IXTRODUCTIOX. 



The County Histories of Birds^ so many of wliicli have been 

 publislied of late years, have helped to show that in the British 

 Isles, considering their area, the Avifauna is very dissimilar in its 

 distribution. The East differs from the West, the North from the 

 South, an inland county from a maritime one, in variety and 

 number of species. This arises from many causes, the chief 

 depending upon the points at which migrating birds arrive and 

 depart, and these landing-places are selected according to the 

 position of the mountain-ranges and the character of the coast- 

 line. County histories of birds also serve to indicate the changes 

 in a local Ornis since pre-railway times. Much might be written 

 as to the intiuence of railways upon our native Fauna : they 

 have invaded quiet bird-sanctuaries ; they have rendered others 

 accessible to gunners from a distance ; they have carried the 

 " collector " everywhere ; they have prompted and made possible 

 the improvements in agriculture of the present day, which Avhilc 

 they have banished some birds have conduced to the multiplication 

 of others. 



Devonshire, with a list of birds almost equal in extent and in 

 interest to that of the favoured county of Norfolk, or perhaps 

 even of Yorkshire, is classical ground, because of the home it afforded 

 for sorae years at Kingsbridge to Col. Montagu, one of the Fathers of 

 Britisli Ornithology, wlio there made some of his most important 

 observations. It has been witli a deep sense both of the import- 

 ance as well as of tiie difficulties of their task that tlic Authors of 

 the present book liave attempted to prcjjare such an account of its 

 Birds as may be worthy ot" so grandly diversified a county. They 

 did not fail to meet the difhculties which arose from the obscure 

 determination of some Ijirds by earlier writers; from lists of old 



