l84 THE BIRDS OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



measured beats of flexed wings, repeated a call which I wrote 

 down as taw-tii-yoti^ as all three alighted. The animal food is 

 that of other waders, varied with a few moorland seeds and 

 berries. 



The upper moor, bare or clothed with coarse grass and 

 stunted ling or crowberry, is the usual nesting site, and the 

 nest itself is often exposed, but by no means easy to find, for 

 when the four mottled eggs (Plate 80) are laid, the sitting bird, 

 warned by the watchful mate, slips quietly off and runs for 

 some distance before taking wing. One of the pair, usually the 

 male, though both are known to sit, stands sentinel on the 

 skyline, and gives a long warning tooee if any one appears 

 within sight. When the mate is at a safe distance from the 

 nest it answers the call, and both will fly round the intruder 

 with plaintive cries, and long after the danger zone is passed 

 will stand watching, repeating a single mournful too. The 

 eggs are generally laid in May, and by the end of the month 

 the downy nestling (Plate 76) crouches in the herbage. When 

 first hatched the little bird is a wonderful golden yellow, with 

 dark mottles and whitish streaks. 



In summer the upper parts of the adult bird are mottled with 

 black and golden yellow, and the tail and coverts are barred 

 with brown and yellow ; the under parts to the abdomen, and 

 including the cheeks, are black, and between the yellow and 

 black, from the forehead, over the eye to the flanks, runs a 

 conspicuous band of white. The under surface of the wing and 

 under tail-coverts are also white. There is rather less deep 

 black on the under parts of the female. The bill and irides are 

 blackish brown, the legs blue-grey. The black portions are 

 white in winter, the colours are less golden, and the cheeks, grey- 

 tinged breast, and flanks are mottled with brown and yellow. 

 The plumage of the young resembles that of the adult bird in 

 winter, but the flanks are more mottled and back more spotted 

 with yellow. Length, 11 ins. Wing, 7*5 ins. Tarsus, i*6 ins. 



