Dunipace House, Larbert, Scotland.
1909
Sept 12-13
(No 3)
Bird life in Harvie-Brown's place
  The level field at the rear of Harvie-Brown's house
was frequented at all times of the day by hordes of
interesting birds which we watched at our ease from the
windows of his dining room, as we talked and smoked
our pipes. At morning and evening the Pheasants invaded
it by scores (I counted 52 in sight at once) from the
nearest coverts and the Rabbits were so numerous and so
widely dispersed over it that there was scarce a square rod
of turf where they could not be seen nibbling the herbage
or frisking prettily with one another. At every hour
of the day there were sure to [be] Rooks, Starlings and
Lapwings in varying numbers and among them a few
Black-headed Gulls. The Lapwings were scattered about
everywhere. They acted precisely like Ring-necked Plover
standing erect and still for a few moments and then
taking a long, smooth robin-like run at the end of
which they would frequently bend forward & down to pick
up some morsel of food. Harvie-Brown says they
feed largely on slugs (ie the larvae of snails) in this
field and that the Gulls are there to rob them of
this particular kind of food but I did not
see it done. At times there were probably not less
than 200 Rooks, as many Starlings and a score or
more of Lapwings on the ground in this field. The
representations of all three species came and went, as a rule,
singly or in small flocks & there was rarely a moment
when they were not circling over the opening as
they prepared to alight or to remove to some more
distant place. Altogether it was a scene of perpetual
activity and interest which I watched ceaselessly
whenever I had the opportunity - which was most of my time