Rare Birds in Number The very best of local bird
reports comes yearly from the Devon Bird- watching and Preservation Society, and this year's is altogether exceptional. It reports an astonishing number of rarities to record—Avocet, 'Snow Bunting, Crane, a Hepatic Cuckoo, Ruddy Shelduck, the three Harriers, Hobby, Kite, Merlin, Slender-billed Nutcracker, Dark-breasted Barn Owl, the nesting of the Fulmar Petrel, three species of Skua, Spoonbill and a Continental Song Thrush. Ravens and Buzzards continue to multiply under war conditions. A quaint and interesting note on the gymnastics of the plover's crest is given by Dr. Wright, of Braunton, whom .I have long revered as a genius in botany, but his general natural history has no gaps. His note is a quite original .gloss on " the wanton lapwing " when he " gets himself another" crest?' A few copies of the report at 3s. old. post free remain, and can be had from the most energetic hon. secretary, the Rev. F. C. Butters, Stockland ViCarage, Honiton, Devon.
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