10 



is also the calibre of gun, -whicli is now commonly used from the 

 shoulder, the i)rofessional on the Tay of the present day is not so 

 particular as to what he shoots at, he it Sandpiper, Duck, or Peewit, 

 as long as it will sell in the market ; consequently there is such a con- 

 tinual tiring and persecution going on daily and nightly as the tide 

 suits, that the birds, finding no rest, are fairly driven off the water. 

 Wliere, may be asked, are the large flocks of Dunlin, Redshank, Knots, 

 Peewits, Golden Plover, &c., which previous to the time mentions] 

 miglit be seen in hunibeds busily occupied on the mudbanks ir 

 scattered parties in search of food, or perhaps sweejnng over them in 

 countless masses performing the most intricate evolutions — at one time 

 glancing like a sheet of silver in the sun, as they show their snowy 

 breasts, in the next instant, as if by magic, darkening the sky, as they 

 simultaneously turn and display their dark-coloured liacks ? The 

 question is easily answered — " Nowhere." I may be thought to be 

 di-awing too gloAving a picture, but any one who may have been well 

 acquainted with the lower Tay at the time I speak, were he an oljserver 

 of birds, will, I am sure, bear me out. Another cause is the great 

 destruction of eggs during the breeding season, but more of this here- 

 after. Thirdly, in addition to all tliis, drainage and high farming have 

 been much agamst them. There being now no fallows, where frequently 

 they had their eggs, and the ploughed lands being worked much earlier 

 than formerly, many a sitting of eggs, if not othenvise discovered and 

 robbed, are either turned up and harrowed over, or cmshed by the 

 clod-breaking roller as it heavily and loudly grates along, whereas, in 

 olden times, these would have been safe, and the young birds hatched 

 and able to take care of themselves by the time fanning operations 

 commenced. Its congener the Golden Plover, the next on the list, 

 breeds on the moors and heathy places, and at that season, unlike the 

 gregarious Lapwing, is only found in solitary pairs, consequently it 

 might be supposed to be pretty safe as regards its eggs, but not so, as 

 I shall afterwards show to be the case, at least in this neighbourhood. 

 Of all the hordes of Golden Plover which used to assemble every 

 autumn on our fields, as well as on the tidal banks, only comparatively 

 a few years back, there is now not one for every hundred there was 

 then ; indeed, so scarce have they become within the past three or four 

 years, they may be said to have almost entirely disappeared, at least on 

 the upper parts of the estuary. This is to be attributed much to some 

 of the causes that have occasioned the great decrease of the Lapwing ; 

 the continued firing and persecution with which they meet, and, being 

 the more valuable of the two for the market, they are the more eagerly 

 sought after, and have consequently fared the worse. Another of our 



