A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND 
dunes in the year 1888. The fine bay which extends from Maryport to 
Dub Mill is visited by hundreds and even thousands of peewits and other 
waders in early winter ; it is also much favoured by wild duck in rough 
weather, when the birds leave the open channels of the firth for more 
sheltered quarters. The country between Maryport and Whitehaven is 
singularly devoid of zoological interest ; but the fine red sandstone cliffs 
which rise immediately above the town of Whitehaven have ere now 
afforded nesting ledges to the peregrine.’ I have myself stood upon the 
brink of the high precipices which break the force of the Irish Sea while 
a pair of breeding peregrines flew around my head in noisy distress. 
Herring gulls rear their young on the Sandwith rocks, as do the common 
guillemots, of which unnumbered multitudes are cast up upon our 
shingled beach during the prevalence of winter gales. Pursuing the 
coast line southward from St. Bees, we soon arrive at Drigg Common, a 
famous bird nursery ; here many Sandwich terns lay their beautiful eggs 
in the hollows of the sand dunes, sharing with the oystercatcher and 
other birds in the protection bestowed upon them by the laudable 
thoughtfulness of Lord Muncaster. Flocks of wigeon and other species 
of ducks frequent the estuaries of the Irt, Mite and Esk, and in a lesser 
degree of the Duddon ; but the avifauna of this part of the coast has not 
hitherto proved to be so rich as that of the Solway Firth. 
In concluding this sketch of some few of the most remarkable 
features which present themselves to the naturalist who seeks to investi- 
gate the animal life of this county, it is only fair to observe that its fauna 
has been studied with considerable care for more than a hundred years. 
Dr. Heysham, the famous physician, settled at Carlisle in 1778, and 
devoted his leisure to the pursuit of local natural history. He spent a 
vast amount of time in working at the life history of the salmon, dissecting 
no fewer than 198 ‘brandlins’ in the year 1796. His list of ‘ Cumber- 
land Animals’ appears from internal evidence to have been completed in 
1797. It was published in Hutchinson’s History of Cumberland. Though 
the doctor was a don vivant, he lived to a good old age, dying in his own 
house in Carlisle in 1834, in his 81st year. He was of a more stirring 
and sociable disposition than his son, Thomas Coulthard Heysham, whose 
name is generally confused with that of his parent ; but though by nature 
shy and retiring, there can be no doubt that T. C. Heysham was a man 
of fine intelligence and a most versatile and accomplished naturalist. 
Though he was more of a collector than a writer, he published an 
excellent account of the nesting habits of the dotterel, besides contribut- 
ing a few useful notes to the works upon British birds and British fishes 
which bear the honoured name of William Yarrell. There cannot be 
any question that the Heyshams ranked among the best zoologists of the 
times in which they lived. Their names should always be held in 
kindly remembrance by Cumbrian naturalists. 
1 Henry VIII. used to receive from the abbots of ‘Saynt Maries besides York an annual gift of a 
‘caste’ of falcons from this eyrie. After the disestablishment of ‘ the lait monesterie’ the ‘same haukis’ 
were sent ‘to be presented to the Quene hir grace’ (Hamilton Papers, ii. 442). 
Xxvi 
