The Land of the Hills and the Glens 



I have seen eggs of the ringed plover as late as the 

 first days of August, and July nests are quite of ordinary 

 occurrence, so that of all the plover tribe "the ptarmigan 

 of the waves " is the latest nester. 



Even when first hatched, the young chicks can run 

 actively about, and they harmonise so closely with their 

 surroundings that, when they crouch at the alarm call of 

 their parents they are almost impossible to locate. It is 

 then that the old birds show signs of very great alarm and 

 often make believe that they are injured, trailing along just 

 ahead of the disturber of their peace, and perhaps waving 

 a wing helplessly in the air, or lying motionless, as though 

 dead, in their efforts to decoy him from the vicinity of the 

 young. 



With the coming of autumn, "the ptarmigan of the 

 waves" leave their nesting ground and make their way to 

 the south, their places being taken by birds of their species 

 which have nested to the northward of these islands. 



Often of a dark autumn's night, when the wind sighed 

 and moaned, and when the rush of the sea was borne to 

 the ear, I have heard the plaintive cry of "the ptarmigan of 

 the waves" from out of the pitchy darkness, and from tihe 

 hearing of it have been transported in the spirit to sunlit 

 islands where, beside a calm sea, I have so often watched 

 the birds engrossed in the cares of their nesting. 



