30 BIRD-LIFE OF THE BORDERS. 



find the nests, when one knows how to look for them. The 

 four eggs are laid in the final days of April, one or two 

 being often unfertile. The young Curlews do not leave the 

 nest immediately on being hatched, as the young of most of 

 this class of birds do ; for, though they may never be found 

 actually in the nest, yet they will be lying hidden in the 

 heather close by, having just slipped out on the approach 

 of danger. This, of course, only applies to the early days 

 of their lives. 



Golden Plovers seldom or never nest among covert i.e., 

 the nest is on the shortest grass or heather, often on perfectly 

 bare ground. There is no attempt at concealment. On 

 being approached, one Plover will rise straight from her eggs, 

 a couple of hundred yards away ; another slinks off, creeping 

 away unseen through the heather ; at other times, though 

 more rarely, she will rise off her eggs at one's feet, even 

 when fresh laid. The young run as soon as hatched, but 

 are long in acquiring the power of flight, and retain the 

 golden down on their necks when full-grown, as any grouse- 

 shooter can see in August. 



Peewits breed in thousands on the lower grounds, and 

 not on the high moors preferred by Curlew and Plover ; 

 Snipes at all elevations, on hill or valley. Their nest is 

 always well concealed under a tuft of grass or heather ; and 

 the old bird sits close. Snipe are very irregular in their 

 dates of laying ; I have found young ones unable to fly on 

 August 12th, and, on the other hand, have known of a nest 

 as early as 19th March, and of young Snipes on the wing in 

 the last week of April. 



The Stock-Doves have laid their two eggs by April 20th, 

 but, like all the Pigeon-tribe, they compensate for their 

 small broods by nesting continuously all through the 

 summer, often having fresh eggs at the end of June. They 

 breed in the crags, a very few birch twigs or bits of heather 

 serving for a nest. In vertical crevices, however, a good 

 deal more material is required to obtain a foundation, unless 

 the Jackdaws have previously filled the hole with sticks, as 

 their habit is. On May 7th, we found a nest in a different 

 position under an immense boulder at the Cloven Crag, a 



