1‘ E i : W I T. 
rjNELLUS rULOAllIS. 
The most numerous perhaps of all the denizens of our marshes and mudflats, the Peewit may be met 
with at one season or another in almost every suitable locality on the mainland from north to south ; it 
occurs also on several of the surrounding islands where uncultivated lowlands, bogs, or extensive tracts 
of sand exist. 
In many of the northern counties of the Highlands there are marslies along the course of the rivers 
winding through the straths and glens where a few pairs of Peewits take up their summer quarters. Kow 
and then I have come across a nest or two in some damp spot among the heather, but it is seldom these 
ir s ireed at any elevation on the hills. The country surrounding the sandy links of Gullane in East 
Muan was in former days, a great resort, and immense numbers of eggs were gathered in the locality 
On much of the unreclaimed ground in the neighbourhood, as well as on the rabbit-warrens stretchim^ 
urther east and bordering on the shores of the Firth, many hundreds of pairs might be seen eollectin.. in 
the vicinity of their haunts as early as the middle of March. How thickly the birds nested over certain 
parts of the p-ound may be judged from the fact that in the spring of 18C4 I took 275 cos from a 
piece of ploughed land between three and four acres in extent. A field of ten or twelve acres was divided 
y a faim-road leading to the shore, and for some cause, utterly incomprehensible, the birds resorted in 
numbers to the smaller portion (only lately reclaimed) while the remainder was left almost untenanted 
of fmsTe ”s^:::: 113“ above-mentioned number 
According to my own experience, the Peewit commences its nesting-operations at least ten davs or a 
Korf fk Th'” ™ f I-otli'an bordering the shores of the Forth than in either the cast of 
knon ”1 TI T ‘a oast of Tain in Iloss-shire 
noun in the district as the “ Fendom,” I also remarked, during the seasons of 1808 and 1800 tliat the’ 
Peewits whie nested in large numbers on the barren and uncultivated portion of the ground wI m, : 
ek eaiher than tliose in the southern and eastern counties of England. ^ 
Immense bodies gather towards the end of autumn on the mudflats of manv of tl,P f i n 4i 
rr “ “• •' »» li* .1.: 
name, flap slowly with^pen”rak"to Le reTghtourl Lapwings, true to their 
a., »ake olf in a straggling body to other quarjrs. Hui^ 
