IMPRESSIONS OF SOME ENGLISH BIRDS 141 



described in a previous chapter, but failed. And 

 the garden warbler is by no means found in every 

 garden ; probably I did not hear it more than twice. 



The common sandpiper, I should say, was more 

 loquacious and musical than ours. I heard it on 

 the Highland lakes, when its happy notes did indeed 

 almost run into a song, so continuous and bright 

 and joyful were they. 



One of the first birds I saw, and one of the most 

 puzzling, was the lapwing or pewit. I observed it 

 from the car window, on my way down to Ayr, a 

 large, broad-winged, awkward sort of bird, like a 

 cross between a hawk and an owl, swooping and 

 gamboling in the air as the train darted past. It 

 is very abundant in Scotland, especially on the 

 moors and near the coast. In the Highlands I saw 

 them from the top of the stage-coach, running about 

 the fields with their young. The most graceful 

 and pleasing of birds upon the ground, about the 

 size of the pigeon, now running nimbly along, now 

 pausing to regard you intently, crested, ringed, 

 white-bellied, glossy green-backed, with every move- 

 ment like visible music. But the moment it 

 launches into the air its beauty is gone; the wings 

 look round and clumsy, like a mittened hand, the 

 tail very short, the head and neck drawn back, with 

 nothing in the form or movement that suggests the 

 plover kind. It gambols and disports itself like 

 a great bat, which its outlines suggest. On the 

 moors I also saw the curlew, and shall never forget 

 its wild, musical call. 



