202 HILL BIRDS OF SCOTLAND 



of two syllables sounding like " whee-wheeu," the last 

 being long drawn out. His flight during this time is 

 quite distinctive — he no longer cleaves the air with sharp 

 and rapid wing-beats, but moves his wings with slow, 

 deliberate strokes, holding them V-shaped for an instant 

 between the beats. Should he cease his song — even for 

 a few moments — the normal flight is at once resumed. 

 His cry on these occasions carries over a great stretch 

 of moor, and, I think, can be heard at a greater distance 

 even than the vibrating notes of the Curlew. One day 

 recently, while salmon-fishing on the river Dee, a Golden 

 Plover for some time cruised overhead, singing loudly, 

 but his notes had been audible for some time before I 

 could locate the singer. Neither the picturesqueness of 

 his flight nor the pleasant pitch of his voice appealed to 

 the gillie, who asked, in a tone more than a little sarcastic, 

 " What's he shoutin' up there for, anyway ? " After 

 some time, during which these long-drawn whistles are 

 regularly continued, the singer shoots earthward, uttering, 

 just as he is reaching the ground, a curious purring cry, 

 repeated rapidly five or six times. On paper the sounds 

 resemble " Trooeu, trooeu, trooeu." 



It is only in a very few localities that the nesting site 

 of the Feadag descends to the level of the big Scottish 

 rivers. One moor there is which I have in mind where, 

 bordering the Dee, and at a height of less than 400 feet 

 above sea-level, at least two pairs of Golden Plover nest 

 annually. Shut in from the winds of the north by rising 

 ground, and fully exposed to the sun, this little moor is the 

 earliest nesting site of the Golden Plover in the whole 

 district, and here, as early as May 10th, I have seen a 

 young brood close on a week old. 



Although feeding largely on soft, boggy ground, the 

 Rain Bird — as the Plover is sometimes termed — does 

 not usually choose such wet sites for its nesting as does 



