CIIAXGES IN THE COUNTY ORNIS. xliii 



customary Turdidce. Then^ the old da^^s when there were but 

 few sportsmen abroad with their flint-and-steel single barrels have 

 been replaced by a new age in which there are more breechloaders 

 than Snipe. The extermination of the larger birds o£ prey has 

 brought about a great increase of small birds ; the Thrush family, 

 in particular, have benefited by the removal of their natural 

 enemies. The greater amenity of the county resulting from im- 

 proved cultivation has invited some of the summer migrants to 

 visit it in greater numbers ; the Redstart and the Nightingale 

 may be mentioned among those which appear to be annually ex- 

 tending their range further to the west. Better farming has been 

 favourable to the Partridge, which, once comparatively scarce, has 

 now in many parts of the county become abundant. The Royston 

 Crow, for some reason or other, no longer visits the south-western 

 counties regularly in the winter as it did formerly ; and the Raven 

 is comparatively seldom seen. The Chough and Rock-Dove are 

 becoming very rare along our coasts, and will, we fear, soon 

 altogether disappear; Avhile the Stock-Dove is increasing in num- 

 bers, and has lately established itself in the north of the county, 

 where it had been previously unknown. The Mistle-Thrush, 

 Rook, Lapwing, Moor-hen, and Ring-Dove have also become more 

 numerous. 



A noteworthy event in our Devonshire Ornis has been the 

 occupation of nearly the whole county by the Starling as a resident 

 species. In our school-days Starlings were chiefly winter visitors, 

 appearing in the autumn in the north of the county in large flocks; 

 we have still immense arrivals of foreign birds in the autumn, but 

 there are now also numerous resident Starlings nesting commonly 

 in most districts. We have already, in our Introduction, spoken 

 of the prejudicial effects of railways upon a local ornis. The 

 estuaries of both Taw and Torridge in the north of the county, 

 of Exe, Teign, and Dart in the south, have been ruined as bird- 

 haunts by the frequent trains running along their banks, frighten- 

 ing the Ijirds from tlic sands and oozes. Added to this we must 

 not forget to state that for ahnost every bird still bold enough to 

 enter there is a shore-gunner on the watch. Things were indeed 

 becoming desperate for our wild-fowl and Limicolic, but wc have 

 lately derived some little comfort through hearing of an improve- 



