BIRD-LIFE OF THE BORDERS. 



SPRING-TIME ON THE MOORS. 



WITHOUT going beyond the boundaries of our island, there 

 yet remain wild corners which are neglected and all but un- 

 known : the beauties of many a spot whose charm and 

 intrinsic merits are as deserving of attention as those for 

 which the tourist crosses the seas and seeks the uttermost 

 parts of the earth remain ignored. Of these the Border- 

 land is one. Stretching from Cheviot to the Solway, the 

 wild uplands of the Border cover a broad area in either 

 country, and include, here and there, scenery which it would 

 probably be difficult to match within the four seas, though 

 their peculiar beauty is rather characteristic than sensational, 

 unique rather than " clamant," if I may borrow Professor 

 Geikie's expressive term. 



The area covered by these observations I would define as 

 the mountain-region which remains unaltered by the hand 

 of man the land " in God's own holding" bounded by 

 the line where the shepherd's crook supplants the plough ; 

 and heather and bracken, whinstone and black-faced sheep 

 replace corn, cattle, and cultivation ; where the Pheasant 

 gives way to the Grouse, and the Eing-Ouzel dispossesses the 

 Blackbird : the region of peat, as distinguished from soil, 

 of flowe, moss, and crag, of tumbling burn and lonely 

 moorland, clad in all the pristine beauty of creation. 



My whole area, in short, is one great sheep-walk, where 

 grouse and sheep outnumber man in the proportion of 

 hundreds, or thousands, to one. On the higher fell-ranges 



