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504 ORNITHOLOGY OF THE SOUTH HAMS. 
well wooded and well cultivated counties, to be un- 
usually extensive. The number of birds in Oxford- 
shire does not exceed 120, inclusive of several kinds 
of web-footed birds (besides the more common sorts « 
of Ducks, &c., which we may presume would form 
part of most ornithological lists) which occasionally 
roam inland, or are driven thither by stress of 
weather, such as the Herring Gull and Leach’s 
Petrel, and three kinds of Waders which are at times 
detected in inland localities, the Ibis, Phalarope, 
and Greenshank, so that more properly not above 
106 land and fresh water birds are found in Oxford- 
shire, making a difference of 35 species between 
the two counties. This difference we shall examine 
into, as it will serve to illustrate in some measure 
the peculiarities and more remarkable features of the 
ornithology of the cultivated parts of Devon. 
First with regard to the Accipitres, the de- 
ficiencies consist of these birds, (not taking into 
account certain species which I shall have to men- 
tion in considering the third portion of the south 
of Devon)—the Rough-legged Falcon, Ash-coloured 
Falcon, Moor Buzzard, Great eared Owl, Snowy 
Owl, and Little Owl. In examining into such sub- 
: jects we may perceive, that with respect to some 
species the reasons of absence are evident enough, 
while with respect to others, the causes of restriction 
of limits and occasional or vacillating appearance 
are quite unknown. Speaking generally, the cause 
of our possessing so many species of this tribe, in- 
deed all the British species except the Scops Aldro- 
vandi and Egyptian Vulture, stragglers, seems to be 
the rocky and mountainous character of our county 
together with so great an abundance of uncultivated 
land interspersed and a vast number of woods of 
great depth removed from the neighbourhood of man. 
The only species of the Accipitres however which 
may be accounted at all common in Devon, are 
ip 
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