Ornithological Notes from North Lincolnshire. (Continued from S. S. 4063.) JUNE, JULY AND AUGUST, 1874. Brownheaded Gull.-June 15. Young birds of the year first seen on the flats. On the 16th I saw from four to five hundred, all adults, on some freshly-broken upland; they were basking in the hot sunshine, reclining in various positions, some busily engaged in preening their feathers, others dusting themselves in the dry soil like partridges, but the greater part were sleeping with their bills tucked away beneath the scapularies: every one of these birds I believe were adult. They will resort every day to the same place, resting for hours in this manner during the heat of the day. In time the land becomes covered with their feathers, as if a flock of geese had been plucked upon it. Spotted Flycatcher. I have not seen a single flycatcher in this neighbourhood during the summer. It is usually very common. Two pairs which have now for many years nested in my garden have not shown themselves this season. Redlegged Partridge.-This bird is becoming quite common in that part of South Lincolnshire bordering the Wash and opposite the county of Norfolk. I am told it has of late years gradually extended its range in that district. Dunlin.-July 13. A considerable flock, in summer plumage, on the river flats. Whimbrel.-July 14. Seen and heard. Great Blackbacked Gull.-July 17. Some old birds, with their young, have returned to the sea coast. Mistletoe Thrush.—July 24. Have already congregated. In the last week in the month I daily met with large flocks amongst the heather and mountain sedges on the highest portion of the Shap Fells in Westmoreland, and on the still higher fell ranges at the head of Swindale and Wet and along Sleddale. Oystercatcher.-July 28. There was an oystercatcher to-day swimming on one of the loneliest and wildest of our English lakes. It rose from the beach and alighted in the water some distance from the shore, swimming with all the grace and ease of any other water-fowl, sitting, however, very high in the water. Dunlin and Ringed Plover.-August 3. Large flocks, mainly composed of young birds, in the marshes. Curlew.-August 3. Many young of the year in the grass marshes near the Humber. Knot.-August 18. There were young birds on the flats as early as this date. Terns.-August 21. Terns are partly crepuscular in their feeding, and in the twilight have a wonderfully keen sight for any small floating object. This evening, when a few miles from the mouth of the Humber, we had scores beating for food round the yacht. It was so nearly dark that on looking over the bulwarks I found it was impossible to distinguish any small floating object, yet terns were dropping in rapid succession, one after the other, from the height of twenty or twenty-five feet, and seizing some small fish or floating object near the surface. The sea was highly luminous, and it may be that each little fish, as it dashed to and fro, carried its own lamp, a real danger-signal in this case, guiding the graceful sea swallow to its supper. A pleasant sight it is, on a bright summer day, with a smooth sea, to watch a flock of terns fishing, beating here and there, and examining every yard of water, like pointers quartering a field; now one, then another, remains momentarily suspended on motionless wing; then there is that rapid dash downwards and the splash in the green sea, the bird rising almost instantly with a small glittering fish held crosswise in its bill; this, before it is bolted, requires properly adjusting, head downwards, and I have often been amused at the efforts made by the bird to get the fish straight for its gullet, often dropping it three or four times in succession, and by a sudden downward dash recovering it in mid-air. It is rarely the fish reaches the water again, and then so battered and pinched as to be readily retrieved. Redthoated Diver.-August 21. One seen off the Spurn. Great Skua. August 21. I saw this noble, but now unfortunately rare, bird some miles out at sea this afternoon, in chase of a lesser blackbacked gull, which it fairly drove down on the water, and then seemed reluctant to abandon its pretensions. Since this date I have passed over nearly a thousand miles of the North Sea without coming across another example. Richardson's skua is not uncommon, and at this season may be found all along our east coast. Turnstone.-August 22. I shot a young bird of the year at Spurn this morning, and saw others. Godwit.-August 22. Small numbers of godwits on the mud-flats to the north of Spurn. Curlew Sandpiper.-Common as this species was in our marshes and on the coast in the autumn of 1873, I have this season not come across a single example. In the third week of September I saw a flock on Sandy Island, close to Heligoland. Guillemot.-August 22. This morning guillemots were diving and fishing close to the yacht; they kept so near the surface that sometimes every motion of the bird was visible, and the direction they took apparent both by the long lines and furrows made as they rippled the oily surface of the sea in their rapid passage underneath, as well as by the many little glittering fish jumping from the water to escape capture. There were also numerous porpoises very slowly and lazily rolling, often with the whole of their backs exposed, as if desirous of feeling the full blaze of the morning sun. Above the porpoises a flock of lesser blackbacked and herring gulls screamed and fluttered, making rapid dashes at the fish, which the unwieldly sea-pigs drove to the surface. Sometimes a big fellow made a sudden dash forward, furrowing and ploughing the water with his snout, whilst scores of little frightened fish, like jets of liquid silver, sprang to right and left to avoid him. The sea this morning seemed alive with life, literally swarming with the fry of various fish. Great Cotes, Ulceby, Lincolnshire. JOHN CORDEAUX. Ornithological Notes from Devonshire, Cornwall, &c. (Continued from S. S. 4105). MAY, 1874. 