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WATSON : ORNITHOLOGY OF SKIDDAW, ETC. 



waterfalls themselves, in such cases being obliged to fly through the 

 spray on entering and emerging from its nest. Although slugs and 

 ground-beetles would seem to form its food on the mountains, it 

 loves the scarlet-berried fruit of the rowan-tree when this is obtainable. 

 The provincial names of the Ring-Ouzel are — Fell Throstle, Mountain 

 Blackbird, and ^Mountain Crow. 



Still ascending the boulder-strewn stream, a few pairs of Pied 

 AVagtails {Motacilla lugubris) show themselves near the sheep-folds. 

 Here they are breeding, and during the summer months, which 

 embrace the times of gathering and washing the sheep, insect food 

 is always abundant. Towards the end of August, the Pied Wagtails 

 flock, prior to their departure. 



But the bird essentially of these mountains— from the lowest 

 shoulder to the topmost summit — is the Meadow-Pipit {A?it/ius 

 pratensis). Here it is the tit-lark, titling, moss cheeper, and Ung- 

 bird. This ' mountain lint-white ' ascends to 3,000 ft., and builds 

 its nest among the scrub, and at a lower elevation among the heather. 

 The height of its breeding-season is the first week of July, and its 

 young are fed upon a species of small red spider, which abounds 

 among the lichens on the mountains. 



Ascending even to the cairn of Sea Fell, and nesting above the 

 belt where the herbage ceases to grow, is everywhere seen the 

 vanishing white form of the Wheatear {Sax 2 cola (X7iajithe). This is 

 another summer visitant to the mountains, returning with the trailing 

 green fronds of the stag's-horn moss, and leaving again when nesting 

 is over. Flitting and clacking, and then diving below, the white 

 rumped fallow-chat causes a new light and a new interest in every 

 lichened boulder. It has its nest and its pale-blue eggs in the grey 

 stone walls, in a cleft of the rocks, or on the lee side of a stranded 

 granitic block. On leaving the mountains in autumn, the Wheat- 

 ears descend to the marshes, prior to taking their departure. 



Only those can fully appreciate the meaning of the word ' tarn ' 

 who have seen these black mountain merelets lying silent and sad, 

 from the hill tops. Their water appears black as ink, owung to the 

 soft fringe of peat which encircles the marge. Such are Red Tarn, 1 

 at the foot of Helvellyn ; Burnmoor Tarn, by Sea Fell; Kepple Cove; | 

 Sprinkling and Grisedale Tarns — each of these has its pair of Summer ' 

 Snipe {Trijigoides Jiypoleucos). These, with tremulous wings, flit along 

 among the peat and pebbles, and breed and find their food among 

 the drift-stuff. Their wild whistle is peculiarly in keeping with the 

 still solitudes of the mountains, and only serves to make the silence 

 more intense. In addition to this whistle, the Summer Snipe has 

 a continuous and lively song, and upon its first arrival in spring 



Naturalist, 



