BIRD-LIFE ON THE MOORS IN EARLY SPRING. 31 



mass of tumbled rocks flanking a singular cleft in the hills. 

 The eggs were lying on the hare peat. 



The 20th April is also the date when the Sandpiper is due 

 to re-appear on the burns and river-sides. 



Though the weather is still bitterly cold, and the sting of 

 the east wind has lost none of its marrow-piercing venom, 

 yet the packs of Golden Plovers have now entirely disappeared 

 from the low-lying grounds. None are to be seen here to- 

 day (April 27th), where a fortnight ago there were hundreds. 

 Instinctive perception never fails as to dates ; they know 

 their appointed season has arrived, and they have gone on 

 northwards to the wastes of Northern Europe and Asia. 

 The Curlews, too, have disappeared from the coast. My 

 winter-puntsman wrote me that April 30th was the last day 

 on which he observed them in any quantities on the sands, 

 and curiously, on the same day we found the first nest, with 

 four eggs, on the moors. The above dates correspond with 

 the appearance of these birds in the far North. I have a 

 note of the arrival of Plover in Nordland (at Langnoes, 

 Tromso), on May 12th, and a few days later a Curlew's 

 nest was found, which was considered there exceptionally 

 early. 



OLD BLACKCOCK "IN PLAY.' 



