CHAPTER VI. 



BIRD-LIFE OF THE WOODS AND GROVES. 



DEVONSHIRE is an exceptionally well - wooded 

 county from the sea-shore inland, over hill and 

 coombe, right up to the great central moorland 

 plateau. Consequently the avifauna affecting such 

 localities is a rich one. Not only are the fields 

 and hedges studded plentifully with trees, but the 

 coombes or valleys are generously timbered, whilst 

 woods and plantations, most of them containing 

 plenty of undergrowth, are scattered in all direc- 

 tions. The lovely area of the South Hams, in 

 which most of our experience of the Devonshire 

 ornis has been obtained, yields to no other district 

 in the county for the beauty of its woodlands and 

 the abundance of its timber. In many parts of 

 this area the woods stretch right away to the 

 brown and blue waters of the various estuaries, 



