnel, ‘ Winnard’
(Redwing), 4.

‘ Windfanner,’ ‘ Windhoyer’ (Kes-
trel), 168.

‘Winter Mew’ (Common Gull),
379.

Woodchat, 50.

Woodcock, 318.

INDEX. 459

Woodcock, ‘Sea’ (Bar-tailed God-
wit), 352.

, ‘Owl’ (Short-eared Owl),
130.

Wood-Lark, 101.

Pigeon, 251.

Sandpiper, 346.

—— Warbler, 24, 434.

Wren, 24.

Woodpecker (Great Black), 110.

, Great Spotted, 111, 488,

, Green, 115.

, Lesser Spotted, 112.

Woopprckers, THE, 109.

§ Wood-wall,’ ‘ -aw],’ ‘-walf,’ ‘-maul’
(Green Woodpecker), 113.

Wren, 37.

, Willow-, 23.

Wren, Wood-, 24,
, ‘ Yellow’ (Willow-Warbler),

Wryneck, 114, 433.
Aema sabinii, 387.
Yellow-billed American Cuckoo, 124.

Yellow Hammer, 75.
——,, ‘ French’ (Cirl Bunting),

75.
— [Shank], 311, 350.
— Waetail, 41.
‘Wren’ (Willow- Warbler),

23.
‘Yowley’ (Yellow Hammer),
75

iv.
‘Yelper’ (Avocet), 313.

THE END.

PRINTED BY TAYLOR AND FRANCIS, RED LION COURT, FLEET STREBT,

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IRELAND, A. Clayfield, Dowrich House, Crediton.

JAGO, Edward, Coldrennick, Menheniot, Cornwall.

JAMES, H. M., Tregear, Spicer’s Road, Exeter.

JAMES, H. Y., 8 York Place, Clifton, Bristol.

JERMAN, J., F.R.LB.A., 5 Bedford Circus, Exeter.

JONES and EVANS, Messrs., 77 Queen Street, London, W. (2 copies.)

KELSALL, Rev. J. E., M.A., Wavertree, Liverpool. (2 copies.)
KENNAWAY, L. J., Homefield, Pennsylvania Road, Exeter.
KENNAWAY, M., Homefield, Pennsylvania Road, Exeter.
KENSINGTON, Lady, 69 Grosvenor Street, London, W.

KITSON, R. P., Collaton, Torquay.

KNIGHT, F. A., Brynmelyn, Weston-super-Mare.

KNYFTON, Mrs. (the late), Uphill Castle, Weston-super-Mare, Somerset.

LAIDLAW, T. G., Bank of Scotland, Morningside, Edinburgh.

LANGTON, H., M.B.O.U., 11 Marlborough Place, Brighton.

LAYARD, E. L., C.M.G., F.L.S., Otterbourne, Budleigh Salterton.

LEES, E. B., Thurland Castle, Kirkby Lonsdale.

LETHBRIDGE, Sir Wroth Acland, Bart., Sandhill Park, Taunton,

LETHBRIDGE, W., c/o R. H. Porter, 18 Princes Street, London, W.

LEY, R., Maer Vale, Cyprus Road, Exmouth.

LILFORD, Rt. Hon. Lord, F.Z.8., F.L.8., P.B.O.U., Lilford Hall, Oundle,
Norths. (2 copies.)

LIPSCOMBE, R. H. (the late), Syon House, East Budleigh.

LLOYD, Rev. I. Grey, M.A., Bosheston, Pembroke.

LLOYD, H. C., Bryntirion, Exeter.
LUCAS, H. T., Stokeleigh, Kingsbridge.

MACPHERSON, A. H., 51 Gloucester Place, Hyde Park, London, W.

MACPHERSON, Rev. Hugh A., M.A., M.B.0.U., 20 Cecil Street, Carlisle.

MARSDEN, H. W., 21 New Bond Street, Bath. (4 copies.)

MARSHALL, Wilfred G., Norton Manor, Taunton.

MATHEW, Miss, 8 Apsley Terrace, Ilfracombe.

MEDLEY, Rev. J. B., M.A., Tyntesfield, Bristol.

MOORE, Major-Gen. A. T., C.B., V.C., South Cliff, Exmouth.

MOORMAN, Admiral R., 2 Cranford Villas, Exmouth.

MORE, A. Goodman, F.LS., M.B.0.U., 74 Leinster Road, Rathmines,
Dublin.

MOSTYN, R. J., Clarendon House, Dartmouth.

NAPER, Mrs. J., Stanley Lodge, Exmouth.
NICHOLLS, H., Roseland, Kingsbridge.

NICHOLLS, R. J., Fore Street, Kingsbridge.
NICHOLSON, Francis, F.Z.S., M.B.O.U., Manchester.

PARSONS, F., M.D., Common Hill, Frome.

PATTERSON, R. L., F.L.8., M.B.0.U., Croft House, Holywood, Down,
Ireland.

PEACOCK, Rey. E., M.A., Rockfield House, Nunney, Frome.

PEEK, Cuthbert E., F.Z.8., Wimbledon House, Wimbledon.

PERSHOUSE, F., Torquay.

PHEAR, Sir J. B., Knt., M.A., F.G.8., Marpool, Exmouth.

PHILLIPS, Rey. J. 8., M.A., 57 Middleton Road, Dalston, London, N.L.

