250 VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF LAKELAND 



outside the figure. They were taking a short cut across the 

 fields from the Wampool to the Solway, making for Eockliffe 

 marsh. They flew with their necks moderately outstretched. 

 This was at 11 A.M., tide ebbing rapidly. On the 12th of 

 December that year we revisited Newton marsh, and soon dis- 

 turbed the Barnacles, which rose in a sort of loose skein. Some 

 of them formed a V formation. Others flew off in a long wavy 

 line to the sands, and others fell into two squads and pitched on 

 the grass again. I made a long detour to drive them, if 

 possible, past Mr. Thorpe, who was hiding up on the nearest 

 bank of Wampool. They awaited our nearing approach with a 

 forest of outstretched necks, and when only three hundred yards 

 lay between us they rose and flew off to join the members of 

 their fraternity already sitting out on the far sands. 



Hoping to turn the flank of the tuneful company I fired a 

 cartridge, and of course they lifted, but instead of wheeling up 

 the Wampool, and affording the sportsman of the party the coveted 

 privilege of offering a salute, they crossed the Waver and 

 pitched in the middle of Skinburness marsh. Four only dropped 

 away from the host, "and flighted towards Mr. Thorpe; these 

 detected him in time to swing sharp round, and thus to save 

 themselves from a hot reception. Early in the following 

 January, during frost, these Barnacles left Newton marsh for 

 the Scottish Solway, but returned after an absence of several 

 days, and frequented the Wampool and Waver until the middle of 

 April, when they migrated, presumably to the Arctic circle. A good 

 many Barnacle Geese are killed on Eockliffe and Skinburness 

 marshes in most winters, almost always with shoulder guns, 

 for they have only been known to sit to punt guns in isolated 

 instances. Those who kill them either wait for them at dusk or 

 in moonlight when the geese are on the feed, or drop on to them 

 in the grey light of a winter morning. Wounded Barnacles 

 are generally killed by the great black-backed gulls, but birds 

 which have only been crippled are sometimes captured out on 

 the sands at low water. The speed at which a Barnacle can 

 run recalls an amusing incident witnessed in St. James's Park 

 in September 1887. An old mallard found a large crust of 

 bread, and waddled off with its prize in ostentatious haste. A 



