1 66 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS 



fore, may be said to define the limits of its range 

 northward in winter. In the north of England and 

 in Scotland it is known only as a rare straggler ; 

 and the same remark applies to Ireland, where 

 less than a dozen specimens have been procured, 

 chiefly during the winter months. 



This bird is crepuscular in its habits, more active 

 at early dawn and at twilight than in the middle of 

 the day, when it moves but little on the fallows and 

 flint-strewn parts of the open downs, which from 

 their complete harmony with the colour of its 

 plumage render it almost invisible even at a short 

 distance. In the evening, when it becomes very 

 clamorous (as noticed by Gilbert White), it quits 

 the hills and comes down into the valleys, where, 

 often in company with Peewits, it seeks its food in 

 the turnip-fields. As many as fifty have then been 

 seen in a flock (Gurney, Zool, 1876, p. 4801). In 

 the spring, when in pairs, they will allow a person 

 on horseback to approach very close to them before 

 moving. When hawking on the Wiltshire Downs 

 in spring, I have several times ridden within a few 

 yards of one, either squatting, or standing perfectly 

 motionless (with a large staring yellow eye), as if 

 trusting to escape observation from the resemblance 

 of its plumage to the natural surroundings. In 

 April 1876 I carried two of these birds, which were 

 captured with very little injury by our hawks near 

 Amesbury, to the Zoological Gardens, Regent's Park, 

 where they lived for some months. 



See an article by F. M. Ogilvie on the habits of 



