54 WILD LIFE OF SCOTLAND 



the centre he is in the domain of the dunlin, and 

 the golden plover ; approaching the sea he has to 

 endure the irritating attentions of the redshanks 

 and the terns; and if he goes a little farther, he 

 disturbs the ringed plover from her nest among 

 the gravel. 



Other forms are scattered, but after some 

 definite plan, so that he who is acquainted with 

 their habits, knows where to look for them. In 

 the clumps of wood nests the owl ; in the patches 

 of heather, the grouse, and eider-duck ; in the 

 marshy places, the teal, and the mallard ; in the 

 rabbit - holes, the sheldrake, and the wheatear ; 

 behind the tufts of moor grass, the lark, and the 

 meadow-pipit; in the nest of the latter, or both, 

 the cuckoo. 



There are, of course, exceptions to all rules, but 

 terns are not common on the landward side of the 

 moor, and curlews are seldom, or never found nest- 

 ing on the wild half -naked sand-dunes, through 

 which the binding lime-grass is threading its 

 network of stolons. It were as vain to search for 

 the white eggs of the sheldrake among the heather, 

 as for the olive-coloured eggs of the eider-duck in 

 a rabbit-hole. 



The first find is a lapwing's nest, with its four 



