1908 Birds. 



heathy tract, covered all over in summer with the white and conspicuous plant called 

 here the caVs tail, a few pairs of the curlew (Numenius arquata) are annually found 

 breeding. The provincial name of this conspicuous bird is in Scotland the whaup. 

 This name it has doubtless obtained from the note which it most commonly utters 

 during its abode by the sea-side. The two syllables, whaa-up, when pronounced by a 

 Scotchman, are, in reality, no bad imitation of that lengthened and peculiar whistle 

 which the curlew emits, on being disturbed, during the seasons of autumn and winter. 

 It appears to me that Mr. Yarrell is altogether mistaken in the observations which he 

 makes on the word whaup (British Birds, ii. 512), and that the name given to the gob- 

 lin, of whom he there speaks, was in reality adopted from that, by which the curlew 

 has been known in Scotland from time immemorial. Its cries during the period of 

 breeding are quite different, are very varied, and, in some cases, of a singular and in- 

 teresting nature. One of these is exactly cour-lee, showing that the French name, 

 courlis, is more appropriate than our own of curlew, which would seem to have been 

 formed from it. In the same part of this parish the golden plover (Charadrius pluvi - 

 alis) breeds annually in great numbers. It is known here by the simple name of 

 pliv-er. While engaged in incubation, and afterwards, when associated in flocks pre- 

 viously to their departure for the sea coast, the cries of these birds are varied and wild, 

 — most of them shrill, but some, on the contrary, warbling and not unmusical. One 

 of them is exactly imitated by the Scotch words shaiv beer, that is, sow barley ; and, 

 when this well-known cry is first heard by the inhabitants, it is supposed to be an in- 

 timation to the husbandman that it is time for him to begin carrying that part of his 

 operations into effect. When in a flock, which sometimes about the beginning of 

 September amounts to a hundred birds and more, the evolutions of the plovers, as they 

 move through the air, are remarkably interesting and beautiful. They wheel about 

 in all directions, and often in regular segments of a circle. As in the case of many 

 of the shore birds, and especially of their congener the ring dotterel, or plover, their 

 backs, also, and their breasts are turned, in the most rapid manner, alternately to the 

 spectator; and an extended and most brilliant flash of white is immediately succeeded 

 by a more sombre shade of yellowish-brown. A rushing noise is, at the same time, 

 produced in the air by the quick and downward motion of their wings. In the same 

 locality, also, and during the evenings of spring, the air is rendered vocal by the sin- 

 gular noise produced by the snipe (Scolopax Gallinago), which is known by the name 

 of the mire-snipe, and sometimes by that of the heather bleater, from the goat-like 

 bleating which it raises while wheeling about in the air. This peculiar sound I have 

 never heard it produce, except when it was descending with great velocity, and in an 

 oblique direction. Here, moreover, are great numbers of the red grouse (Tetrao Scoti- 

 cus), which is familiarly known as the meer-hen, that is, the moor-hen. Two of the 

 notes, which are frequently uttered, and always in a bass key, by this interesting bird, 

 are exactly the same in sound as the Scotch words, come hame, that is, come home. 

 When sitting on her eggs, the red grouse is sometimes remarkably tame. On one oc- 

 casion, an individual, so occupied, allowed me not only to stand and look at her, but 

 to stoop down, and to scratch and stroke her back. 



On the sea coast in the neighbouring parish of Gamrie, and at a particular part oi 

 the magnificent cliffs by which the Moray Firth is there bounded, there is an extensive 

 breeding -place of those birds which are known by the name of sea-fowl. The species 

 frequenting this spot are the common guillemot (Uria Troile), or, as it is called in this 



