2962 Tue Zootocist—Marcu, 1872. 
pairs of this bird were located in the same way on the banks of the river 
from the Moray Firth to the confines of Invernesshire, where they would 
almost meet those coming from the Firth of Tay. In like manner these 
birds ascend the Findhorn as far as its source in the Monadhliadh Moun- 
tains, and also penetrate to Lochness and Loch Oich, where they are met 
by others which have entered by the South at Loch Linnhe. The same 
remark applies to the whole of the western coasts, where the many streams 
and sea-lochs that characterize that side of Scotland attract the oystercatcher 
and other birds of like habits, and lead them gradually inland, so that during 
the breeding season they turn up before the tourist almost everywhere.” 
One of the things which astonishes an observer of birds from 
the South who visits Scotland is the extraordinary number of 
peewits. The moors, the pastures, the shores of the great tidal 
rivers, are frequented by thousands; everywhere in Scotland the 
peewit is to be seen flying with ils characteristic and uncertain 
wheelings in the air,.and its cry is one of the most familiar sounds 
which strikes the ear. In Scotland there is a prejudice against the 
peewit. Itis litle regarded as an article of food, and in many parts 
it bears an ill name because, by its restless flight and loud cries, it 
is said to have often betrayed little gatherings of Covenanters, when 
met out on the bleak moor, to the troopers who were in search of 
them. The writer of this notice was once looked upon with much 
wonder by the head keeper on a grouse moor where he was shooting 
because he wasted a cartridge upon one of these birds, and it took 
all his powers of persuasion to induce his friend to consent to its 
being cooked and set upon table. However, when tasted it was 
candidly admitted that the peewit was not to be despised. 
“Tn the wildest tracts of moorland the lapwing is often found breeding 
at a considerable distance from any homestead or shieling, away in the 
barren wastes abandoned to Highland sheep and black game. There, in 
the bare patches that meet the eye,—green spots in the midst of the brown 
and flowerless heath,—small companies congregate and occupy their encamp- 
ments with watchful care. At this season the vigilant creatures are easily 
alarmed, and become restless and clamorous on the appearance of any object, 
whether man or dog, keeping up a constant and wailing outery so long as 
the cause of their disturbance remains in sight. In some parts of the 
South of Scotland the lapwing is on this account looked upon with great 
dislike, the behaviour of one of these colonies calling to memory the betrayal 
of persecuted Covenanters, whose movemeuts on the hill-side were in con- 
stant danger of detection by their enemies being so guided to their place of 
