ORNITHOLOGICAL RAMBLES. 71 



among the heather. It is that very pretty bird the 

 golden plover (Charadrius pluvialis], \vhich, somewhat 

 wilder than the rest of its species, runs along the 

 sandy knoll, then flies a space, and alighting, soon 

 renews its plaintive note, musically alternating with 

 its mate's reply. These birds were in this instance 

 too wild to shoot, so, rounding and descending a 

 neighbouring brow, I rested for awhile to observe the 

 flight of one of the larger hawks about the summit of 

 the hill. I now inquired my way at a little ragstone 

 mountain-hut, and then, pressing down the slope, made 

 across a somewhat extensive tract of flat bog-land that 

 formed the intervening space between this and 

 another range of low rocky hills beyond. 



About the centre of this peaty but partly-cultivated 

 vale I crossed a little burn whose waters bubbled 

 onwards to the loch, and here I had the pleasure of 

 obtaining in very perfect plumage a pair of that very- 

 delicately-pencilled bird the redshank (Totanus calidris). 

 The male bird arose very suddenly some distance before 

 I approached the stream, and, having received my charge 

 of small shot, flew in widening circles, apparently un- 

 touched, higher and further up the valley, and then fell, 

 burying its crimson beak in the soft soil. It would have 

 ill become me, after thus ruthlessly desecrating their 

 domestic hearth, to have left his now sonorous mate to 

 endure the cares and sorrows of disconsolate widow- 

 hood ; so, after indulging a lengthened observation of 



