218 BIRD-LIFE OF THE BORDERS 



in his Birds of Benvickshire (vol. ii., p. 66 et seq.) in full 

 detail. 



In mild open seasons some geese may remain all winter. 

 At such times, as many as 800 to 1000 will resort at dusk 

 to Hule moss to roost. This spot is admirably adapted 

 to their requirements — a wild sequestered sheet of water 

 on Greenlaw moor ; yet within easy reach of the rich 

 cornlands of the subjacent Merse. 



The moorland loughs, as they are called in Northumber- 

 land (pronounced loff ), always interest by virtue of their 

 attracting a variety of waterfowl in spring, and wildfowl 

 in autumn. There is, to some minds, a quality in 

 wildfowl, a subtle influence, irresistible as the lode- 

 stone, which cannot be defined — perhaps that inherent 

 indefiniteness aids the charm. Wildfowling is no mere 

 boyish ambition ; rather the instinctive sense that thus 

 (and thus only) can you bring yourself alongside "some 

 new thing"— something unknown, uncertain, unforeseen, 

 exotic, difficult. Now we have little else than cornfields 

 and drainage, hand-reared pheasants and tame wild- 

 ducks. 



These moorland loughs are, as a rule, unfavourable 

 places for approaching wildfowl. Many lying high out 

 on the hills, have scarce a vestige of covert on their banks, 

 not even a screen of rush or reed, nor any bush or shrub 

 higher than heather or bog-myrtle. Others are simply 

 open peat-holes, their surface not a foot below the general 

 level of the dead-flat bogs and moss-hags which surround 

 them. Some occupy basins among the hills where the 

 heather slopes down unbroken to the water's edge ; the 

 "syke" or gully at the outflow may, however, enable one 

 to approach the water at that point. Their bottoms 

 are usually firm — either peat or gravel, and deep to the 



