204 BIRD-LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 



The Crow is a familiar visitor to the shore, where 

 he prys about for anything suitable to eat, living 

 or carrion, well representing the Hooded Crow in 

 other localities. The Rook is not content with 

 searching the sands and mudflats, but occasionally 

 flies above the sea and drops down to pick up 

 any scrap of suitable food that he may chance to 

 discover. We have seen this happen in Tor Bay 

 between Corbyn Head and the Torquay pier not 

 once, but many times in succession. The Herring 

 Gull is also a great scavenger of the shore, feeding 

 greedily upon any carcass of bird, fish, or animal 

 that may be cast up by the tide. When the fleet 

 puts into Tor Bay as it usually does every 

 summer the ships are constantly attended by 

 flocks of this Gull, all the refuse being eagerly 

 picked up, sometimes the hull of a huge ironclad 

 being almost vignetted in a swarm of fluttering 

 Gulls. 



