A HISTORY OF CORNWALL that the green sandpiper occasionally breeds on the moors about Trewortha Marsh, but no nest has ever been found. The most characteristic moorland birds in summer are the wheatear and ring-ouzel. The former is fairly common on the granite-strewn hill-sides, the latter still breeds in small scattered colonies among the rocks and heath of the higher tors. The snipe, curlew, lapwing, mallard, teal, coot, moorhen, water-rail, and meadow-pipit all breed regularly on the moors, though some of them are by no means abundantly represented. The dunlin, too, nests in small numbers in the marshes round Brown Willy and Roughtor, and on the moors and turf-pits between St. Neot's stream and the Upper Fowey. The golden plover has never been known to breed, though birds with fully developed plumage may be seen in the month of May. The common sand- piper nests among the old Streamworks by the Upper Fowey, and wherever there are old sand-banks on the moors. The raven is not so scarce as it was fifteen years ago. The stock-dove breeds abundantly on one or two of the granite tors, often in the company of the swift. During the winter the moors are dreary and desolate. Bird-life in general is scarce, and small birds are almost entirely wanting. In the average winter, snipe, jack-snipe, woodcock, lapwing, and golden plover are usually well represented. Teal are fairly plentiful, and wigeon at times abundant. Duck, too, often occur in considerable numbers, particularly at the beginning and at the close of severe weather, while pintail and golden-eye are not uncommon during frost. The spotted crake is occasionally flushed on the snipe marshes, and the merlin is a regular winter visitor. 2. THE BUDE AND CAMEL DISTRICT This takes in the coast-line from Marsland Mouth to Trevose Head. It includes that part of the county to the north of Launceston and the Bodmin Moors, and, in addition, the valleys of the Camel and Allen, with the estuary at Padstow. The former consists for the most part of a strip of high-lying, wind-swept land, of open tracts of undulating grass, trimmed short by the sea-breezes and tufted by sea-pinks and little mounds of wind-sculptured gorse, with here and there rough arable land, stony bits of common and stretches of heathery down, ending seaward in a great wall of seamed and fissured cliffs of slate, and broken abruptly by deep sheltering coombes. Down in the ' bottoms,' at the head of the coombes, wherever in fact there is shelter from the pitiless gales, the trees, and especially oaks, grow spontaneously and abundantly, but in the open the struggle is hopeless. Further back from the sea there is more arable land, and of better quality, but except in the valleys this makes little difference to the bird-life, for the inhospitable winds destroy all trees. The most important break in the rock- girt coast from Hennacliff to Tintagel is formed by the shallow low-lying valley of Bude. The gardens and orchards of Boscastle and the lovely sheltered wooden glen of Minster form another delightful oasis for bird life, and several woodland birds show a special affection for the charming Kneighton's Kieve, with its long strip of wood and abundant undergrowth. ^ Though the high cliff-land is more or less persistent all the way round to Trevose Head, the western portion of the district contains a good deal of 318
