368 REV. J. M. HICK'S REPORT OF 



somewhat threatening ; the sky was leaden, and the atmo- 

 sphere charged with damp, so the number of members who met 

 at the Central Station was only small. As our train travelled 

 northwards we had much foreboding as to the weather, sharp 

 showers of rain falling, but on reaching Belford things looked 

 more promising. We were met by one of the keepers outside 

 the town, who in Major Leather's absence acted as our guide. 

 Entering Middleton by the main Lodge the luxuriance of the 

 well-known timber at once arrested our admiration. Stand- 

 ing on a little bridge we could see a waterhen's nest, quite 

 open to view on a little island in the middle of the stream. 

 There was a beautiful growth of ferns, primroses, water 

 avens, and yellow rocket. The trees in the drive had put 

 on their summer dress, most conspicuous being the horse 

 chestnuts with their spikes of flower and the wellingtonias, 

 while underneath were masses of alkanet with their tur- 

 quoise blue flowers. Before reaching the Hall we left the 

 beaten track and continued through the home plantation, 

 where the various conifers flourish with brushwood and ferns 

 underneath. Pheasants were nesting every here and there ; 

 blackbirds, thrushes, and warblers joined together in filling the 

 woods with song. As we came to more open parts of the 

 woods wild hyacinths and primroses, the latter past their best, 

 carpeted the ground, until we emerged from the woods into a 

 typical hillside meadow, fringed with gorse and heather, 

 through which a burn rippled and gurgled over its pebbles and 

 rocky bed. The redshanks flying round with anxious cry told 

 us their young were near. Unfortunately so difficult is it to 

 recognise the crouching young that one was fatally injured by 

 the foot of a passer-by. In a few minutes Swinhoe Lakes 

 came into view in all their picturesque surroundings of luxu- 

 riant trees and capped by the crags forming part of the 

 Whinstone sill. Here was the home of various water birds, 

 and as we sat on a fallen tree, eating our lunch, we saw them 

 leading forth their young. Among the ducks were the mallard, 

 teal and tufted duck, I think there was a fourth species re- 

 presented but could not quite identify it, and as I only noticed 



