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of Alston. Had these continued their course westward, no doubt 
they would have crossed Cumberland. As it is, only the north- 
eastern corner of the county is known to have been favoured. Near 
Stapleton, ‘a lot of five, and on the same day another lot of three,” 
were seen by Mr. H. J. Lorraine, of Westfield House. At Winter- 
shields, near Bewcastle, a flock of “about twenty” came under the 
notice of Mr. Richardson, while frequenting a small moss for two 
or three days. Neither of these gentlemen have been able to 
furnish an exact date, and both assigned the occurrence to April. 
Near Longtown, two flights of about a dozen birds were observed 
by Robert Moscrop, gamekeeper to Major Irwin, flying very 
rapidly towards the west. ‘At first I thought,” he writes, “they 
were Golden Plover, as they much resembled their flight, but they 
were larger, and darker in plumage, and uttered a peculiar ‘chuck- 
cho-chuck’ as they flew along well up in the air.” Mr. Moscrop 
was at first under the impression, like the gentlemen just mentioned, 
that he had seen the birds in April; but a reference to his diary 
proves indisputably that the correct date on which he observed the 
second drove was May 21st, and he accounts for his first impression 
by the coldness of the season. No more birds were seen (or at 
least reported) from East Cumberland until August roth, when a 
flock crossed the Esk at Birrell’s weir, near Floriston, in view of 
Major Hogg and Mr. Routledge, who were fishing at the time. 
Major Hogg has kindly furnished the following statement. “I 
should say that I saw about thirty-five birds, not more. I saw 
them twice, but they were the same flock evidently. They appeared 
to me darker in plumage than the bird we find in such numbers in 
India, where it is called by the natives ‘Guttoo,’ from the continued 
call it makes when flying.” 
(6) Cumbrian Plain. A flock of six or seven appeared in some 
fields near Orton, on the northern edge of the Cumbrian plain, on 
May roth, as reported by Mr. Davidson, and continued to frequent 
that locality until May 26th, when three were shot and brought in 
the flesh to George Dawson of Carlisle. About this time a flock 
of nine took up their abode on the mosses and grass fields near 
Bow. Mr. J. C. Robinson and Mr. Dawson, being well acquainted 
