A HISTORY OF DEVONSHIRE 



Amongst the 6 1 species of birds that formerly bred more or less regularly 

 on the island, the Cornish chough, once numerous, is now exterminated, 

 and the quail and snipe no longer breed there. A few pairs of ravens 

 and two pairs of peregrine falcons still breed on the steep cliffs. The 

 osprey had an eyrie here as late as 1838. Lundy was formerly remark- 

 able for the flights of quail, landrail, woodcock and snipe that visited it 

 in autumn and winter. The rose-coloured starling and hoopoe used to be 

 frequently seen in spring, and probably reached it by coming up the Channel 

 from the south and keeping along the north coast of Cornwall. The 

 common starling resorts to the island in immense flocks in winter. Both 

 partridges and grouse have been introduced at various times, but were 

 destroyed by the rats which swarm all over the island. The cliffs are 

 highest and most precipitous on the western side, and here are the 

 breeding places of the cliff birds for which Lundy is so famous. They 

 come in from the sea early in May and remain until August. Im- 

 mense numbers of ' murres ' or guillemots, razorbills, puffins, kittiwakes, 

 shags and cormorants still frequent the cliffs. The gannets that in 

 former times inhabited an islet off the north-east end, still called the 

 ' Gannet Rock,' have abandoned it, and only a few pairs now breed on 

 Lundy itself. The herring gull, lesser and greater black-backed gulls 

 also breed sparingly on some of the cliffs and rocky islets. The Manx 

 shearwater and stormy petrel are common, and no doubt breed under- 

 ground in deep holes. Tradition asserts that the great auk, known as 

 the ' king murre,' at one time frequented the rocky shores of the 

 island. 



Slapton Ley is a remarkable sheet of fresh water, running parallel 

 with the sea, and only separated from it by a bank of sand and shingle 

 some two hundred yards wide. It is situated in the centre of the 

 indentation of the south coast, between the entrance to Dartmouth 

 Harbour and the Start Point, known as Start Bay. The ' ley ' or lake is 

 long and narrow in shape, and about 300 acres in extent, stretching for 

 more than two miles along the coast. The higher or eastern part is 

 nearly filled up with dense beds of tall reeds, and forms the great strong- 

 hold for the coots which breed there plentifully, and in winter are 

 reinforced by vast numbers of ' foreigners.' The wild duck and teal 

 nest annually, the former plentifully, and the tufted duck and pochard 

 are believed to do so. There is strong presumptive evidence that the 

 wigeon has occasionally bred here. Vast flights of the latter bird 

 frequent the ley in winter as well as many other kinds of ducks, swans, 

 geese, bitterns, divers and grebes. Many of the rarest of our birds have 

 occurred in this neighbourhood, and the reed warbler breeds freely 

 amongst the reeds of Slapton, Thurlestone and Milton Leys. 



Little is known of the ornithology of the county till the close of 



the eighteenth century. About the earliest allusion to the birds of 



Devon will be found in Synopsis Ghorographia^ or an Historical Record of 



the Province of Devon, by John Vowell, alias Hoker (born at Exeter in 



1524, died 1 601), of which a MS. copy (Portledge) exists in the 



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