A HISTORY OF CORNWALL 



3. ST. COLUMB-CAMBORNE DISTRICT 



This district includes the coast line from Trevose Head to Gwithian. 

 In its northern division lies the beautiful vale of Lanherne, and to the east the 

 picturesque Luxulian valley, with its surroundings of rough, dry heath-land. 

 The middle division includes the Cornish china clay district, which with the 

 Tregoss and other moors practically fills up the triangle between the Par to 

 Newquay railway and the main line ; while the western portion coincides 

 with the most important mining area in the county. The coast-line consists 

 for the most part of bold precipitous cliffs,with a long stretch of sand dune to 

 the north of Perran Forth, and another at Gwithian. As in the Bude and 

 Camel district the coast-land is pitilessly wind-swept, and therefore destitute 

 of trees and in many places of cover of any kind. From an ornithological 

 point of view the most important openings on the coast are Mawgan Porth, 

 where a low-level marshy tract leads inward to the sequestered well-wooded 

 brook-gladdened vale of Mawgan, the sheltered valley of the Gannel with 

 its tree-brakes and abundant cover, and the flat inlet of Perran Porth at the 

 south end of Perran Bay. 



The ornis possesses few features of special interest. The chough still 

 nests between Trevose Head and Mawgan Porth but the buzzard is only a 

 casual visitor. The snow-bunting appears almost every winter on the dunes 

 between Perran and Newquay, and the cirl-bunting probably breeds near the 

 mouth of the Gannel, the only locality where it has been seen in North 

 Cornwall. The whinchat is occasionally found about Newquay and the grass- 

 hopper warbler apparently nests there quite regularly. In the vale of Lan- 

 herne and the valley of the Gannel warblers and small birds generally are 

 better represented than anywhere else in the northern districts. The lesser 

 woodpecker breeds every year near St. Columb, and the reed-bunting near 

 Luxulian. In 1901 a pair of hoopoes nested near Carworgie. The quail 

 is by no means an unusual summer visitor, and occasionally breeds. One 

 morning in early autumn some years ago fourteen were killed between Car- 

 worgie near St. Columb Road station and St. Dennis. In 1888 several 

 Pallas's sand-grouse were shot on the Goss Moors and several on the moors 

 near St. Austell. On the Goss Moors and elsewhere in the china-clay dis- 

 trict the breeding birds include the lapwing, the curlew, snipe, mallard, teal, 

 coot, moorhen> and common sandpiper, and occasionally at least the dunlin. 

 In 1904 a pair of redshanks nested near Roche. The spotted crake is not 

 uncommon, and the great solitary snipe has been observed several times. 



The ordinary sea-birds are commoner than in the Bude and Camel dis- 

 trict, with the exception of the puffin. There is a small summer colony of 

 the Manx shearwater near Newquay the only breeding station on the Cornish 

 mainland. A few kittiwakes nested on one of the cliffs down till 1904, but 

 none of them appeared last year. The spoonbill occasionally appears at 

 Newquay in winter, and as many as nineteen have been observed in a flock. 



4. TAMAR-FOWEY DISTRICT 



This district extends from Werrington above Launceston southward be- 

 tween the Bodmin Moors and the Tamar to the sea, and westward between 



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