SPRING BIRD LIFE 33 



classing them under the same popular name. Both 

 have the same crescent wings, the tern's being sharply 

 crescent like the swift's, and so long, when expanded, 

 that they seem almost out of proportion with the 

 body; both have the same forked tail, the tern's 

 being deeply forked like the chimney-swallow's ; 

 both have the same swift flight, the tern's flight 

 being jerky like the sand-martin's. 



The migrant of the burn is the common sand- 



o 



piper, or summer-snipe, which joins the nesting- 

 dipper early in May, startling the abstracted 

 angler by its scream, and lending a touch of wild- 

 ness to an out-of-the-world scene. 



The dotterel reaches Scotland in the first, or 

 second week of May, in small flocks of from six 

 to a dozen, known as " trips." After a few days' 

 rest on some coast moor, they scatter thinly over 

 the uplands. It is said that never more than one 

 pair is found on the same hilltop ; but, probably, this 

 is only a strong way of stating the undoubted fact 

 that nowhere are they very numerous. I find 

 that bird and nest are unknown to all except game- 

 keepers and shepherds, to whom, however, both are 

 familiar. This is the migrant of the mountains. 



The migrant of cultivation is the corncrake. 

 The lapwing has already raised one brood, ere the 

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