276 BIRD-LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 



such as Terns and Gulls, Gannets, Auks, Divers, 

 and some Waders, follow the shore, not always, 

 however, entering the bays and estuaries, but 

 passing along from one headland to another. 

 Many Waders enter our area by the various 

 southern estuaries, and cross the county almost 

 in a direct line from south to north, as we have 

 had abundant evidence from the cries of the 

 migrating flocks passing over at night. 



Equally 4s regards autumn migration, the pheno- 

 menon as witnessed in the county is quite in 

 accordance with those laws of dispersal that are so 

 well demonstrated by the spring birds of passage. 

 The geographical position of the county is such 

 that it normally receives none of those vast waves 

 of migrants from the direct east that are such a 

 prominent feature on our eastern seaboard south 

 of Yorkshire. On the other hand, the tide of 

 migration that sweeps the British Islands from the 

 north-east spreads across Devonshire right down 

 to the extremity of Cornwall. To these facts may 

 be attributed the apparent anomaly that such a 

 county as Devonshire, one of the mildest, if not the 

 mildest, in England, is not specially remarkable for 

 its Passerine winter migrants. These birds are far 



