THE BEAN GOOSE AND PINK-FOOTED GOOSE. 87 



middle of April. They generally arrive in the dusk of the 

 evening, and alight about the middle of the lake, where they 

 remain for some time, afterwards swimming ashore to rest 

 on the heather until the morning, when they depart to feed 

 on the stubble fields. When alighting they sweep down 

 with a sloping flight into the water, and on windy nights 

 they are seen flying low over the moor. 



Mr. Loney relates that about fifteen or sixteen years 

 ago a gamekeeper at Marchmont shot seven Wild Geese at 

 the Moss in one night, when it was so dark that he could not 

 see where the birds fell. On going in search of them next 

 morning he found five lying in the water and two on the 

 heather at its edge. He says that the Geese come regularly 

 every year to the Moss in spring and autumn. 



Greenlaw Moor is extensive, and comparatively flat ; 

 and, as the sheet of water called the Hule Moss has no 

 banks surrounding it, the Geese can float on its surface in 

 safety, the approach of an enemy even at a distance being 

 easily observed. I visited the Hule Moss with Mr. Loney 

 and Mr. John Blair, artist, on the evening of the 14th of 

 July 1886, when the accompanying sketch was made by 

 Mr. Blair. The Moss then presented a beautiful and inter- 

 esting appearance, with its clear water rippling in the breeze, 

 and gleaming from afar in the light of the setting sun. 

 From its southern edge, looking towards the north, were seen 

 the two Dirringtons, Great and Little, towering towards the 

 sky, in connection with which the following popular rhyme 

 relating to the weather is sometimes heard : — 



When Dirrington puts on its hood. 



And Cockburn Law its cowl, 

 A' the herds o' Lammermiiir 



Ken that it will be foul. 



Behind the Dirringtons, and in the direction of Wedderlie, 

 could be observed the Twinlaw Cairns, around which the 



