THE LAPWING. 227 



scattered bands from field to field, or, congregating in a vast 

 flock, they mount high in the air, and after circling round 

 and round with the Golden Plover, 



Their front now deepening, now extending, 

 Their flank inclining, wheeling, bending, 

 Now drawing back, and now descending,! 



they by degrees alight at some favourite haunt in the neigh- 

 bourhood. 



The nest of the Peeseweep is often found in spring 

 when the farming operations of that busy season are in 

 progress, and is frequently destroyed by the harrow or 

 the roller before it is observed. It is generally a shallow 

 depression in the ground, lined with a little dry grass or 

 other suitable material. On the Lammermuirs a very bare 

 spot is sometimes selected. In describing a nest found at 

 the side of Moss Maw, near Penmanshiel and Harelawside 

 march, Mr. Hardy says : " Not a blade of grass or tussock 

 of carices waved around the exposed habitation. The young 

 ones, clothed only with down, ' paddy hair ' as it is called, 

 sat huddled together in pairs, one in each pair having its 

 neck laid across that of the other. The parents screamed 

 most piteously overhead as long as I was in search, making 

 their flight and loudest cry in the direction where the nest 

 did not lie. As I drew near, the cries redoubled and became 

 more earnest, and the flight of the old birds approached 

 closer to the ground." Sometimes 



Amid the marsh's rushy skirts, her nest 

 Is slightly strewn ; four eggs, of olive hue, 

 Spotted with black, she broods upon : 



She, if or dog, 



Or man, intrude upon her bleak domain, 



Skims, clamouring loud, close at their feet, with wing 



Stooping, as if impeded by a wound. 



GRAHAME, Birds of Scotland. 



i Sir Walter Scott, Marmion 



