234 CRIES OF THE BIRDS. CHAP. xn. 



stantly filled with clamour. The sandpiper screamed 

 its kittie-needie ; the pigeon cooed; the pipit, with 

 lively emotion, came flying round me, uttering all 

 the while its peeping note ; the moor- cock sprang 

 with whirring wing from his heathy lair, and gave 

 forth his well-known and indignant lirr birr-lick; 

 the curlew came sailing down the glen with steady 

 flight, and added to the noise with his shrill and 

 peculiar notes ofpoo-elie poo-elie coorlie coorlie wha-up; 

 and, from the loftier parts of the hills, the plovers 

 ceased not their mournful wail, which accorded so well 

 with the scene of which I alone appeared to be a 

 silent spectator. But I moved not a foot until the 

 alarmed inmates of the glen and the mountain had 

 disappeared, and solemn stillness had again resumed 

 its sway." 



On the following day, while crossing the Clash- 

 mauch, on his way to Huntly, Edward observed a 

 curlew rise from a marshy part of the hill, to which 

 he bent his steps in hopes of finding her nest. In 

 this, however, he was disappointed ; but, in searching 

 about, and within a few feet of the remains of a 

 wreath of snow, he came upon a wild duck lying 

 beside a tuft of rushes. It may be mentioned that 

 there had been a heavy snowstorm which had forced 

 the plovers and wild ducks to abandon their nests, 

 though then full of eggs, and greatly interrupted the 

 breeding season in the northern counties. Edward 

 proceeds: 



