“ All in ye Merrie Month of May ” 
and in Roxburghshire, near here, a person with a long nose 
was called Whaupnebbit. The dear little Whaup, it curled 
itself up quite snugly in the hollow of my hand, and looked 
at me fearlessly with its little bright eye, like a little black 
bead ; I longed to take it home, but feared it would be 
difficult to rear, so refrained. I never heard of any one 
rearing a Whaup. I believe they feed on worms and insects, 
which are not always easily procured. We found the 
deserted nest some little distance away, in the same field, 
just a few straws with some chips of brown spotted egg- 
shells, lying, very flattened in appearance, in a cart-rut. 
Peewits are very common about here from March to 
October, and are very pretty birds, dark brown and white, 
with an elegant upstanding crest, which Burns calls green, 
but which looks more dark brown. This crest is said to 
have earned them their old name of Teuchit, from the 
French toquet , a little cap. 
The storms which often occur in March are often called 
Teuchit storms, and there is a saying, “ A Peesweep storm 
maks a fat Kirkyard,” meaning the bad weather often kills 
off old people. I have heard that Peewit babies, if startled 
before they can fly, run and hide their heads like Ostriches 
in any handy tussock and think they are all hid. This 
may be their habit, but I have never seen them do anything 
but just squat in the inequalities of the ground, tucking 
their long legs away under them in the most marvellous 
way. They run very fast, even when tiny. They seem 
most to congregate in grass-fields, but I have seen the old 
birds circling over the brown furrows, where they look very 
pretty. I think they are not much beloved on the Border 
by the country folk, because in old days, when the fugitive 
Covenanters took refuge from their pursuers in the marsh- 
lands and bogs, the erratic flight of the disturbed Peese- 
weeps often led to the capture of the Religionists. The 
old Scotch term for a complaining person was a Peesweepy 
creature. Pliny said the sight of a Lapwing was a cure for 
the jaundice. I wonder if he meant just this particular 
bird ? There is a delightful Russian legend which says that 
161 L 
