114 BIRD-LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 



with unerring certainty each succeeding winter. 

 This Snipe is particularly attached to a favourite 

 haunt, no matter how small the spot may be, and 

 when flushed and driven from it will always return 

 at the first possible opportunity. It is worthy of 

 remark that this Snipe does not breed within 

 our area, being a migrant to Lapland and other 

 northern regions during summer. During autumn 

 and winter ^ur marshes are the resort of fair 

 numbers of Curlews, which retire to these spots 

 when the flowing tide drives them from the sands 

 and mudflats where they feed. 



Round about Tor Bay there are many small 

 reed beds and dense patches of yellow iris and 

 rush. These afford excellent cover for the Sedge 

 Warbler, a bird that is remarkably numerous in 

 this particular part of the county. This species 

 affords a capital instance of the deep attachment 

 birds have for a certain haunt, and how re- 

 luctantly they seem to desert it, notwithstanding 

 changes that may alter the entire aspect of the 

 place. Eight years ago Sedge Warblers abounded 

 in a small swamp clothed with a dense growth of 

 reeds and iris, amongst which a few willows 

 struggled hard to survive. Several years ago a 



