LUNDY ISLAND. XXXVll 



will see but few stretches o£ sand or ooze beneath him to attract 

 shore-birds — only a few Gulls, a j)air or two of Kestrels^ and per- 

 chance of Peregrines ; numerous Jackdaws ; and^ if he is lucky, a 

 Chough or two, some Rock-Doves, and even a Buzzard may be 

 encountered. The waters of the '^Yellow Sea •'^ do not begin to 

 get clear until one has reached Minehead coming from the east, 

 but off Ilfracombe the Channel has attained the green tints of 

 ocean. Westw^ards from Ilfracombe there are the extensive 

 AVoolacombe sands, Croyde Bay, and a fine stretch of sand along 

 the shore of Barnstaple Bay bounding the Braunton Burrows, 

 after we have turned Baggy Point, a famous bird-station ; then 

 comes the Bar at the entrance to the united estuaries of Taw and 

 Torridge ; and on its western side we have the Pebble-ridge 

 guarding the extensive flat known as the Northam Burrows from 

 the Atlantic rollers. After this the coast is again bounded by 

 lofty cliffs, and passing romantic and beautiful Clovelly, and 

 following round Hartland Point, we soon come to ^'the sounding 

 shores of Bude and Boss,^^ and to the black precipices of the North 

 Cornwall coast, which, trending south to the Land^s End, are here 

 and there indented with some sandy '' porth ■'•' edged with the white 

 margins of the breaking waves. But, like the North Devon coast, 

 these Cornish shores have no abundance of bird-life. It is only 

 when we reach the warm and sheltered bays extending from 

 Penzance eastwards along the south coasts of Cornwall, Devon, and 

 Dorset to Poole Harbour, that we can realize the multitudes of sea- 

 fowl which, at almost all seasons of the year, keep their sun-lit 

 waters '' shadowed by their wings. ^' 



V. LUNDY ISLAND. 



Lundy, the Isle of Puffins, distant about fourteen miles from 

 Hartland Point, lies well out in the entrance of the Bristol 

 Channel, and being much nearer to Devonshire than it is to South 

 Wales (30 miles) may be justly regarded as pertaining to that 

 county, although according to Drayton, in his ' Polyolbion,^ there 

 was in old times a controvei'sy between Wales, Devonshire, and 

 Cornwall as to which had the best claim to it. Strange to say, 

 Mr. T. V. Wollaston found lliat the Calcoplera (Beetles) of the 



