104 
morning and evening. It very much resembles the 
guinea fowl when seen walking about among grass. 
Cincliis aqiiaticus —The Water Ouzel is a sprightly 
little fellow, and is met with in all our streams and 
rivers, and may be heard long before it is seen by its 
sharp “ hissing ” cry. It is an adept both at swim¬ 
ming and diving, going fearlessly into the middle of 
the strongest stream, and repeating the operation of 
diving two or three times before coming to land. It 
then perches on a large stone and commences its song, 
(which might put to shamemanyof our wood choristers) 
bobing up and down all the while. The Water Ouzel 
is a well-known bird and needs no description here. 
It builds a very neat nest generally about a mill race 
or wheel. The hen laying five eggs of a very pretty 
pink tinge, about the same size as the house sparrows 
but more tapered towards one end. It may not be 
unworthy of notioe, that the eggs lose the pink 
colour after being blown. 
Scolopax CalidHs —the Ked Shank—is another 
well known bird, and may be seen on most of the 
rivers in Perthshire. It is also very fond of inland 
stretches of water, and is easily known by its 
peculiar darting flight, and soft low whistle. This 
bird feeds generally by wading into the water as deep 
as it can go without swimming, and when seen at a 
short distance it appears to be running on the water 
instead of wading. It nestles by the margin of some 
lake or marsh, and lays four eggs. I have not been 
able as yet to obtain specimens. The Red Shank is a 
very deceptive bird as to size when on the wing, the 
stretch of wings being nineteen inches, length of bird 
eleven inches, while it only weighs four and a half 
ounces even when in good condition. 
Scolopax Glottis —the Green Shank—though re¬ 
sembling the Red Shank very much, is still a very 
rare bird. I have only obtained twn within five or 
six years, and both of these I got during winter. It 
is very doubtful whether they remain with us to 
breed or not: still I am assured bv men wRom t 
7 V 
know to be good judges of the bird, its haunts and 
habits, that it does breed in some isolated spots 
about Strathearn, (which by the way is by far the 
