NOTES FROM CARLISLE. 129 



as usual, in Messrs. Duckworth's experience, though we knew 

 the whereabouts of several nests. 



August was only noticeable for a pair of Turnstones, which 

 spent the last week of the month on the Eden, near Kickerby. 

 A Woodcock also frequented the Cemetery late in August ; two 

 pairs had bred in a preserve near Cummersdale, and others at 

 Netherby, as the Eev. A. Hodges kindly informed me. 



On Burgh Marsh a brace of Wigeon were shot on September 

 22nd ; very few Dotterel had visited it in June, and Mr. A. Smith 

 has seen none on Eockliffe for several springs. Some young 

 Ruffs were shot on Burgh, on passage, on Sept. 28th. On the 

 25th I saw a Merlin cross the Esk, apparently on passage. 

 Formerly this bird must have been very abundant, to judge from 

 the number of stuffed specimens possessed by our working men 

 in the parish. Even now it breeds when permitted in the 

 district. A rather dark immature female Merlin was trapped 

 near Carlisle in April last ; and a fine old female was shot on 

 October 13th, in the same nursery gardens in which the other 

 was obtained in spring. Another Merlin, also a female, was 

 shot at Kirklinton on December 17th, and I observed one or two 

 more during the autumn. 



On the 27th September a large bird of prey, identified by 

 Mr. Smith as an Osprey, was nearly captured by a servant in a 

 garden at Castletown, completely exhausted by the storm; after 

 being seen by Smith and others at a close distance on the 

 following Sunday, it departed in the direction of Skiddaw, pur- 

 sued as far as the eye could reach bj^ a mob of Books. 



On the 29th September a young Goosander was shot on the 

 Eden near Eocklifie ; being sent into Carlisle, it was eaten by 

 a bird-loving engine-driver. As I happened to call about 

 the dinner hour that day, I can bear testimony that its fishy 

 flavour had not deterred the family from picking its bones bare. 



Eedwings arrived on October 2nd and Fieldfares on the 3rd. 

 A large number of Bernicle Geese visited Burgh on the 6th, 

 when a Greenshank was shot on Eockliffe ; the first Greenshank, 

 however, was shot in mid-August, as were a couple of Green 

 Sandpipers. Burgh and Eocklifie have their special attractions 

 for different species ; AYhimbrel, for instance, though abundant 

 on Brough in May, seldom visit Eockliffe ; the Eedshank and 

 Dunlin prefer Eockliffe, especially in the breeding season, though 



