MOUNTAIN BIRDS 233 



grow, is everywhere seen the vanishing white form 

 of the wheat-ear. This is another summer visitant 

 to the mountains, returning with the trailing green 

 fronds of the stag's-horn moss and leaving again 

 when nesting is over. Flitting and clacking, and then 

 diving below, the white-rumped fallow-chat causes 

 a new light and a new interest in every lichened 

 boulder. It has its nest and its pale-blue eggs in 

 the grey stone walls, in a cleft of the rocks, or on the 

 lee-side of a stranded granitic block. On leaving the 

 mountains in autumn the wheat-ears descend to the 

 marshes prior to taking their departure. 



Only those can fully appreciate the meaning of the 

 word " tarn " who have seen these black mountain 

 merelets lying silent and sad from the hill-tops. 

 Their water appears black as ink, owing to the soft 

 fringe of peat which encircles the marge. Each of 

 them has its pair of summer snipe. These, with 

 tremulous wings, flit along among the peat and 

 pebbles, and breed and find their food among the 

 drift-stuff. Their wild whistle is peculiarly in 

 keeping with the still solitudes of the mountains, 

 and only serves to make the silence more intense. 

 In addition to this whistle the summer snipe has a 

 continuous and lively song, and upon its first arrival 

 in spring is quite loquacious. Like the last named, 

 the sand-piper makes for the low-lying marshes ere 

 starting on its return migration. 



