IQ4 BIRD-LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 



in August, and for about a month or six weeks 

 continue to frequent them. The bird cannot be 

 regarded as at all common in the Tor Bay district 

 there is no ground suitable for them. Neither 

 have we ever remarked them in any great numbers 

 about Teignmouth or Exmouth, although occurring 

 there every season. We are informed that the 

 bird is much more numerous lower down the 

 coast about Kingsbridge and Plymouth; and this 

 seems to suggest that the birds reach these places 

 by an overland route direct from the northern 

 coasts of the county, and not by following the 

 shore from the east That the Knot does so 

 migrate across country is proved by the late 

 Henry Swaysland, who assured us years ago 

 that he once caught six of them in his net 

 whilst bird-catching at the Devil's Dyke, some 

 distance inland from Brighton. All these migra- 

 tory Knots do not appear to leave the country 

 during winter, and many instances of its occurrence 

 at that season are on record. Then that equally 

 interesting polar bird, the Curlew Sandpiper, passes 

 our coasts on its spring and autumn migrations, 

 although in no great numbers, and frequently 

 mixed with bunches of Dunlins. It is also some- 



