GOLDEN PLOVER 



MOORLAND BIRDS 



High moorlands covered with grass or heather are peculiarly 

 characteristic of the wilder parts of the British Islands, and 

 their bird life is particularly interesting. The heather moors 

 are the home of our one exclusively British bird ; for the red- 

 grouse is sufficiently distinct from the Norwegian willow- 

 grouse to deserve a separate status without question, whereas 

 the St. Kilda wren and all the numerous offspring of the 

 latest scientific authorities are insular sub-species. Where 

 the moorlands rise into rocky mountains, they are the home 

 of certain Arctic species which have probably inhabited them 

 since the glacial epoch, and of some of our rarest and finest 

 birds of prey. The golden eagle has again become so 

 abundant in certain parts of Scotland after some years of 

 protection as to be removed from the protected list, though 

 it has been extinct for many years in other parts of the 

 kingdom. On the bare summits of the highest Scotch 

 mountains, the ptarmigan and snow-bunting breed under the 

 chill June sunshine in their subarctic plumage of splashed 

 white. From these stony and lichen-covered summits right 

 down to the tree-line in the dingles, and away to the enclosed 

 fields lower still, moors where preservation is not too strict 

 maintain a wonderfully fine and varied list of species, though 

 the total numbers are not very large. Wide, windy wastes of 

 grass and heather offer a too limited food-supply to attract a 



