COMMON TOTAXTJS. 21? 



uttering the notes with a peculiar prolonged and 

 quivering- whistle. The nest is always placed 

 a short way from the water, on some dry bank, 

 among straggling willows, or in a pasture or 

 grass field ; it is made in a hollow with a little 

 of the surrounding herbage collected, and is gene- 

 rally protected on one side by some slight eleva- 

 tion or tuft ; when openly approached, we have 

 always seen the female go off her nest as quietly 

 as possible, and without any demonstration of 

 alarm, sometimes running before rising, as if wish- 

 ing to prevent the detection of the spot. When 

 with the young, both the birds are clamorous, but 

 never to the same extent as those we have been 

 describing. When the young are hatched, the 

 broods continue together, and may be found in 

 these small companies, on the sea shores, after 

 they have left their inland breeding quarters. Its 

 habits, in England, so far as we know and havt, 

 seen, are similar, but it seems to prefer a subalpine 

 district for its breeding stations, and is perhaps 

 more frequent in the lower lying and flatter dis- 

 tricts of the south, after its nidification has been 

 performed. It is met with in similar stations in 

 Ireland in abundance. Although extending to 

 the northernmost parts of the mainland of Scot- 

 land, it does not appear to visit the islands ; at 

 the same time, it is recorded as ranging northward 

 to Iceland, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands.* 

 Southward, we find it in India, f the East India 

 * Yarrell. f Colonel Sykes. 



