136 WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS.  [cap. xvit. 
nacious little fellow ran up to the intruder, and taking advantage 
of his weakness, jumped on him, trampling upon him and pecking 
at his head, and then dragging him along the ground as fiercely 
as a game-cock. 
The hen pewit has a peculiar instinct in misleading people as 
to the whereabouts of her nest ; as soon as any one appears in the 
field where the nest is, the bird runs quietly and rapidly in a 
stooping posture to some distance from it, and then rises with 
loud cries and appearance of alarm, as if her nest was immediately 
below the spot she rose from. When the young ones are hatched 
too, the place to look for them is, 2e¢ where the parent birds are 
screaming and fluttering about, but at some little distance from 
it ; as soon as you actually come to the spot where their young 
are, the old birds alight on the ground a hundred yards or so 
from you, watching your movements. If, however, you pick up 
one of the young ones, both male and female immediately throw 
off all disguise, and come wheeling and screaming round your 
head, as if about to fly in your face. The young birds, when ap- 
proached, squat flat and motionless on the ground, often amongst 
the weeds and grass in a shallow pool or ditch, where, owing to 
their colour, it is very difficult to distinguish them from the sur- 
rounding 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 
uxmusical whistle for hours together, sometimes flitting about 
after each other with a flight resembling that of a swallow, and 
sometimes running rapidly along 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 favour- 
able 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 
