192 EXTRACTS FROM HIS WORKS [ch. vii. 
tossing their antlered heads on high as they snuff 
the breeze tainted with the odour of the slow¬ 
paced shepherd and his faithful dog. In that 
recess formed by two moss-clad slabs of mica-slate, 
the lively wren jerks up its little tail, and chits its 
merry note, as it recalls its straggling young ones 
that have wandered among the bushes. From the 
sedgy slope, sprinkled with white cotton-grass, 
comes the shrill cry of the solitary curlew; and 
there, high over the heath, wings his meandering 
way the joyous snipe, giddy with excess of 
unalloyed happiness. 
There another has sprung from among the 
yellow flowered marigolds that profusely cover the 
marsh. Upwards slantingly, on rapidly vibrating 
wings, he shoots, uttering the while his shrill two- 
noted cry. Tissick, tissick, quoth the snipe, as he 
leaves the bog. Now in silence he wends his way, 
until at length, having reached the height of 
perhaps a thousand feet, he zigzags along, emitting 
a louder and shriller cry of zoo-zee, zoo-zee, zoo- 
zee, which over, varying his action, he descends on 
quivering pinions, curving toward the earth with 
surprising speed, while from the rapid beats of his 
wing the tremulous air gives to the ear what at 
first seems the voice of distant thunder. This noise 
some have likened to the bleating of a goat at a 
distance on the hillside, and thus have named our 
bird the air-goat and air-bleater. The sound, I 
think, is evidently produced by the rapid action of 
the wings, which, during its continuance, are seen 
