164 THE ORNITHOLOGICAL GUIDE. 



its querulous cry ; the Whin Chat flits from bush to 

 bush, warbles its little song from the top spray, or 

 sallies forth to seize a heedless fly whizzing joyously 

 along in the bright sunshine. As we cross the 

 sedgy bog, the Snipe starts with loud scream from 

 among our feet, while on the opposite bank the 

 Gor Cock [Hed Ptarmigan] raises his scarlet-fringed 

 head above the heath, and cackles his loud notes of 

 anger or alarm, as his mate crouches amid the 

 brown herbage. 



" But see, a pair of searchers not less observant 

 than ourselves have appeared over the slope of the 

 bare hill. They wheel in narrow curves at the 

 height of a few yards ; round and round they fly, 

 their eyes no doubt keenly bent on the ground 

 beneath. One of them, the pale blue bird, is now 

 stationary, hovering on almost motionless wing ; 

 down he shoots like a stone ; he has clutched his 

 prey, a young Lapwing perhaps, and off he flies 

 with it to a bit of smooth ground, where he will 

 devour it in haste. Meanwhile his confpanion, who 

 is larger, and of a brown color, continues her search ; 

 she moves along with gentle flappings, sails for a 

 short space, and judging the place over which she 

 has arrived, not unlikely to yield something that 

 may satisfy her craving appetite, she flies slowly 

 over it, now contracting her circles, now extending 

 them, and now for a few moments hovering as if 

 fixed in the air. At length, finding nothing, she 

 shoots away, and hies to another field, but she has 



