BIRDS 



refuge here, and as elsewhere are often accompanied by stragglers that have 

 become detached from their own kind on migration and lost their way. At 

 times, too, solitary waifs and unattached parties that have wandered far from 

 their regular flight-lines put in an appearance. Among the remarkable 

 vagrants that have been obtained around this bay are three crested-larks, an 

 ashy-headed wagtail, four Kentish plovers, two Baillon's crake, two American 

 stints, a buff-breasted sandpiper, a solitary sandpiper, a yellow shank, a 

 Bonaparte's gull, an ivory gull, and a sooty shearwater. The roseate tern 

 formerly put in a casual appearance, but has not been recorded since 1842. 

 Richard's pipit has occurred at least twice, and the wry-neck, the little stint, 

 Temminck's stint, and the spoonbill are occasional but very irregular visitors. 

 In the Land's End district the stragglers include the roller, the bee-eater, the 

 white stork, the avocet, the Scandinavian water pipit, the velvet scoter, 

 Baillon's crake (at Zennor), the buff-breasted sandpiper, the white-winged 

 black tern, the gull-billed tern, and Pallas's sand-grouse, which appeared both 

 in 1863 and in 1888. The rose-coloured pastor is by no means an infre- 

 quent visitor to the district from Marazion and Gwithian westwards to 

 Land's End. The rare visitors to the Hayle estuary include two Bonaparte's 

 sandpipers, several glossy ibis, and a number of little stints. Sabine's gull has 

 visited the estuary several times, and in the autumn curlews and sandpipers 

 are occasionally abundant. The spoonbill is more frequent in its visits here 

 than at Mount's Bay, and parties of five to eleven have been recorded. 



During the autumn months there is a strong migratory stream towards the 

 west past the Lizard lighthouse, and this may be responsible for the appearance 

 of such casuals as the dotterel, red-start, tree creeper, garden warbler and tree- 

 pipit on the southern portion of the peninsula. Among the genuine waifs and 

 strays to the Lizard district are an alpine swift, a yellow-billed cuckoo, a little 

 owl, two Greenland falcons, a purple heron, a collared pratincole, three Bartram's 

 sandpipers, and a flock of twelve bee-eaters. The late Mr. F. V. Hill of Helston 

 mentions that a golden eagle frequented the woods at Trelowarren in January and 

 February, 1859, and that though fired at several times escaped without injury. 



7. THE ISLES OF SCILLY 



The islands of Scilly form an archipelago 10 miles in length from NE. 

 to SW., with a maximum breadth of 5 miles, and lie about 25 miles 

 west of Land's End. By far the greater number are rocky islets, and of the 

 five inhabited islands only Tresco, by virtue of the Abbey gardens and adjoin- 

 ing woods, can offer adequate shelter for the majority of visiting woodland 

 birds. Except in the sheltered dip of Holy Vale trees are practically absent on 

 St. Mary's ; and St. Martin's, St. Agnes, and Bryher have no tall cover to 

 offer except the hedges of veronica and escallonia that in all the cultivated 

 islands protect the bulb beds from the wind. The rock throughout is granite, 

 and though the highest point in the archipelago is only 170 feet above sea 

 level, several of the cliffs are imposing and practically inaccessible. The fresh- 

 water pools at Tresco are naturally much frequented by aquatic birds of pass- 

 age and winter visitors, and the moors of St. Mary's and elsewhere at times 

 attract a considerable population. During the breeding season such rocky 

 islets as are not exposed to the occasional wash of an Atlantic breaker are 

 thickly populated by the sea birds gulls, razor-bills, puffins, shags, cormorants, 



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