78 BIRD-LIFE OF THE BORDERS 



feigned lameness. Young- dunlins "in down" are very 

 richly-coloured, dark ruddy-brown, somewhat resembling- 

 nestling' snipes. 



Dunlins breed on the highest part of Cheviot (2676 

 feet), and on the grassy heights of Sourhope, on the Scot- 

 tish side ; thence westwards, in very widely scattered pairs, 

 along the line of the Borders down to the Sol way, where 

 many nest on Burgh and Rockcliffe marshes, actually at 

 sea-level. They are, I think, rather more numerous away 

 from the plutonic formations of Cheviot — as, for example, 

 on the Simonside range, and on the moors of North Tyne. 



My brothers and I, some years ago, walked along this 

 "line of the Border." Starting from the Tweed and con- 

 tinuing along the summit of Cheviot, we followed the 

 boundary south and westward, spending some ten days 

 thereon : putting up by nights at shepherds' houses or 

 wherever we could get shelter— a delightfully wild ramble. 

 Few people, I conceive (even in the north), have the 

 faintest conception of the extent and wild character of 

 this mountain-land which lies betwixt England and 

 Scotland. We observed dunlins, at wide intervals, all 

 along. 



The marshes of the Solway are of great extent, dead- 

 flat salt-grasses, barely above tide-levels and intersected 

 by salt-water creeks and channels — a striking change from 

 the haunts of the dunlin on the Northumbrian highlands. 

 Here, in May, my brother Alfred and I found many 

 nests of both that species and of the redshank — more 

 than you would see in years on the moors — but the latter 

 are not easy to detect. The redshank here, as elsewhere, 

 hollows out some strong tuft of bents, leaving the tops 

 entwined — thus completely hiding the eggs from view. 

 Casual search thus avails nothing. It is necessary that 



