XXXIV NORTH DEVON. 



have a most diversified country : hills^ fallow-lands, dry heaths, 

 elevated moors, extensive rushy marshes, and where the Taw below 

 Barnstaple flows broad and tidal, previous to its uniting with the 

 Torridge at Appledore and joining the Bristol Channel, we have 

 broad sandy flats, which are left dry as the tide retreats, and here 

 and there soft beds of ooze formed from the alluvial deposit which 

 the Taw has rolled down through many a fertile meadow on its way 

 from the wilds of Dartmoor. And when the two rivers meet there 

 is a large tract of dry and barren sand-hills bordered landwards by 

 an extensive fenny flat called the Braunton Marshes. Above 

 Barnstaple again there are the Tawton Marshes.^' 



Some sixteen years after we wrote this descriptive sketch, Mr. 

 G. F. Mathew, R.N. (Zool. 1872, p. 2917), stated that the oozes 

 of the Taw, once frequented by vast flocks of Ringed Plovers, 

 Dunlins, Curlew, and Turnstones, &c., were nearly deserted, and 

 the large autumnal flights of Bar-tailed Godwits, Knots, Curlew 

 Sandpipers, &c. had almost ceased to visit this once famous river. 

 Owing to the railways, embankments, and draining-operations, 

 hundreds of acres of salt-marsh had been reclaimed. Both Taw 

 and Torridge have now railways skirting their banks, and the 

 passing trains scare away the birds as soon as they arrive. 



The estuary between Barnstaple and the sea has aff'orded some 

 interesting birds : Dotterel, Black-tailed Godwit (2 specimens 

 only), Bonaparte^'s Sandpiper, Wood- Sandpiper, Spotted Red- 

 shank, Avocet, Fulmar Petrel, Eared and Sclavonian Grebes, and 

 all the Skuas. Near Barnstaple the Golden Oriole has been 

 known to breed, a pair frequenting the grounds of Pilton Abbey 

 during one season. The Pied Flycatcher is also believed to have 

 bred in the neighbourhood, and it seems probable that a brood of 

 Night-Herons was actually hatched out in 1869 near New^ Bridge 

 on the Taw. Large flocks of Oyster-catchers frequent the mussel- 

 beds near the lighthouse on Braunton Burrows in the autumn 

 and winter. 



The Braunton Burrows. 

 The Braunton Burrows are an extensive tract of sand-hills 

 at the mouth of the Taw and Torridge estuary, consisting of 

 some 3000 acres, bounded to the north by Saunton Down End, 



