232 WOODLANDERS AND FIELD FOLK 



on entering and emerging from the nest. Although 

 slugs and ground beetles would seem to form the 

 bird's food on the mountains, it loves the scarlet- 

 berried fruit of the rowan tree when this is obtain- 

 able. The provincial names of the ring-ouzel are 

 fell throstle, mountain blackbird and mountain crow. 

 As I have wandered down the corrie behind a flock 

 of black-faced mountain sheep I have often heard 

 the ring-ouzels sing under the moon and stars. 



Still ascending the boulder-strewn stream, a few 

 pairs of pied wagtails show themselves near the 

 sheep-folds. Here they are breeding, and during 

 the summer months, which embrace the times of 

 gathering and washing the sheep, insect food is 

 always abundant. Towards the end of August the 

 wagtails flock, prior to their departure. But the 

 bird essentially of the mountains from the lowest 

 shoulder to the topmost summit is the meadow- 

 pipit. Here it is the tit-lark, titling, moss-cheeper 

 and ling-bird. The " mountain lint- white " ascends 

 to three thousand feet, and builds its nest among 

 the scrub, and, at a lower elevation, among the 

 heather. The height of its breeding season is the 

 first week of July, and its young are fed upon a 

 species of small red spider which abounds among 

 the lichens of the hills. 



Ascending even to the tops of the highest hills, and 

 nesting above the belt where the herbage ceases to 



