226 



WILD WINGS 



NEST AND EGGS OF LEAST SANDPIPER 



naturalists have been privileged to see. It was near this spot 

 that we had just heard the love-song. What luck, thus soon, 

 in all this vast waste, to stumble upon its cause ! And here, 

 now, were both the owners. The singer had heard the dis- 

 tressed chirping of his mate and had come down to trot 

 about with her, though more careful than she to avoid too 

 close approach to danger. It was the mother who showed 

 herself the really anxious one. At times she would come close 

 up beside us, throw herself prostrate on the moss, limp, flut- 

 ter, and drag herself as though about to expire — the familiar 

 ruse of shore-birds. 



And now, of course, to record by photography some of this 

 rare scene was in order. As luck would have it, — perhaps to 

 even up matters, — this was the only time in my life when 



