XXVI THE SOUTH HAMS. 



gum-trees^ fuchsias, &c.; stand out all the winter with little or no 

 protection. Until very recently the railroad did little more than 

 skirt the northern and eastern boundaries, so that the district has 

 been hitherto retired and secluded. It is not surprising that a 

 country offering such varied attractions for bird-life should be 

 visited by many rare species seldom met with elsewhere, and that 

 commoner species should abound. Consequently Ornithologists 

 have flourished in this district ever since Ornithology became a 

 pursuit and the art of Taxidermy was improved. Collections of 

 mounted birds are (or were) very numerous, nearly every country 

 house possessing one more or less extensive. The district has been 

 better worked than almost any other part of Devon, and in few parts 

 of England has Ornithology been pursued with more vigour and 

 success. At the end of the last and beginning of the present century. 

 Col. Montagu resided at Kingsbridge in the midst of this Ornitholo- 

 gical Paradise, and has rendered it classic ground by the important 

 observations on the habits of birds which he made there. He first 

 discovered the Cirl Bunting in the winter of 1800 and found its 

 nest and young in the following summer. In 1802 he demon- 

 strated the specific difterences of Montagues Harrier, and in 1805 

 he confirmed the identity of the Ringtail and Hen-Harrier. In 

 1806 he discovered the nest and eggs of the Dartford Warbler. He 

 also first discovered the Wood-Sandpiper as a British bird, having 

 obtained one killed on the south coast of Devon, although but two 

 other specimens are known to have occurred there since his time ; 

 and recorded the first British-killed specimen of the Red-breasted 

 Snipe, which was shot on the coast about 1801, and of the Buff- 

 backed Heron (or "^Little White Heron^) shot at South Allington in 

 Oct. 1805. The latter is the only undoubted example of the species 

 which has been killed in Britain. The specimen is preserved 

 in tlic South Kensington Museum of Natural History. 



The exertions of many other ornithologists have made the 

 feathered inhabitants of this part of the county thoroughly well 

 known. For many years the late Mr. J. Gatcombe resided at 

 I'lymouth and contributed largely to our knowledge of Devonshire 

 liirds ; and Dr. Edward Moore, the Revs. Kerr Vaughan, R. Holds- 

 worth, C. Bulteel, and R. A. Julian, and Mr. J. Elliot, deceased, 

 and Messrs. J. Brooking Rowe, Henry and R. P. Nicholls, and 

 Edmund A. S.Elliot, now living, have each and all helped to build 



