Birds by Land and Sea 



and sudden doublings and turnings of swallow or 

 bat. It is then that the great dark eyes detect the 

 fluttering insect in the gloom, and the wide-gaping 

 bill increases the precision with which the bird darts 

 at and captures it. It is then also that its weird reel- 

 ing note is heard, rendering more ghostly still the 

 noiseless passage of its wings. This strange, rolling 

 note is continued by the bird for an indefinite time, 

 often for a quarter of or half an hour without break, 

 and is audible at a great distance. It so vividly 

 recalled to my mind the drumming of toads and 

 frogs as I had heard it in the great evening chorus 

 in the Para marshes, that when I first heard it I 

 at once set it down to these creatures. A homelier 

 comparison would be with the continuous rattle of 

 a mowing-machine, as to its form ; but the quality 

 of the note is mellower, and more in the nature of 

 a rolling, bubbling sound. It may be imitated very 

 nearly by opening the mouth, and forcing the breath 

 past the uvula, causing it to vibrate. 



As we get nearer the headland at Penmon the 

 shore takes on a rockier, and the land a more moor- 

 like character. At once the lapwings appear, every 

 pose and movement reminiscent of their small 

 kinsman, the ringed plover, so long as they remain 

 upon the ground. But let the lapwing rise, and, 

 for the acute, rapidly vibrating wing of the ringed 

 plover as it circles out in plain flight to sea and back 

 again, you have the powerful beat of the rounded 

 wings of the lapwing, and a flight as erratic at times 



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