The Land of the Hills and the Glens 



these birds, so that it is not easy to mark an additional 

 influx of migrants. 



Ravens are always present along the high cliffs* 

 which border the Atlantic, and even during September one 

 saw them turning over on their backs in mid-air — a per- 

 formance which is associated with the first months of the 

 spring rather than the early autumn. There is nothing, I 

 think, that birds of powerful flight — raven, peregrine, buz- 

 zard — like so much as to soar against a breeze, moving 

 just above the top of a high cliff, and using the uprushing 

 current of air to their own advantage. The same pair of 

 birds may time and again make their way along the same 

 route, wheeling, off when they have reached a point where 

 the wind no longer assists them, and returning on a different 

 line. 



Towards the end of the month the lapwings of a Hebridean 

 island where thousands breed had to a certain extent 

 collected into flocks, but many were to be seen in pairs, and 

 I frequently observed such birds wheeling and dashing across 

 the fields in that wild, buoyant flight which is characteristic 

 of their mating season. They also practised their spring 

 notes, and somersaulted in the usual mating fashion. I 

 have not known them to do this before at the autumn season 

 of the year. 



This island is the home of many birds. It is never 

 quiet, for at all times of the year the birds rest on its shores, 

 and fill the air with their cries. During the last days of the 

 month the wind blew from the east — not a favourable wind 

 for migration — yet the shores of the island were already 

 thronged with waders from the far north. There were bar- 

 tailed godwits — birds of slender build and reminding one 

 of a whimbrel — which were more confiding than the curlew, 

 and searched for food among the sea wrack, flying off when 

 approached too closely, with shrill, piping cry. One saw 

 flocks of ringed plover with a few dunlin among them ; 

 but, curiously enough, not a single /?ocfe of dunlin was 



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