1891. 
July 8
England.
Ilfracombe to Clovelly. - Cloudy with a chill N. wind and
frequent light showers - a dismal day.
  By rail this morning to Bideford via Barustaph
Junction. The railroad connecting these towns runs
along the left bank of the river a tidal stream of some size
with extensive sand and mud flats and salt marshes
in places. Near the mouth there are extensive sand
hills, bars or covered with beach grass resembling
closely, if not identical with, that of our Mass. coast.
The salt marshes were very unlike ours despite the
fact that they were sprinkled with similar shallow
brackish pools and intersected by numerous deeply-
cut, very crooked, narrow creeks. Perhaps the difference
in appearance was caused by the presence of hundreds
of sheep which keep the grass cropped as short as
that of a carefully clipped lawn but the ground
looked harder than that of our salt marshes, in fact
perfectly dry in most places.
  The mud-flats were literally swarming with birds
chiefly Rooks and Jackdaws with a sprinkling
of Cormorants and Gulls and now and then a
Curlew or a little family party of Common
Sandpipers the latter looking exactly like our Spotted
Sandpipers as, startled by the train, they flew out
over the river skimming close to the surface with
decurved, quivering wings. The Curlews paid no
attention to the cards but calmly went on feeding.
In one of the pools, apparently brackish but
perhaps fresh, I saw a Moorhen paddling about
among some short scanty rushes. The Gulls
appeared to be all L. argentatus.