and 

 Heb 



South to 



Perth. 



UP THE MOUNTAINS. 175 



one cannot well investigate the ornithology of 

 such a region without noticing the GREENSHANK Highlands 

 (Tetanus glottis}. It is one of our rarest waders Hebrides. 



\ . i ' 1 i r c_..u * 



during the summer months, only frequenting 

 few favoured spots in the Highlands and the 

 Hebrides. I know of a breeding-place of the 

 Greenshank among the Cullin Hills in Skye, not 

 far from rugged Sligiahan one of the wildest 

 places in all wild Scotland and above which the 

 Ptarmigan has its haunt. Here it lives on the 

 marshy moors below the highest summits, fre- 

 quenting the shores of the mountain lakes, and 

 rearing its young among the treacherous swamps. 

 The Greenshank soon informs you of its presence 

 when once its haunt is entered. At the least 

 alarm the old birds rise, and uttering their loud 

 double call-note of tee-yu, commence to fly to and 

 fro in dire alarm. As you get still closer to the 

 nest or helpless young, more demonstrative do 

 the parents become, and the female especially 

 often pitches headlong to the ground, and runs 

 about with half-open wings, trying all she can to 

 concentrate attention on herself. We just alluded 

 to the young as "helpless." Well, so they are 

 in many respects, yet not in all. They are born 

 with that in their nature which causes them 

 instinctively to scatter and hide themselves 

 among the herbage and the stones at the first 

 warning note from their parents ; and when once 

 that signal is given, and the tiny, long-legged, 

 striped balls of down have squatted to the earth, 

 it requires no ordinary scrutiny to discover them. 

 Here they lie still and inanimate as the stones, 

 and their mottled dress harmonises so closely 

 with the objects around them that we may search 



