P E E W I T .
VANELLUS VULGARIS.
Tun most numerous perhaps of nil tbo denizens of DOT marshes and mudflats, the Peewit may be mot
with a( one season or another in almost every suitable locality ou the mainland from north to south; it
occurs also on several of the surrounding islands when' uncultivated lowlands, bogs, or extensive tracts
of suud exist.
In many of the northern counties of the Highlands there are mar-hes along the course of the rivers
winding through the straths and glens where a few pairs of Peewits take up their summer quarters. Now
and then 1 have come across a nest or two in some damp spot among the heather, but it is seldom these
birds breed at any elevation on the hills. The couutry surrounding the sandy links of Gullane in East
Lithiaii was, in former days, a great, resort, and immense numbers uf eggs wen' gathered in the locality.
On much of the unreclaimed ground in the neighbourhood, as well as on the rabbit-warrens stretching
further east and bordering on the shores of the Firth, many hundreds of pairs might be seen collecting iu
the vicinity of their haunts as early as the middle of March. How thickly the birds nested over certain
parts of the ground may be judged from the fact that in the spring of 1SGI I took 21o eggs from a
piece of ploughed land lietwrrn three and four acres in extent. A field at ten or twelve acres was divided
by a farm-road leading to the shore, and for some cause, utterly incomprehensible, the birds nenrted in
numbers to the smaller portion (only lately reclaimed) while the remainder was left almost untenanted.
Hy searching over the ground on a few occasions, during April and early in May, the above-mentioned number
of fresh eggs were secured.
According to my own experience, the Peewit commences its nesling-iqieralions at least ten days or a
fortnight earlier in that portion of Last Lothian bordering the shores of the Forth than in either the Mat or
Norfolk or the marshes and levels of Sussex. Ou the llat stretch of sandy soil to the east of Tain in ITlM ihtlli.
known in the district as the " Fendom," I also remarked, during the seasons of ISliS and l^itlit, that the
Peewits which nested in large numbers on the barren and uncultivated portion of the ground were fully a
week earlier than those in the southern and eastern counties of England,
Immense bodies gather towards the end of autumn on the mudflats of many of the Scotch firths,
a gunner on the upper waters of the Forth, some years ago, bagging '![<"< of these birds alone in a couple of
in ou lbs.
On the marshes in the vicinity or the broads of the east of Norfolk this spi-cies is to Is- seen during
early winter in large flocks. M'ben gunning iu that locality, I have frequently watched a mixed multitude of
Peewits, (lolden Plovers, and Starlings settled on the lulls near the water. If alarmed, the Plovers and Starlings
wheel round with rapid flight, each in a compact and separate flock, while the Ukpwinga, true to their
name, Hap slowly with open ranks lo some neighbouring part of the marsh, or mounting gradually in the
air, make oil' in a straggling body to other quarters, During the first rime-frosts of the season 1 have often,