5th. Found some gray wagtails breeding by the side of the river Lydd, near Lifton, Devon, when one of the old birds feigned lameness and used other artifices to entice us away from the vicinity of the nest and young. 11th. Visited the breeding-places of the herring gulls at Wembury, on the coast a few miles from Plymouth, where we observed about two hundred, all of which, with the exception of one, were apparently in their full nuptial dress, and most seemed to have nests, from the noise and anxiety they displayed, flying round and hovering within ten yards of our heads during the whole time we remained. I much fear some of the nests had been robbed, as we found fragments of egg-shells on the top of the cliffs. The day after, a boy was killed by falling from the rocks when searching for gulls' eggs at a breeding-place near the Rhame Head, on the coast of Cornwall, not far from Plymouth, and I have lately read of another having shared the same fate further to the eastward towards Exmouth. On the 15th I examined an exceedingly fine female of the common buzzard, which was killed near her nest, and I am sorry to say the male has since shared the same fate. The stomach of the latter contained nothing but the remains of rats and mice. 16th. Observed many swifts and a whimbrel. The latter species seems to have been very scarce on our immediate coast during the present month, but swifts, on the contrary, are rather plentiful. A dealer in live birds has had no less than twenty-five young ravens brought to him lately, taken in Devon and Cornwall. JUNE. 14th. Visited Dozmare Pool, on the Cornish moors, about ten miles from Liskeard, on which were several adult herring and lesser blackbacked gulls: these I was rather surprised to see, considering it was in the middle of the breeding season, and the pool so many miles from the coast. On the grassy margins were several dunlins, some of which I think were breeding, from their extreme tameness, constantly alighting very near to, and then running on before as if to lead us away from, a particular spot; but when closely followed they would fly off, making a short circuit, quickly returning, and constantly uttering the curious trilling pipe peculiar to the breeding season. These notes were frequently heard, apparently close by, when we could not see the bird; but on carefully noting from what direction they came, we were sure to find it, generally standing bolt upright on some little eminence among the grass, watching us intently and uttering its cry all the while: on our approach it did not fly, but ran or walked off until we came too close, when it would take wing, making a short circuit as before. At another part of the pool I observed a small flock of five or six together. Indeed, I could hardly have believed that a dunlin when standing erect could have appeared so tall, the neck at times being so stretched as to bring the whole body in an almost perpendicular line. All these birds were in perfect nuptial dress, very ruddy on the back and a large patch underneath. On the moors were many whinchats, blackheaded buntings, and a few curlews. Whinchats, I am told by a friend, are very plentiful in Wiltshire this season, and I observed several perched on the furze-bushes by the side of the line on my way to Epsom from London Bridge, in June. 18th. A greater spotted woodpecker was brought to one of the Plymouth birdstuffers to-day, also a young one of the green woodpecker in its prettily barred plumage. The Sound appears full of herring and lesser blackbacked gulls fishing in flocks, most of them, I should say, non-breeders, for when the tide has receded a large number may be seen resting or feeding on the mud-banks for hours. together, far away from the breeding haunts. I have, however, lately remarked that when a large number of gulls were congregated at the sterns of the men-of-war, picking up the scraps thrown overboard after the dinner-hour, that they made the same noise that they do at the breeding-stations. JULY. 14th. Visited the river Tamar, near Lifton, and was much pleased to find several pairs of sand martins breeding in its banks. I also observed, in a small stream adjoining the river, a common sandpiper, which it appears had already left its breeding place on the moors, and was making its way towards the coast. Examined the contents of the stomach of a nightjar, which consisted of between twenty and thirty almost perfect specimens of a small kind of cockchaffer [Amphimalla solstitialis], besides many moths and beetles. 15th. Heard the notes of many whimbrels and sandpipers passing over the town after dark. 19th. Cormorants are now leaving their breeding stations, and may be seen flying up our tidal rivers in small flocks, where they remain to fish during the greater part of the day: they sometimes rest on the mud-banks for hours when the tide is out. The nuptial dress of this species is lost very early. 23rd. Visited the breeding place of the herring gulls at Wembury, near Plymouth, and found that most of the young had left their nests and were congregated in some small groups on the grass on the top of the cliff, but on our approach were quickly |