A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND 
lake, whence single individuals occasionally find their way into the Eden. 
Buttermere Lake is famous for the charr which are taken in its waters, as 
also in Ulleswater and Crummock Water. 
The mountains of eastern Cumberland form part of the Pennine 
range. In beauty of outline they are inferior to the more celebrated 
Cumbrian group, but they are perhaps superior in the variety of their 
bird-life. The dunlin has never nested to our knowledge among the 
lake hills proper, but it is one of the most characteristic birds of Cross- 
fell and neighbouring summits. The snow-bunting is seldom present in 
any numbers among the Keswick mountains even in winter, but like the 
twite it assembles in large flocks upon the fell lands of our eastern 
border. 
The Eden valley is a fine, well-watered region, containing the 
remains of Inglewood Forest, which was formerly the home of many wild 
red deer. This tract is enriched with very extensive woodlands, which 
are often visited by crossbills, as well as by some rarer birds. Among 
typical woodland moths may here be mentioned the great emerald, 
occurring where birch wood is plentiful, together with the barred red 
and the tawny-barred angle, both characteristic of fir plantations. 
No account of this county would be complete which failed to lay 
stress upon the mosses or bogs which diversify its surface. Some of these 
are found in the valleys of the Eden and other rivers, but the most 
remarkable are those which are found in the north and west of the 
county, including Solway Flow, a tract of historic interest, Bowness 
Moss, Salta Moss, Weddholm Flow, and others of greater or less extent. 
These mosses are covered with heather, varied with stretches of white 
cotton grass or tussocks of coarse grass, or again by beds of reeds and 
bulrushes. 
These mosses afford a home to many foxes and to a few individuals 
of the polecat or ‘ foul mart,’ which was at one time very abundant in 
the ‘soughs’ of the mosses, and in the rough pasture which frequently 
abuts upon these wastes of moorland. The hen-harrier used to nest 
upon these vast stretches of morass ; it still visits its ancient haunts in 
the winter season. The merlin is very faithful in returning every spring 
to rear its progeny upon the mosses of its choice, which afford a retreat 
likewise to the short-eared owl. I have found the white eggs of this 
owl on our mosses and seen the owlets crouching under the shelter of a 
tuft of heather, blinking their eyes uneasily in the strong sunshine. The 
golden plover resorts to several of our mosses for breeding purposes, as do 
the dunlin and the curlew. Of wildfowl the sheldrake has in recent 
years nested upon our flows in considerable plenty, outnumbering the 
mallard and the teal, the latter of which is on the decease. The black- 
headed gull and the black-backed gull form large breeding colonies on 
the flows and mosses; several pairs of great black-backed gulls reproduce 
their kind in a few favoured spots. A butterfly always associated with 
our mosses is the marsh ringlet ; the forms present represent an interest- 
_ ing mixture of the three recognized British races of this insect. 
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