AUTUMN ON THE MOORS 199 



singing - . This is the latest record of these summer-birds. 

 Our local sandpipers left quite a fortnight ago — including 

 those that bred in my garden, and whose young I helped 

 over the rabbit-netting on June 14th! Their parents 

 looked on, chattering - , from the railing hard by — nervous 

 no doubt, yet recognising benevolence. Those seen to- 

 night were birds on passage, from the north southward. 



September 15.- — Skylarks, which a month ago were in 

 full moult, and many almost tailless, have recovered their 

 plumage by mid- September, and some even begin to think 

 of singing. 



September 16. — I cut the following from a local news- 

 paper : — "A beautiful scene was witnessed on Sunday 

 evening in the glen of Paxton dene, Northumberland. A 

 bank was literally covered with glow-worms {Lampyns 

 noctilucd). The waxing and waning of their tiny phos- 

 phorescent lamps conjured visions of fairyland in the mind 

 of the onlooker." 



Glow-worms are found in various other localities, 

 notably at Harehope and at Blindburn near Wark. Mr 

 Thos. Robson, of Bridgeford, writes that he has "come 

 across glow-worms in three places in Northumberland, 

 viz. : near Woodpark on Houxty burn, Blackburn linn 

 on Reedwater (where they abound), and near Eals crags 

 on the way to Falstone." He adds that those caught and 

 placed in his garden "never survived the winter — the 

 probable reason being that I only secured one sex. I 

 believe only one glows, so that I never found the other." 



During the second half of September, and all October, 

 merlins (chiefly immature) are conspicuous on migration : 

 preying on larks and other small birds along the fell-edges. 

 These little falcons breed on the moors in May, nesting 

 among the heather ; but are never so numerous as on 



