IV PREFACE. 



counties in England present us with a greater 

 diversity of physical aspect ; and certainly no 

 other shire is blessed with a milder and more 

 equable climate. So far as sedentary birds are 

 concerned, the county is rich in species, and 

 most branches of our resident avifauna are well 

 represented. But the same can scarcely be said 

 of migratory species, the county being very 

 unfavourably situated for them. Indeed, next to 

 Cornwall, I should feel inclined to class Devon- 

 shire as the poorest littoral county in England 

 for normal migratory birds, lying, as it does, too 

 far to the south-west. Its poorness in this respect, 

 however, is not without compensations to the 

 scientific student of the dispersal and migration of 

 Birds, as I have . pointed out elsewhere. So far 

 as abnormal migrants are concerned, Devonshire 

 can compare favourably with any other county. 

 Devonshire is par excellence a field naturalist's 

 county ; an area in which outdoor work can be 

 carried on throughout the year under the most 

 favourable and pleasant conditions, abounding with 

 an avifauna of exceeding diversity. Some of our 



