240 BIRD-LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 



particularly refer to the large sweeping bays and 

 land-locked estuaries on the southern coast, which 

 are the most important haunts of water-birds in 

 the county during winter. During a stiff easterly 

 gale, birds of many species are driven in nearer 

 to the land, and the beach is sometimes strewn 

 with their dead bodies, telling of the severity of 

 the weather off the coast, and giving us an in- 

 dication of the variety and the abundance of the 

 bird-life (at sea. 



The marine bird-life of our own beautiful Tor 

 Bay may be taken as fairly typical of all that will 

 be met with anywhere else along the south coast 

 of the county. It would be difficult to find a 

 more romantic spot round the English coast, the 

 scenery, in which it rests like a brilliant jewel of 

 varying hues, according to atmospheric conditions, 

 when viewed from the centre of the bay, being 

 most imposing. The noble outline of the land, 

 from Hope's Nose and the Oar Stone on the right 

 hand or north, to the red and grey cliffs of Berry 

 Head on the left hand or south, includes as grand 

 and varied a sweep of coast-line as any that can 

 be found in England, and in no way suffers by 

 comparison with the more widely famous (because 