PIKE, T. M., M.A., F.Z.8., M.B.0.U., c/o R. H. Porter, 18 Princes Street,
Cavendish Syuare, London, W.

PITTS, R. Z., Copt Hall, Springfield, Chelmsford.

PLATT, J., Clifton Lodge, Llandudno.

PLEYDELL, J. E. MANSEL-, F.L.S., F.G.8., Whatcombe, Blandford.

PLYMOUTH, The Free Public Library.

PORTER, E, Endymion, Charlton, Kilmersdon, Bath.

PORTER, R. H., 18 Princes Street, Cavendish Square, Loudon, W,

PORTSMOUTH, Rt. Hon. Karl of, Eggesford House, N. Devon.

PROPERT, Mortimer D., St. David’s, .8.0., Pembrokeshire.

RADCLIFFE LIBRARY, Oxtord.

6

RADFORD, D., Mount Tavy, Tavistock. (2 copies.)
tADFORD, W., M.D., Sidmount, Sidmouth.
READ, R. H., M.B.0.U., 2 Queen Square Place, Westminster, 8. W.
RICKARDS, Rev. Marcus 8. C., M.A., F.L.S., Twigworth, Gloucester.
ROBINS, H. T., Yealmpton Hotel, Yealmpton, Plymouth.
RODD, E. 8., Chardstock House, Chard.
ROGERS, E. A., 10 Northfield Road, Ilfracombe.
ROLLE, Hon. Mark, Stevenstone, Torrington.
ROWE, J. Brooking, F.L.8., F.S.A., Castle Barbican, Plympton, 8. Devon.

ST. GERMANS, Rt. Hon. Earl of, Port Eliot, St. Germans, Cornwall.

SALTING, W., 56 Upper Brook Street, London, W.

SANDERS, E. A., Stoke House, Stoke Hill, Exeter.

SAWLE, Sir C. B. Graves, Bart., Penrice, St. Austell, Cornwall.

SCARBOROUGH, E. J., Kingsholme, Colyford, Axminster.

SEEBOHM, H., F.Z.S., F.L.S., M.B.O.U., 22 Courtfield Gardens, London,
S.W.

SELLS, Arthur, Edenhill, Tonbridge.

SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, and Co., London. (50 copies.)

SIMPSON, F. C., Maypool, 8. Devon.

SIMPSON, G. A., 4 Cavendish Place, Bath.

SIMSON, Frank B., F.Z.8., M.B.0.U., Broom Hill, Spratton, Northampton.

SLADEN, Rey. C. A., M.A., 1 Esplanade, Teignmouth.

SMITH, Rey. A. C., M.A., M.B.O.U., Old Park, Devizes.

SMITH, T. Denroche, Balhary, Meigle, N.B.

SNOW, E. N., The Quarries, St. Thomas, Exeter.

STEPHENS, Darell, F.L.S., F.G.S., Trewornan, Wadebridge, Cornwall.

STILL, Major J. T., Seaton, near Axminster.

STRONG, Rev. E. C., M.A., Nutbrook, Withycombe, Exmouth.

STUDD, E. F., 180 Queen’s Gate, London, 8.W.

TAYLOR, W., 10 Chad Road, Edgbaston.

THEOBALD, W., Uplands, Budleigh Salterton.

THOMPSON, H., Spring Hill, Frome.

TOLL, W. V., Manor House, Strete, Dartmouth.

TORQUAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Babbacombe Road,
Torquay.

TUPPER, Col. A., R.A., Seacroft, Exmouth.

fj
UNITED SERVICES’ COLLEGE LIBRARY, Westward Ho!, Bideford.

VARWELL, P., Melrose, Pennsylvania Road, Exeter.
VENNING, J. J. E., 26 Ker Street, Devonport.
VICARY, W., F.G.S., The Priory, Colleton Crescent, Exeter.

WADDINGTON, Horace, M.A., Netherwood House, Godalming.
WADHAM, G. D., 39 Albemarle Street, Piccadilly, London, 8.W.
WALTERS, G. (the late), Somerleaze, Frome.

WALTERS, J. W. W., Exeter.

WATERFIELD, W., F.L.S., Eastdon House, Starcross.

WEST, R. B., Streatham Hall, Exeter.

WEYMOUTH, Rt. Hon. Viscount, M.P., Longleat, Warminster.
WHITEHEAD, Arthur, Frome.

WHYMPER, C. W., F.Z.8., 18 Princes Street, Cavendish 8q., London, W.
WIGLESWORTH, J., Rainhill, near Prescot.

WILBEY, J. E., 4 Greville Place, Maida Vale, London, W.
WILKINSON, Johnson, Huddersfield.

WILLIAMS, Rev. Philip, M.A., Rewe, Exeter.

WINWOOD, Rey. C. H. H., M.A., 11 Cavendish Crescent, Bath.
WITCOMB, H., 44 Bouverie Road West, Folkestone.
WOOLLCOMBE, Rev. G. L., M.A., Hemerdon, Plympton, 8. Devon.
WORTHINGTON, J., Glyn-y-mel, Fishguard, Pembrokeshire.
WYNTER, Hugh, M.D., The Croft, Portland Avenue, Exmouth.

YOUNG, J., F.Z.8., M.B.0.U., 64 Hereford Road, Bayswater, London, W.

- ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON, 3 Hanover Square, London, W.

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