Thomas Alfred Coward

“ At Brixham, Beer, and other fishing ports and villages the gulls are never short of food when the boats can go out; they stand waiting when the trawls are cleaned, and are especially attentive when gutting is in process. The Devon and Cornish fishermen recognise that gulls are useful indicators of fish shoals; they give them passive protection, or, at any rate, do not show annoyance when one, bolder than the rest, filches a small fish from a pile upon the beach, and will often throw an attractive piece of gut towards the envious herring-gulls. ”

“ The cormorants are expert divers, usually going under after a graceful upward spring, so as to dive deep to where they can chase scared fish amongst the tangle-clad rocks; but whilst beneath the surface an enemy may have approached, for the submarine hunt is often lengthy. Instead of bobbing up to the surface like a diving duck, the careful shag first exposes head and neck alone. ”

“ Adaptability of the black-head in this matter of diet is an important factor in influencing its increase, for a bird which can pick up a living alike along the tide line or in a ploughed field is unlikely to starve if one source of supply is cut off. ”

“ Along the Dowlands Landslip, where the whole cliff has moved towards the sea, the laugh of the green woodpecker resounded again and again. Ancient timbers have suffered from root disturbance, and decay having once set in the insect hordes have hastened to assist in disintegration; the woodpeckers have come to aid the trees, smashing the softened wood with iron bill and dragging out the larvæ of the wood-boring Rhagium, of clearwing, goat or wood leopard. ”

“ The common redstart which nests with us, and in Scandinavia up to the North Cape, spends the colder months in Africa; this darker bird, whose breeding area extends from the Baltic to the Mediterranean shores, comes west for choice ”

“ In a land where belief in the "little people" still lingers, it is possible that education has not eliminated the ancient fable that the beautiful birds, their constant companions, may be reincarnations of long-lost friends. ”

“ Travellers from Germany find their way to the Lancashire coast, and annually visit the western Welsh headlands, but we have still to learn the nesting area of the particular birds which come each winter to the Cornish and Devon shores. ”

“ Ring-doves abound on the Landslip, and doubtless some of the birds which cooed incessantly had decided upon nesting quarters; but elsewhere in the county crowds of pigeons, mostly foreigners, roamed far and wide, laying waste the land. Desperate farmers arranged combined attacks on the birds at roosting time ”