l62 THE BIRDS OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



with wings stiffly uplifted, along some wall or rail. He will 

 circle round the female in wide sweeps, alight and trip 

 towards her, wings uplifted, or chase her over the bank and 

 sand ; I have seen one run, following every turn and dodge she 

 made to evade him, for fully ten minutes without a stop. When 

 at last she took wing he followed, still trilling, and the two 

 performed a high quick flight, in which the turns and swerves 

 were almost as erratic as those of the Snipe. The trill, 

 especially when the excited bird sings from an elevated perch, 

 is varied by a plaintive pipe, a single note very like the warning 

 call to the young. 



The nest (Plate 65) is in various situations, but usually at 

 no great distance from water. I have seen it, well lined with 

 dead leaves, hidden beneath a thick patch of brambles, in the 

 centre of a whimberry clump, amongst scree on a Welsh moor, 

 in a dense wood, in grass close to a trodden pathway, and, a 

 mere almost unlined hollow, on a garden lawn. The four buff 

 eggs (Plate 54) are speckled or blotched, rather sparsely, with 

 brown, and the shell has a decided polish ; they are usually 

 laid in May. The young, clothed in pale-grey down, marbled 

 with black (Plate 67), crouch like other juvenile waders, but 

 often betray themselves by a feeble pipe in answer to the 

 parental clamour. The behaviour of the sitting bird varies ; I 

 have known one female shriek like an alarmed Starling as she 

 squattered along the ground with trailing wings and expanded 

 tail, and the following day slip quietly from the nest without 

 demonstration. 



The general colour of the upper parts is greenish brown, the 

 feathers of the mantle having dark centres and margins. The 

 barred secondaries are edged with white, forming a bar, con- 

 spicuous in flight. The outer tail leathers are white, barred 

 with brown, and the streaked breast, neck, and cheeks are light 

 brown. A line above the eye, the chin, and under parts below 

 the breast are white. The bill is brown, the legs greenish, the 



