GEOGEAPHICAL POSITION. XVll 



their love for tlieir beautiful county, and the long period of forty 

 years during which its " careless, happy birds " ^ have provided 

 them with a most delightful study, may be looked vipon with indul- 

 gence as their excuse for placing the results before the Public, 



W. S. M. D^URBAN. 

 April 1892. MURRAY A. MATHE^Y. 



GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION AND PHYSICAL ASPECT 

 OF DEVON. 



Devonshire has the largest area of any English county excepting 

 Yorkshire and Liucohishire, Its extreme length from the Start 

 Point on the English Channel to Ilfracombe on the Bristol Channel 

 is about seventy miles, and its average breadth is close upon fifty 

 miles. According to the Registrar-General it contains 1,621,746 

 acres, or 2534 square miles. It lies between the parallels of 

 50° 12' and 51° 14' North Latitude, and 3° and 4° 30' West Longi- 

 tude. Forming the broadest and most central portion of the 

 South-western Peninsula of England, jutting out between the 

 Bristol and English Channels, it is bounded on the east by Somerset 

 and Dorset, and on the west by CoruAvall. Like the last-named 

 county it possesses both a North and a South Coast, the former 

 being about 50 miles and the latter about 100 miles in length. 



Unlike many other English counties whose boundaries are 

 purely arbitrary, Devonshire is a well-defined and natural district, 

 differing in many respects from any other part of the British 

 Islands, and its Fauna possesses distinctive characteristics which 

 separate it from the counties immediately adjoining it on tlic east, 

 and in a minor degree from Cornwall on the west, although Coru- 

 Wdll, Devon, and West Somerset are intimately connected and 

 allied in character, and might be advantageously treated of as a 

 mIioIc. 



* " kokPovuuv <pv\ov upvlBoivy — Sophocles, 'Antigone,' 343. 



