AMONG THE BIRDS IN SPRING. 29 



the moor, laying four richly-marked, pear-shaped 

 eggs in a scanty nest under the shelter of a A& 4th 

 little willow bush or tuft of rushes. On the 

 breezy, open moors, the cock Red Grouse are Red Grouse 

 crowing from almost every little hillock, their A^iTS 3 Jst 

 heads being visible above the tall heather, and 

 as we walk along they rise from our feet on 

 whirring wing, uttering their loud cries of go-bac, 

 go-bac, go bac-bac-bac with startling distinctness. 

 The Golden Plover finds a congenial home in g,w . 



& Plover lay- 



the marshes on the rough tablelands at thejj|' y ; 2th 

 mountain tops, and makes its slight nest on the 

 ground, laying four very handsome eggs, something 

 like those of the Lapwing, only yellower. Lower 

 down the hillsides, on the commons and rough 

 summer fallows, the Peewits rear their young. Peewitshave 



J O eggs, yth 



These birds are more or less gregarious in the ApriL 

 breeding season, and numbers of their nests 

 may be found quite close together. Amongst 

 the big boulders of rocks on the moors the Ring R"> ? ouseis 



nesting, 2410. 



Ousel, fresh from a southern haunt, sits and A P ril - 

 pipes his wild song, viewing us all the time with 

 suspicious glances. He is something like the 

 Blackbird in appearance, but may be readily 

 distinguished by the byroad crescent of white 

 across the chest. He makes a very similar 

 nest to that species, and the eggs cannot be 

 told from those of the Blackbird, requiring 

 careful identification. The Twite is another Twitebtgms 



nesting, iota 



bird of the moor, and rises disturbed from May< 

 the heather as we walk along the rugged sheep- 



