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piercing cries; sometimes a number of them, perched upon a line of 

 dilapidated railingwhich separated the gulleryfromanadjoining wood, 

 showed to picturesque advantage with their dark chocolate-coloured 

 crowns in striking contrast with the snow-white plumage of their 

 breasts. There is a strongly-marked distinction in colour between 

 birds of this species in their first — probably also in their second — 

 year's plumage, and adult specimens of the same bird. In addition 

 to the gulls, I observed two broods of Coots, and one brood of 

 what I took to be Teal, judging only from the young specimens, 

 as the old birds were much too wary to venture outside the fringe 

 of vegetation, behind which they could so easily and completely 

 shelter themselves from notice. Several Snipes were flushed on 

 the outskirts of the pool ; and the characteristic notes of the 

 Peewit and the Curlew were frequently heard in chorus with those 

 of the gulls. Nor were other attractions far to seek. Palustral 

 plants abounded. Bogbean in its latest blooming stage for the 

 season, alternated with Marsh Cinquefoil ; both species of Louse- 

 wort were present ; tufts of Cotton Grass were conspicuous here 

 and there among the more sober-coloured spikes of Sedges, of 

 which last quite a dozen species might have been collected in a 

 few minutes. The finest Callitriche I ever saw, of the variety 

 known 2& platycarpa, carpeted the edges of many of the scattered 

 pools. Quite charmed with my visit to such a scene, I turned ray 

 back upon it with reluctance and regret. 



Turning now to the Mammalia of the hill country, I may say 

 that the Wild Cat lingers among the fells of Cumberland only by 

 tradition. The last I ever heard of was captured in Great Mell 

 Fell early in the present century, by the famous pack of hounds 

 maintained by the Squire Taylor of Baldhow of that day, from 

 whom I derived my information more than forty years ago. 



I have enjoyed almost unexampled opportunities of inquiring 

 into and observing the habits of the Common Squirrel. At the 

 west end of the school-house at Watermillock is a little grove of 

 larches and other conifers, planted by my own hands in 1845. 

 This grove proved to be the chosen feeding ground of a very fine 

 squirrel, which might be seen morning after morning dexterously 



