INTRODUCTION. xvii 



the forests were essential, diminishing, and the others 

 increasing. As civilisation advanced, and the inhabitants 

 became more numerous, many wild animals, such as the Red 

 Deer, the Wolf, and the Wild Boar, were driven away or 

 extirpated ; sheep or cattle now browsed on all the drier 

 parts of the ground, while as yet bogs and morasses, inter- 

 spersed with sheets of water, covered a considerable portion 

 of the surface. It is interesting to find that Hector Boece 

 — the first British author who gave an account of the Great 

 Bustard (Otis tarda), a bird which is only found on extensive 

 and open plains — wrote of it in 1526 as then inhabiting the 

 Merse. The date of its disappearance is unknown, nor has 

 it left a memorial of its haunt in the name of any place in 

 the locality.^ 



One of the chief features in the ornithology of the district 

 in olden times would be the wild fowl, for in the numerous 

 shallow lochs, like those of Legerwood and Bemerside, they 

 doubtless abounded in every variety, from the diminutive 

 Teal to the stately Wild Swan ; whilst the extensive and 

 almost impenetrable bogs, such as Billie Mire, afforded 

 secure retreats in which the resident species could lay their 

 eggs, and rear their young in safety. At nightfall, in the 

 spring and early summer months, the hollow boom of the 

 Bittern, or " Bull o' the Bog," was heard resounding through 

 the marshes, mingled with the weird cries of innumerable 

 water-fowl of various kinds. In the dusk of the evening 

 great flocks of Wild Ducks were seen winging their way to 

 their adjacent feeding-grounds ; while it is probable that the 

 Crane ^ (Grus cinerea) was also found here in those days, for 



1 A specimen of the Great Bustard (Otis tarda) — a female — was shot at 

 Fenham Flats, near Holy Island, on 2nd January 1871. It is now preserved in 

 the Berwick Museum. 



- An example of this interesting bird was shot at Threepwood, on the confines 

 of Berwickshire, in the neighbourhood of Lauder, some years ago, — Hist. Ber. 

 Nat. Club, vol. vii. p. 305. 



b 



