. Edinburgh journal of natural history and of the physical sciences. 170 THE EDINBURGH JOURNAL OF NATURAL HISTORY, stationed hlm^elF on the top of that mound of green moss, and a Ring Ouzel has just sprung from the furze on the brae. See, what U that ? A Hare has sprung from among our feet I ^'o, a Curlew, fluttering along the ground, wounded, unable to escape. Run. She has been sitting; here is the nest in a hollow under shelter of two tufts of heath and a stunted willow. It is composed of dry grass, apparently Eriophora, Eleocharis palustris, Scirpus ccEspitosus, some twigs of heath, and, pe
. Edinburgh journal of natural history and of the physical sciences. 170 THE EDINBURGH JOURNAL OF NATURAL HISTORY, stationed hlm^elF on the top of that mound of green moss, and a Ring Ouzel has just sprung from the furze on the brae. See, what U that ? A Hare has sprung from among our feet I ^'o, a Curlew, fluttering along the ground, wounded, unable to escape. Run. She has been sitting; here is the nest in a hollow under shelter of two tufts of heath and a stunted willow. It is composed of dry grass, apparently Eriophora, Eleocharis palustris, Scirpus ccEspitosus, some twigs of heath, and, perhaps, portions of other plants, not very neatly disposed. It is very shallow, and internally about a foot in diameter. The eggs are four, pyriform, excessively large, three inches long, an inch and ten-twelfths across, light oUve or dull yellowish-brown, or pale greenish- grey, blotched and spotted with umber brown, the markings crowded on the larger end. They vary considerably in size and form, some being only two inches and three- quarters in length. Those in the nest before us are of the largest size, very darkly coloured, and so little contrasting with the surrounding objects, that unless the bird had sprung up among our feet, we should scarcely have observed them. Far up on the hill-side you hear the loud cry of the Curlew, which is presently re- sponded to from the opposite slope ; in another place a bird commences a series of mo- dulated cries, and, springing up, performs a curved flight, flapping its wings and screaming as it proceeds. Presently the whole glen is vocal, but not with sweet Bounds, like those of the Mavis and the Merle, But it is vain to pursue the birds, for these are the males, and at this season you will find them fully as shy as they were in winter on the sea-shore. Some weeks hence, when the young are abroad, the fe- males, and even the males, will flutter around you, if you approach the spot where tiieir unfledged brood lie concealed among the herb
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade, bookpublisheredinburgh, bookyear1835
