Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 4 (1900).djvu/88

62 one which was too exhausted to fly; the Redwings also were first noticed on that day. The wind had been blowing a gale from the north-west for the two previous days, and had shifted that morning to the south-west.

(Totanus calidris).—I have never before, except in the breeding season, seen Redshanks so tame as they were here. My previous experience of the Redshank as a shore bird had been that he was one of the wariest, not only keeping well out of harm's way himself, but letting every other bird know when there was any danger near. True, here they did fly off shrieking, and making a great noise if you came on them suddenly round a corner or over a rock; but if you approached quietly, or sat down and kept still, they took hardly any more notice of you than the Ring Plover. They went about almost entirely in single pairs, and kept pretty much to themselves.

(Numenius arquata).—I suppose it is partly its innate wariness, and partly the fact that it is the only shore bird, besides the Golden Plover, that anyone up here thinks of shooting, that causes the Curlew to be just as wild as anywhere else. I never saw more than about fifteen together, and they were always well out on the edge of the tide, with a sentinel posted on the highest piece of rock. Once or twice a small flock was seen on the meadow-land, but always well out of shot of the nearest stone wall or other cover. It is only by lying up in their line of flight and trusting to luck that a shot can be got at all.

(Larinæ).—The great feature of the bird-life of this part of the British Isles is of course found in the Gulls; they are present everywhere, along the shore, by the loch-side, in the "parks," on the stubbles, on the dust-heaps, the house-roofs, and even on the chimney-pots; in fact, except perhaps in the middle of the moor, you cannot get away from them. The flocks were always mixed, consisting for the most part of Common and Herring Gulls, with a fair sprinkling of Kittiwakes and Black-headed Gulls, and either one or two pairs of Lesser Black-backs. Of the latter I never saw more than two or three pairs along the shore, and of Great Black-backs, I do not think there is more than one pair in this particular part of the coast. The Gulls were always absolutely fearless, and you could walk up to within a few yards of them before they rose. Two, an immature Lesser Black-back