WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS 



I saw a cock pewit one day attack a wounded male bird 

 which came near his nest; the pugnacious Httle fellow ran 

 up to the intruder, and taking advantage of his weakness, 

 jumped on him,tramplinguponhim andpeckingat his head, 

 and then dragging him along the ground as fiercely as a 

 game-cock. 



Thehen pewit has a peculiar instinct in misleadingpeople 

 as to the whereabouts of her nest; as soon as anyone ap- 

 pears in the field where the nest is, the bird runs quietly 

 and rapidly in a stooping posture to some distance from it, 

 and then rises with loud cries and appearance of alarm, as 

 if her nest was immediately below the spot she rose from. 

 When the young ones are hatched too, the place to look for 

 them is, not where the parent birds are screaming and flut- 

 tering about, but at some little distance from it; as soon as 

 you actually come to the spot where their young are, the old 

 birds alight on the ground a hundred yards or so from you, 

 watching your movements. If, however, you pick up one of 

 the young ones, both male and female immediately throw 

 off all disguise, and come wheeling and screaming round 

 your head, as if about to fly in your face. The young birds, 

 when approached, squat flat and motionless on the ground, 

 often amongst the weeds and grass in a shallow pool or dit- 

 ch, where, owing to their colour, it is very difficult to dis- 

 tinguish them from the surrounding objects. 



Towards the end of March, the ring-dotterel, the red- 

 shank, the curlew, the oyster-catcher, and some other birds 

 of the same kind begin to frequent their breeding-places. 

 On those parts of the sandhills whichare covered with small 

 pebbles, the ring dotterels take up their station, uttering 



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