A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND 
feather unchanged upon the rump, was shot 
on Burgh Marsh, December 24th, 1894. In 
1898, after a lapse of four years, during 
which I failed to meet with any local speci- 
mens, a very small bird, still retaining much 
first plumage, was shot on Cardurnock Point, 
December gth; on September 22nd, 1899, 
during the prevalence of a north-westerly gale, 
an immature and very lovely specimen flew 
ashore near Beckfoot and alighted among the 
sand dunes which abut upon that part of the 
Solway Firth. It died from exhaustion and 
is now in Tullie House. 
196. Red-necked Phalarope. 
perboreus (Linn.). 
A rare visitant, never procured to my 
knowledge in the interior of this county, and 
very rarely seen in the neighbourhood of the 
Solway Firth. Single specimens were ob- 
served on Rockliffe Marsh and in the neigh- 
bourhood of Kirkbride in September, 1879, 
and October, 1885, both birds being added to 
the Carlisle Museum. I have often visited a 
small pond near Allonby on which a full- 
dressed bird was shot prior to 1883. 
Phalaropus hy- 
197. Woodcock. Scolopax rusticula, Linn. 
A good many woodcock have nested in 
Cumberland since 1837, when Mr. T. C. 
Heysham first saw eggs of this bird which had 
been found in a wood about nine miles from 
Carlisle. Dr. Heysham had scouted the idea 
some fifty years earlier. There is a charm 
about the habits of this retiring and crepus- 
cular bird which adds a special zest to the 
interest with which we catch the familiar cry 
of the flighting woodcock as he crosses the 
meadows which lie between two favoured 
haunts. Evening after evening the same line 
of flight is often repeated, and if the young 
have hatched two old birds may be seen instead 
of a single one. 
The first eggs of the woodcock are laid as 
early as March or April (and very delicate 
objects they are as they repose in a slight 
hollow under cover of a few dead leaves or a 
patch of brambles), so that the few birds which 
are shot in August are generally as large as 
old birds. In 1895 I secured a little wood- 
cock which had been shot near Carlisle on or 
about August 28th. This nestling was in 
moult, having the tail feathers still very im- 
perfectly developed, and some of the feathers 
of the neck in pen. It is preserved in the 
Carlisle Museum. 
198. Great Snipe. Ga/llinago major (Gmelin). 
A rare visitant, and one which I have never 
met with alive during seventeen years’ resi- 
dence in the county. It has only occurred in 
autumn, generally in October, and asa solitary 
straggler, not in wisps like the common bird. 
It is a fairly heavy bird for its size. The late 
Mr. L. F. B. Dykes shot one on Wardhall 
Common on September 11th, 1883, which 
weighed 9} ounces. Examples have been 
killed near Carlisle, Bewcastle, Workington, 
Keswick, etc., but it is always considered rare. 
199. Common Snipe. Gallinago ccelestis (Fren- 
zel). 
Locally, Hammer-Bleat, Heather-Bleat, Sceape, 
Full-€nipe. 
Drainage and multiplication of cheap guns 
have done much to reduce the number of 
snipe that breed upon our mosses and rushy 
meadows. No specimen of the black variety, 
which bears Sabine’s name, has been procured 
locally, but cream-coloured birds have been 
found at different times. A bird of this de- 
scription was shot near Stapleton, November 
7th, 1888, and may be seen in Tullie House. 
200. Jack Snipe. Gallinago gallinula (Linn.). 
Locally, Half-Snipe, Laal, Jacky, Judcock (ods.). 
A winter visitant, arriving late in Septem- 
ber, and rarely delaying its departure after 
March and April, though odd birds have 
passed the summer in one or other part of the 
county. I frequently met with a jack snipe 
in July, 1899, and at first wondered if it could 
be a breeding bird, but it proved to be only a 
cripple which had been hindered from depart- 
ure by an injured limb. It frequented a beck 
near Allonby. 
201. Pectoral Sandpiper. 
Vieillot. 
This American bird straggled to Cumber- 
land in the autumn of 1888, when an imma- 
ture specimen was shot near Edenhall by R. 
Raine, now of Carlisle. It was on October 
18th that he fell in with it ; it was not alone 
but accompanied by one if not two other in- 
dividuals of the same species. He first ob- 
served two of the birds running like dotterel 
over the surface of a grassy meadow ; but on 
being disturbed they betook themselves to a 
neighbouring pool of water. Raine shot, as 
he believed, two birds, but only secured one ; 
the other fell into the water, and not being 
aware of the value of his prize, he went home 
with a single bird. The late Mr. Edward 
Tandy saw this bird the same evening, but 
supposed it was a wood sandpiper. He skinned 
it himself, and showed me the fresh skin be- 
fore the legs had dried at all. Subsequently 
he generously gave me this skin for the Car- 
lise Museum. 
Tringa maculata, 
208 
