Page:Cornwall (Salmon).djvu/28

 CORNWALL as a "miracle of British horticulture". Readers should turn to the excellent little handbook to Scilly published by the Homeland Association for a good list of flora, seaweeds, etc. With regard to the Cornish fauna, we find what might be expected in a county which largely consists of coast-line ; the greatest wealth and variety is on the shore. Of mammals Corn- wall can claim the aboriginal black rat ; there are badgers, otters, polecats, bats, foxes, rabbits. Seals, porpoises, dolphins, grampuses and whales visit the coast with more or less frequency; also two species of turtle. In the rockier parts and on the Scilly Isles sea-birds are specially plenti- ful. Till lately there were three species of eagle, but it is doubtful now if any can be found ; the Cornish chough is becoming sadly rare. There are numbers of sandpipers, plovers, woodcocks, snipe, herons, and often bitterns ; cormorants, divers, swans, puffins, shag, gannets, tern and petrels. All the ordi- nary birds of field and woodland may be found here. Among fish we find mullet and bass, gurnards, bream, mackerel, John Dories, herrings, and the invaluable pilchard (see Fisheries) ; hake, whiting, pollack, plaice, lumpfish, sunfish, congers, sprats. Sharks are numerous but harm- less, except for their voracity in devouring the smaller species ; we also find the lancelet and the " electric ray ". Insects are naturally neither numerous nor rare, though there are some interesting speci- lo