SPRING-TIME ON THE MOORS 41 



to wit : Buzzard, very common ; kite ; marsh- and hen- 

 harriers ; peregrine and raven. Of the six birds the 

 four first named have now absolutely vanished as 

 breeding species. 



The Heron of late years, has found his ancient custom 

 of nesting gregatim too dangerous, and is adapting his 

 habit to modern necessities. The older heronries are 

 being abandoned, and these stately birds begin to nest in 

 scattered groups of two, three, or four pairs, selecting 

 some straggled clump of pines far out on the remotest 

 moors. In these sequestered refuges, the herons build in 

 February, and in some years have eggs soon after the 

 middle of that month. 



The Dipper I place next — a typical moor bird. 

 About the Ides of March you may see it in rapid direct 

 flight (always holding mid-stream), and you notice, as it 

 passes, green moss in its beak. By the 25th the nest 

 is complete, though fast-ice may still fringe the burn, 

 and icicles impend the site. The dipper works by the 

 calendar and ignores thermometers ; no stress of frost 

 interferes with its rigid programme, and eggs are laid in 

 March. Those who know the bird, who have heard the 

 male in full song in the severest weather of mid-winter, 

 and then watched him plunge blythely beneath the ice 

 with a temperature close by zero, would scarcely be 

 surprised if he elected to nest at Christmas. 



A favourite site is in the linns, or small waterfalls, 

 where a hill-burn comes tumbling and splashing over 

 some rock-ridge. Many of these linns, overhung by 

 gnarled and lichen-clad birch and rowan, and fringed 

 with shaggy heather and bog-myrtle, form the wildest 

 and most lovely nooks in the wild moorland. There, 

 on a crevice of the moss-grown rock, half hidden by 



