RED-NECKED PHALAROPE. 43 



and wary, and as long as we are within sight they keep up a 

 loud unceasing cry of alarm, wheeling round and round, but 

 generally at a tolerably respectful distance. I saw some 

 young curlews on the ground, and got out to examine them ; 

 they are curious, long-legged, top-heavy little fellows, and 

 when pursued seemed to trip themselves up in their hurry, 

 and to tumble head foremost into every hole in their way. 

 The bill of the young bird is as short as that of a golden 

 plover. When I held it in my hand to examine the curious 

 plumage, or rather down which covered it, the little bird 

 looked up at me with its great dark prominent eye with such 

 an expression of confidence and curiosity, that had I been 

 the most determined collector of specimens of birds, I could 

 not have refrained from putting him carefully down on the 

 ground again : when I did so he ran up to the top of a little 

 grassy hillock, and looked round for his screaming parents, 

 who, at a safe distance, were wheeling with a most wonderful 

 outcry round the head of my terrier. 



One cannot understand why a curlew's bill should be 

 curved in the curious manner in which it is. The end of 

 the bill is, like that of a woodcock, furnished with a set of 

 delicate nerves to enable it to feel its food under ground. In 

 those parts of the country where curlews are numerous, the 

 moist turnip fields are generally bored all over by them. I 

 tried for trout in Loch Naver (close to the inn at Aultna- 

 harrow), and caught some fine and excellent fish for our 

 supper. 



In the swampy ground near the west end of the lake a vast 

 number of birds seem to breed. Snipes, curlews, redshanks, 

 plovers, &c., &c., all keep up a constant cry of alarm on any 

 intrusion into their dominion. While I was fishing, Mr. 

 Dimbar called my attention to two beautiful little birds near 

 the edge of the water, which he pronounced to be the red- 

 necked phalarope. Not having any specimens in his collec- 

 tion, he went to the inn for a gun, while I sat down to watch 

 them. The red-necked phalarope is certainly the most 

 beautiful little wader of my acquaintance. There were a 

 pair of them, male and female, feeding near the loch, in a 

 little pool which was covered with weeds of different kinds. 

 Nothing could be more graceful than the movements of these 

 two little birds as they swam about in search of insects, &c. 

 Sometimes they ran lightly on the broad leaves of the water- 

 lily, which served them for a raft and entirely kept them out 



