Page:Cornwall; Cambridge county geographies.djvu/46

 30 CORNWALL have for the most part vanished, though an occasional buzzard may be seen and the raven is not yet extinct. Lastly, it is to be noted that Cornwall is the nearest part of England to America. However difficult it may be of explanation, the fact remains that the Duchy is very rich in rare birds; so rich, indeed, that their recorded occurrence cannot by any possibility be merely accidental. Thus, no less than 24 species have occurred in Cornwall which have never been found in Devonshire. But more than this, a very large number of these 18 or more are purely American species. The question is, whence do they come ? Professor James Clark, who has discussed the point at some length in the Victoria County History ', is, apparently, loth to believe that they can come directly across the Atlantic, and it is by many thought that they are driven back by heavy south-westerly weather when dropping down the English Channel, having come by a circuitous route from Northern Europe. But against this is the undeniable fact that it is in the immediate neigh- bourhood of the Land's End that the chief rarities and stragglers are obtained, while many species have been shot in the Scilly Islands which have never been recorded from Cornwall itself. So far as its botany is concerned, Cornwall does not differ very markedly from Devonshire, but it has a large number of rare or peculiar plants. The highlands and north coast are rather poor in species ; it is on the banks and estuaries of the streams that the richest flora is seen. A number of foreign plants are found, mostly in the neighbourhood of Falmouth and other ports. The balsam,