The Birds of Cumberland; Critically Studied, Including Some Notes on the Birds of Westmorland

by Hugh Alexander Macpherson

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1886 edition. ...or otherwise. Winged birds run with great rapidity, and are difficult to capture. The female just alluded to has thriven in confinement, but is very shy of strangers. During the present spring (1885) she became extremely vociferous, no doubt desiring to attract a mate, as did a Gander which has also been under our observation. Mr. J. W. Harris remarks that a pinioned Barnacle lived for thirty years in confinement, and sat in three successive seasons upon her unfertilized eggs. Upon the whole, the numbers of the Barnacles which visit the English side of the Solway have largely increased of late years. Mr. A. Smith informs us, that, whereas twenty years ago their largest flocks at Rockliffe numbered from two hundred to four hundred birds, they now consist of from six hundred to a thousand birds. Barnacle Geese appear to arrive upon the Solway by two routes. The first passes down the west coast of Scotland or the outer Hebrides. The second route, followed by birds which have passed down the west coast of Norway from the Arctic Circle, and then crossed the North Sea, appears to coincide with the valleys of the Tweed, the Lyne, and Liddell. In 1885, a flock of a hundred migrating Barnacles passed over Stanwix, Carlisle, on April 2nd, flying north-west, wind westerly. Probably the greater number of our Barnacles perform their journey vid the west coast of Scotland, but a certain number also fly across the sixty miles of land between the Solway and our east coast. Mr. Smith has seen flocks of Barnacles, evidently tired birds, arrive on Rockliffe marsh, flying from east, or a point or two north of east, to the Solway. It is always difficult to enlist the services of inland observers in the study of wild fowl, because they are generally ignorant...

52 pages, Paperback

Published September 13, 2013

About the author

Rev. Hugh Alexander Macpherson...