238 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



slowly walked over the deep yielding moss, towards the far, or 

 west end of the ridge. 



About half-past ten o'clock, as we were walking along in line, I 

 first discovered a Dotterel!, running swiftly, about twenty yards in 

 front of the gamekeeper. It shortly afterwards rose and flew 

 close past, and across our line of march, uttering a low, plaintive, 

 plover-like call — once heard, not easily to be forgotten. Feilden 

 and I agreed that it was the female bird, from the brightness of 

 the chestnut coloring, which was distinctly visible as it passed 

 us.'^ We now marked the place where I had first seen it, by 

 laying one small grey stone on the top of a larger, and after a 

 short search for the other bird, in which we were not successful, 

 we went away again to the east end of the range. After an hour 

 or so we returned again to the west end,- Feilden walking in 

 the centre, and the keeper and myself on each side, lower 

 down the hill and a little in advance. On arriving near 

 the place, Feilden detected the female running a considerable 

 way off in front of him, and I saw the male bird, which ran from 

 the vicinity of the nest, or at least from where we supposed it 

 to be, in a diametrically opposite direction from that chosen by 

 the female. We now made sure that the eggs or young were not 

 far distant; while, at the same time, we learned that we had two 

 most cunning parents to circumvent. Far, indeed, were they from 

 being the " little fools " (morinelli), which Linnaeus named them. 



After a consultation, it was agreed to leave me to watch, 

 whilst Feilden and the keeper again went off to a distance. 

 Accordingly, I lay down, partially concealed by a hummocky piece 

 of mossy ground, about fifty yards from the place whence Feilden 

 had seen the female run. The keeper afterwards told me 

 that I was absolutely invisible from a distance, the color of my 

 clothes harmonizing admirably with that of the yellowish-brown 

 moss. For an hour I remained almost, if not quite, immovable, 

 and, at the end of that time, was rewarded by seeing the female 

 run rapidly up over the crest of the nearest ridge. It became a 

 difficult matter to watch her movements after she came down 

 amongst the hummocky ground, all the more so, as she took 

 advantage of every grey stone or inequality of the ground to 



* The females of several species of Waders are brighter in color than the 

 males. The Dotterell and Red-necked Phalarope are perhaps the most striking 

 instances of this amongst l^ritisli birds. 



