1774 BIKDS OF DEVONSHIRE 253 



The ring-ousels, which breed about the sides of small 

 brooks upon Dartmoor, and continue there till the end of 

 September or beginning of October appeared there this 

 spring before the end of March : If they are so early every 

 year (and to the best of my Remembrance they used to be 

 so early) may we not suppose that these that visit you in 

 spring and autumn are only the scattered ones that accident 

 has separated from their companions ? or perhaps part of 

 a second flight in their way to or return from the more 

 northern part of our island. Whence they come when they 

 visit us in the spring, I confess myself ignorant : but that 

 they cross the British Channel seems to me more probable, 

 than that they should leave us to go either to the north of 

 England or north of Europe during winter, and return to us 

 with the spring. I can venture to assert that the grey 

 crows never breed upon our moors: I never saw, or heard 

 of one seen there; but I once, and once only, saw a con- 

 siderable number of them together near the south-west 

 coast of Devonshire some time in the winter. This spring 

 the Hirundines were very late with us ; the first swallow 

 I heard of was seen on the 25th April, and on 1st May we 

 had the swifts plenty ; but the house-martin was not seen 

 with us till the middle of May, which is very extraordinary. 

 The bank-martin as well as the nightingale is seldom seen 

 in Devon; but the red-start, white-throat, and fly-catcher 

 are pretty common there : the blackcap I never saw. — Why 

 the redwing and fieldfare should leave us at the approach of 

 summer, and what becomes of them at that season, I have 

 often wondered; in Devon they are seldom seen after 

 March ; but I have often seen small companies of them in 

 Oxfordshire towards the latter end of April; and once in 

 the month of May ; yet I never heard of a nest of either 

 of these birds. The Stone-plover is a bird I am totally un- 

 acquainted with : if it be ever found in Devon, it must be 

 about Exmoor in the northern part of the County. Of the 



