140 TRANSACTIONS—PERTHSHIRE SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCE. 
and wilder sort; the rippling cry of the Curlews, the musical voice of 
the Redshank, the calls of Golden Plover and Dunlin, and perhaps 
the clamour of innumerable Gulls, the drumming of Snipe, the defiant 
note of the cock Grouse, and the soft song of the Cuckoo ; all tell 
the same tale, that the ground has been apportioned out and that 
nesting is in full force, and so the month of May passes. 
If we now shift our quarters to the sea shore in the sunny days 
of June, we there find a different set of birds only commencing the 
work of incubation, which the others are bringing to completion. 
The Terns are laying their eggs among the sand and shingle 
among the wrack and dead sea-weed washed up by the tide, and 
the cliffs and rocky islets, deserted all the winter, are now densely 
populated by sea-birds of many kinds, that drift along the dizzy 
precipices like a snowstorm as we pass. July is a busy month with 
the sea-birds, and the supply of fish and other food required to satisfy 
the appetites of these innumerable hosts must be prodigious. By the 
end of July the nesting season is practically overj it is true that 
some birds, which rear more than one brood in a year, continue to 
lay during the autumn, as for instance, fresh eggs of Wood-pigeons 
may be found in October, the same pair having laid in March, but 
these need not be taken into account. On the ist August, the close 
time expires, birds are again collecting into flocks, and on the 12th 
the reports of guns on the moors wake up the echoes of the hills. 
If we now examine the ground over which the different breeding 
birds distribute themselves during the spring and summer months, 
we cannot fail to observe that the nesting haunt of each is made 
dependent upon the facility of obtaining food supply for the birds 
themselves and for their young. Thus, Eagles and the larger Hawks 
generally build on ledges among rocks on mountain sides, whence 
an extensive view is obtained of the country over which they forage. 
Our woods, shrubberies, and gardens are the natural nesting resorts 
of Finches, Warblers, and other seed or insect-feeding birds. 
The rocky coasts and sandy shores are chosen by various sea-birds 
and waders, which feed on fish, marine insects, and worms; while 
the moorland is resorted to by Grouse, Plovers, and certain Gulls. 
Margins of sedgy pools and river sides are the breeding places of 
Grebes, Moorhens, and Coots. Kingfishers build in a bank close to 
their fishing haunts, and Woodpeckers and Tits in holes of trees in 
the bark of which their insect food is found. 
Birds of the Swallow tribe always take care to have easy access to 
their nests, from the air in which they obtain their living, and so on 
with the nesting haunts of all the birds, the same rule is found to 
apply. 
As upon the food supply depends the site of the nest, so again 
