156 WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS chap. 



pool or ditch, where, owing to their colour, it is very difficult to 

 distinguish them from the surrounding objects. 



Towards the end of March, the ring-dotterel,^ the redshank, 

 the curlew, the oyster-catcher, and some other birds of the same 

 kind begin to frequent their breeding-places. On those parts 

 of the sandhills which are covered with small pebbles, the ring- 

 dotterels take up their station, uttering their plaintive and not 

 unmusical whistle for hours together, sometimes flitting about 

 after each other with a flight resembling that of a swallow, and 

 sometimes running rapidly alpng the ground, every now and 

 then jerking up their wings till they meet above their back. 

 Both the bird and its eggs are exactly similar in colour to the 

 ground on which they breed ; this is a provision of nature, to 

 preserve the eggs of birds that breed on the ground from the 

 prying eyes of their numerous enemies, and is observable in 

 many different kinds ; the colour of the young birds is equally 

 favourable to their concealment. 



The redshank does not breed on the stones or bare ground, 

 but in some spot of rough grass ; their motions are very curious 

 at this time of year, as they run along with great swiftness, 

 clapping their wings together audibly above their heads, and 

 flying about round and round any intruder with rapid jerks, or 

 hovering in the air like a hawk, all the time uttering a loud 

 and peculiar whistle. They lead their young to the banks of 

 any pool or ditch at hand, and they conceal themselves in the 

 holes and corners close to the water's edge. 



The oyster-Catchers ^ sit quietly in pairs the chief part of 

 the day on the banks or islands of shingle about the river or 

 on the shore, but resort in the evenings to the sands in large 

 flocks. I have often been puzzled to understand why, during 

 the whole of the breeding-season, the oyster-catchers remain in 

 large flocks along the coast, notwithstanding their duties of 

 hatching and rearing their young. When all the other birds 

 are paired off, they still every now and then collect in the same 

 numbers as they do in winter. 



' It is not found east of the Himalayas. In the British Isles it is principally a spring 

 and autumn migrant, a few only remaining to breed on the Cumberland and Scotch 

 mountains. Its great breeding-grounds are on the grassy hills on the tundras of Siberia, 

 beyond the limits of forest growth (Seebohm, Siberia in Europe, p. 190). 



^ Eggs very large. Breed commonly many miles inland on the gravelly banks of most 

 northern rivers. No nest. — C. St. J, 



