28 5 



Pipits that I nearly passed this bird by, but to make sure I looked at it 

 with the glass and saw, against the sunset sky, the bird I had most wanted 

 to see— the Ring Ouzel. vSoou after, this bird was joined by its mate and I 

 saw that the female had insects in her beak. As it was getting late and I 

 washigh up in a rocky Gill, I did not attempt to find the nest but noted the 

 occurrence and the locality and then took a level course out of the Gill on 

 to the shoulder of Little Dun Fell. On my way out of the Gill, I disturbed 

 a Fox, which made away with what looked like half a rabbit in its mouth, 

 and quickly disappeared round the nearest corner. I got to the place as 

 quickly as I could, but did not see the Fox again until I had obtained a good 

 view of the gill below me and then I saw Reynard down near the stream, 

 which he galloped through. When he had got about a hundred yards 

 up the opposite (the Cross Fell) side of the valley he stopped and looked 

 down to the stream below him, but seeing no one following him he con- 

 tinued his journey, stopping more and more often as he got higher up the 

 slope and farther away. I watched him with my glass till he was half-a- 

 mile or more away, and saw him flush a rabbit, which flashed out of his 

 way as quickly as it could move. Reaching the top grassy edge of the 

 vallev he lav down for a rest, but after a short spell he got up and dis- 

 appeared over the sky line to the northward. 



Mv homeward journey's observation's concluded with notes of a 

 Cuckoo heard at five minutes to 9 and Willow Wrens and Pipits singing still 

 later. 



I had thus seen two of the species I wanted to see (the Dipper and the 

 Ring Ouzel), both of them birds of the mountains, as I knew them, but 

 others had not appeared in sight at all. Thus, the Common Buzzard, 

 although a very local bird (according to my experience) and one that does 

 not favour the Cross Fell district, is still occasionally seen, and Kestrels, 

 which are not rare here, were only seen twice; nor did I see a Sparrow 

 Hawk at all, that I know of, or anything that looked like one. In the 

 spring of 1900 I had seen the Golden Plover, but although I passed the place 

 where I had seen them, I neither saw nor heard them. Tits, which many 

 years ago I remembered as being abundant in winter, were but once seen, 

 and even the Chaffinch, which generally is by far the commonest bird in 

 the cultivated part of Cumberland and Westmorland, did not seem any- 

 thing like so common as usual. The birds which did seem to be in un- 

 usual numbers where the Curlews, which were so common that it was 

 noted by the country people. Some species, as the Red Grouse, were still 

 sitting and were less in evidence on that account, and possibly the same 

 might have been said of the Dipper, which in the autumn is a very con- 

 spicuous bird as it flies down stream past the trout fisherman. In theory, 

 the birds should be most common directly the broods are able to fly, and 

 that may perhaps account for my considering the abundance or otherwise 

 of certain species on the basisof what I had been used to, during a number 



