BIRDS' NESTING SEASON 153 



chins touching, and necks stretched out till they looked 

 a single stalk, shot up from the short heather and 

 burst into full blossom at our feet. A few yards 

 further on we picked up a baby Lapwing, which was 

 doing its best to hide under a tussock of grass. The 

 shepherds say that young Ringed Plovers are even 

 more wide-awake, and that a chick just out of the 

 egg, when hard pressed, will grasp a dead leaf between 

 its legs, and, rolling on to its back, lie completely 

 hidden under it until the danger is past. But it was 

 getting late and the wind was against us, and pleasantly 

 as another hour or two might have been passed on 

 Mousa, we were obliged to tear ourselves away. It 

 was not until we had tacked six times that we found 

 ourselves on shore again at Sandwick, in time and with 

 appetites for an excellent dinner. 



The teeming bird-life of the Shetlands is confined, 

 during the breeding-season, mainly to the coast-line. 

 In the drive of five-and- twenty miles from Lerwick to 

 Sumburgh, the last half of which we took the morning 

 after our visit to Mousa, and in our walks across the 

 island to and from Scalloway, we were struck with 

 the comparative scarceness of birds when out of sight 

 of the sea. 



Wherever there were buildings, the ubiquitous House 

 Sparrow was, of course, to be seen, but not in anything 

 like the numbers it is usually found elsewhere; and 

 once, not far from Sandwick, we certainly thought we 

 saw a pair of Tree Sparrows. But a treeless island is 

 scarcely the place to look for a bird so named, and as 



