ADAPTATION TO HAUNTS 153 



bed of the stream, gripping with its toes, and, as we have 

 mentioned, it also uses its wings in a sort of under- water 

 flight. It feeds on small water-animals, and makes a domed 

 nest of grass and moss under a waterfall, or in some similarly 

 safe place. The male's wren-like song may be heard in 

 mid-winter, sounding so cheerily from a stone on the 

 mountain stream that we wonder if the word conqueror 

 would not have been more appropriate than refugee. 



§ 6. Moorland Birds 



Characteristic of the high moorland are such birds as 

 curlew and whimbrel, stone-chat and whin-chat, golden 

 plover and grouse. Let us take two types — the first and the 

 last. The curlew owes part of its success to its varied diet ; 

 it feeds in summer on insects, grubs, earthworms, slugs, 

 juicy fruits like the crowberry ; in winter it frequents the 

 seashore and picks up all sorts of small animals. It is a 

 striking feature of the moorland during its courtship period 

 in spring. As we have said in our Mountain and Moorland, 

 " the male bird soars to a considerable height in the air and 

 hovers ; it sinks and rises again ; it circles and hovers again ; 

 and all the time it pours forth for its desired mate's ear a 

 simple, trilling song, certainly not plaintive, singing over and 

 over again — ' Courlee, courlee, courlee.' " This is very 

 different from the melancholy " Whaup, whaup " of the 

 winter season. The nest is simply a depression made com- 

 fortable with grass, and in it are laid the four large eggs, 

 greenish and brownish, with their points towards the centre. 

 The brooding bird sits very close, and the brown, streaked 

 plumage often harmonises beautifully with the withered 

 bracken and herbage round about. The bird has a garment 

 of invisibility. 



The Red Grouse is interesting in being a native of Great 

 Britain and of no other country. Just as there is a St. Kilda 

 wren, so there is Lagopus scoticus. This means that from a 

 relatively generalised grouse-stock, from which ptarmigan 

 and willow-grouse have sprung, there arose in Scotland 



