n8 BIRD HAUNTS AND NATURE MEMORIES 



Each afternoon, when the light faded all too early, the 

 starlings rose and took a bee-line across to the Scottish 

 side. A geographical barrier, even a natural one so wide 

 as the Solway estuary, was to them no obstacle; at meal- 

 times they were English, at night they roosted in Scotland ; 

 the two or three miles between were crossed in a few 

 minutes. 



This was in the early days of 1914; much has happened 

 since then. The starlings, versatile birds, may, like the 

 dandy, have changed their habits; the old horse, whatever 

 war service it accomplished, must surely have passed; 

 travel, speed, and manner of travel received many unex- 

 pected jolts in the years which have intervened. Port 

 Carlisle ceased to function, the canal emptied, the dandy 

 vanished, but the Solway remains practically unchanged; 

 the tide sweeps over its miles of sands, fills the gutters of 

 its marshes, and brings its hordes of fowls. Away to the 

 north are those wine-red moors, the eternal hills, which 

 the hand of Time seems unable to alter. What do we 

 know of Time ? What are our three score years and ten, 

 what indeed the whole history of our race, compared with 

 the ages which have passed since those hills were formed ? 



