BIRDS the Moors and the sea to the eastern boundary of the St. Columb-Camborne district. Many factors combine to make this the head quarters of the passerine birds of the county. The abundance of streams and deep wooded valleys, the quick alternation of sylvan and moorland, farmland and waste, and the reaches of sheltered fertile land, make it specially attractive to warblers, tits, wagtails, and finches ; while its hills and exposed uplands, cul- minating in the Kingston Downs, the transition, sometimes gradual, some- times abrupt, from the bleak borders of the moors through grazing and arable land to the richly-wooded Tamar on the east, and the warm inviting coast on the south, with its sheltered estuaries and tidal rivers, its broken and preci- pitous coast and its seductive valleys running up from the sea, attract birds of many different types. The deep valley of the Tamar and the lateral tributary valleys from the Bodmin Moors on the one side and Dartmoor on the other, and the easy passage of birds from north and south Devon, favour migration in the eastern part of the district ; while the valley of the Fowey and its affluents and the valley of the Looe materially influence the movements and distribution of birds in the south. In the eastern half of the district the redstart, wood-warbler, tree-pipit, and garden-warbler breed every year, nesting as far west as Trebartha. The grey wagtail, the dipper, and the spotted flycatcher, though breeding in suitable localities throughout the county, have their head quarters in this district. So also have the blackcap and the nuthatch, which breed but sparingly further west, and the greater and the lesser spotted woodpeckers, which till recently had not ventured outside the area between Trebartha and the Tamar. The cirl-bunting nests regularly, and the yellow wagtail occasionally in the south- east of the district. The willow-warbler, the sedge-warbler, and the coal-tit are locally abundant, and the whinchat and grasshopper warbler breed in the eastern half and at least occasionally between Looe and Liskeard, while the reed-warbler occurs every summer in the Looe valley. The marsh-tit is common, and about Trebartha is more abundant than anywhere else in the county. The corn-bunting is somewhat scarce, but the reed-bunting is repre- sented by several widely separated colonies. The woodlark nests sparingly over the whole district from the Tamar to Restormel valley. The kingfisher is specially plentiful on some parts of the Fowey. The buzzard breeds at Boconnoc, and both the kestrel and the sparrow-hawk are much commoner than in the northern districts. The peregrine nests at Pelyn near Lostwithiel. Several pairs of ravens breed in the district. The heron is much in evidence, there being two heronries on the Fowey near Lostwithiel, one at Trenant near Looe which formerly contained about thirty nests but has now dwindled to two or three, and one in Sheviock Wood near St. Germans. There is also one at Warleigh on the Devonshire side of the Tamar. The stock-dove and the rock-dove are locally common both inland and on the coast. The wood- pigeon has become plentiful of late years in consequence of the increase of fir plantations. The sea-cliffs are in many places thickly populated with martins, jackdaws, swifts, shags and herring-gulls, with a few cormorants, lesser black- backed gulls, guillemots and razor-bills. The kittiwake still breeds in at least one locality. Oyster-catchers and ringed-plovers nest on the beaches at Looe and elsewhere. The lesser grebe is not uncommon on the estuaries and tidal rivers during the breeding season, and the great crested and occasionally the 1 321 41
