46 ORNITHOLOGICAL RAMBLES. 



This is certainly a very magnificent expanse of 

 water, and must be crowded with wildfowl in the 

 winter. Here they may revel in security. No island 

 breaks its surface ; nor is there a single rock or bank 

 which would afford the least shelter to the fowler. 

 Pressing on, I came to a stone bridge which spans a 

 narrow inlet communicating with the sea. Two fine 

 ducks sped through the air above me, which, on ex- 

 amining through the glass, I perceived were a pair of 

 the golden- eye (Anas clangula). 



Crossing the bridge, and turning along another 

 shore, the nature of the ground became more marshy ; 

 then, gently rising, somewhat gravelly and bare, and 

 scantily relieved with irregular patches of stunted 

 heather. I have been informed that a few pairs of the 

 greater black-backed gull breed here, but the only ones 

 I saw were the common and the herring gull. A few 

 also of the common tern, or sea-swallow, frequented its 

 banks. I now heard the sweet, soft, whistling cry of 

 the ringed plover (Charadrius hiaticula), and, looking 

 round, T quickly perceived one of these very elegant 

 little birds flying by ; while others were running over 

 the grassy hillocks and along the most uneven ridges. 

 Like their larger congener, the peewit, they chiefly 

 give utterance to their note when on the wing, 

 miming, immediately they alight, at a great pace along 

 the ground, and suddenly rising again with vast ease 

 and quickness. I shot one on this spot, and in the 



