12 BIRD-LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 



to the extensive northern wastes. Devonia's 

 moors possess no attraction for the Red Grouse ; 

 neither do they offer a sanctuary to the Merlin 

 or the larger Raptores ; while such birds as the 

 Twite, the Whimbrel, the Golden Plover, the 

 Dunlin, and the Skuas, that lend such a charm 

 of life to the northern moors, are all conspicuous 

 by their absence. So far as bird-life is concerned, 

 the only link^ that connect these southern uplands 

 with the wilder and typical moors are perhaps the 

 Ring Ouzel, the Grey Wagtail, the Curlew, the 

 Wheatear, and the Snipe; but some of these are 

 by no means abundantly represented, and, to tell 

 the truth, seem out of place laggards that have 

 been left behind as the species moved northwards 

 in the dim prehistoric ages when life was slowly 

 struggling polewards after glacial conditions had 

 been modified. Even these very lands themselves 

 seem but as scattered and lost fragments of the 

 northern moors dropped as it were into a luxuriant 

 natural garden, and surrounded by some of the 

 most fertile country in all England. Neither do 

 we meet with any compensations so far as these 

 Devonshire moors are concerned there are no 

 species found upon them that may not be met with 



