The Land of the Hills and the Glens 



panics of terns fishing round the shore line are always of 

 considerable interest to the bird lover. 



During the early days of July a colony of Arctic terns 

 had laid their eggs along a stretch of shingle, yet at the 

 close of the month, when I repassed the locality, not a sing.le 

 bird appeared to have young. The majority of dunlin had 

 hatched off their young by the first week of July, and dis- 

 played their usual anxiety for their progeny, uttering their 

 rasping cries, and at times feigning injury in their efforts 

 to draw off the intruder from the vicinity. 



Red-necked phalaropes were still brooding their eggs 

 during the first days of the month. 



After a succession of dull, misty days during the middle 

 of July, the morning of the 2ist broke with a dense white 

 fog lying thickly over the water and the lower grounds. 

 Above this blanket the hills rose with fine effect, appearing 

 as islands rising from the mist-sea, and, topping them all, 

 Ben Nevis showed more clearly than I ever remember. 

 As the sun increased in strength the vapour was dispelled, 

 and the day was the warmest experienced up to this time 

 during the summer. For a week the weather continued 

 intensely warm, with a shade temperature verging on 80, 

 and the sun shining with great power. 



On July 25 I crossed a favourite nesting-ground of the 

 lapwing, and although the great majority of the young 

 birds were strong on the wing, certain nestlings were still 

 being tended by their parents, who showed considerable 

 alarm when their nesting-ground was invaded. Although 

 dunlins had eggs as late as the commencement of July, a 

 search through two breeding-places on the 2jth and 26th 

 revealed the presence of only one Hunlin which showed any 

 anxiety when approached, and not a few of the birds were 

 already frequenting the coast-line in flocks. At the end of 

 the month I saw what I took to be a full-fledged young 

 phalarope, able to fly without much difficulty. 



I have always felt that in their nesting the common and 

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