Mr Hardy on Langleyford Vale and the Cheviots. 367 



thrush is no stranger in this glen, as far up as the Hope. 

 This spring, 1 witnessed a pair in furious pursuit of a spar- 

 row-hawk, which had clutched up one of their young that 

 had just ventured from the nest. The hawk had to drop 

 with its prey, and finally, with my aid, it was rescued, amidst 

 the great chattering of the parents who were as jealous of me 

 as of the hawk. On another occasion, I saw one far up the 

 bank attack a cuckoo passing below it, while a ring-ouzel 

 sounded the alarm beneath, which so baffled the scared bird 

 that it clapped down as if to hide among the rocks, mutter- 

 ing half its call-note. The summer long, the sandpiper, 

 like another Ariel, trips along the yellow river sands. This 

 year, I noticed it gradually making its way upwards towards 

 the hills. It was first observable on some islands of gravel, 

 near Wooler, during a flood, circling round them like a lark, 

 uttering its pretence of a song ; then a day after, at Careburn ; 

 and afterwards in its summer retreats up the valley. T once 

 saw a carrion crow up here, dogging a sandpiper to discover 

 its nest. The sandpiper retired by little and little, as the 

 crow made its advances, uttering a sad plaining as if it was 

 meeting with very bad usage. At last I sent the black fellow 

 about his business ; and I hope the sandpiper felt more re- 

 lieved by my interference than the missel-thrushes appeared 

 to be. The siskin is sometimes a winter frequenter of the 

 alder thickets. Wood-pigeons, being much shot at in the 

 lower woods, flock for refuge to the plantations about Lang- 

 leyford. The shepherd told me, that they had become so 

 impudent as to eat up his crop of young kale, directly in 

 front of his window. In spring, the little willow wren 

 {Sylvia trochilus) populates most of the glen, and sings par- 

 ticularly sweet among the birches below the Hope when they 

 first open their odoriferous buds. Linnseus remarks that no 

 bird was so frequent among the birch woods in Lapland as 

 this. Troops of rooks pass some part of the summer on the 

 hills, feasting on the mountain berries ; and when these fail, 

 they commence to stog up with their bills the moor grasses 

 and bents in search of the grubs of crane-flies, or for wire- 

 worms. I was surprised to what extent they had pulled up 

 the grass on Hedgehope, above Harthope linn ; the withered 

 tufts being scattered all over their hunting ground. These 

 were again recognised near the apex of Cheviot. Mr Hughes 

 mentioned to me that a goshawk {Astur j)alumbarius) was 



