310 LOCH CRERAN. 



pertinacity, we follow them as they mislead us further 

 and further, until a little knoll intervenes, when, leaving 

 one to pipe and shout at us, the other drops quietly from 

 the hilly point seawards, and with the peculiar sand- 

 pipery flutter skims off in a wide circle to the old spot. 

 We hurriedly mark it down, and again go over the 

 ground without success when ! the piping gets more 

 tremulous and uncertain, halts altogether, and there we 

 have the secret. Still as a mouse, and not unlike one as 

 it squats on the rocky moor, nor making the slightest 

 motion as we place our hand upon it ; but the young 

 piper has obeyed its parent's orders, and trusted to its 

 moorland hue and diminutive size. A beautiful creature, 

 as the young of all the class are always, with its light 

 coloured breast and dark brown line down the back, the 

 down rich and feathery, the eye bright, and the whole 

 trim little figure most engaging. We lay it down on the 

 grass field within reach of the parents' excited piping, 

 and watch it as it hurries off with the nervous, dodgy- 

 stagger of the genus. 



A little further over on the hill are the nests of a rock 

 pipit our shore-frequenting lark and a titlark. Both 

 are representative nests, just where those birds are always 

 in the habit of building. The pipit, on a rocky point 

 over the shore, has coiled the dry grass in a knowing 

 nook ; while the titlark has chosen a little hole on a 

 bankside on the summit of the point. The eggs of both 

 birds are rich dark brown, and aid in effecting conceal- 

 ment on the moor. Whiff! Out goes from the very edge 

 of the cliff, where a little heather and dried grass form a 

 projecting eve, a little lintie, and we know that this is also 

 a favourite nesting-place of the twite. The concealment 

 of the nest is perfect, and we would scarcely have 



