4i6 TRAVELS OF A NATURALIST 



eggs and the two birds which he had shot at the nest. 

 He had broken the fourth egg, and told us that there was 

 a very large live bird in it. 



He also brought a single Kichardson's (Arctic) Skua's 

 egg with the bird. 



Later in the day Seebohm and I watched another pair 

 of Grey Plovers, but again the female was not apparently 

 very anxious to go on to the nest, and the male showed 

 more finesse and anxiety. We again failed in marking 

 the female to the nest, and went forward to the places 

 where we had respectively seen her twice disappear. 



As it afterwards turned out, I went about twenty yards 

 to the right, and Seebohm about the same distance to the 

 left of the nest. Both birds flew round us in circles. I 

 concluded they had young, and Seebohm that they had 

 eggs. We had despaired of finding them, eggs or young, 

 and w^ere walking away, when we stumbled upon the nest 

 with three eggs, and a young bird, apparently only very 

 lately hatched, crouching within two feet of the nest. 

 On the ground where he was lying, his bright ijelloio 

 colour was conspicuous. He was still weak and not able 

 to move about easily. Seebohm shot the 3^ and wounded 

 the ? . 



The young closely resembles the young of the Golden 

 Plover, but we cannot institute a correct comparison at 

 present without specimens of the latter to lay beside it. 

 It appears to me, however, to be quite as yellow as the 

 young of the Golden Plover, perhaps yellower about the 

 head, but also has the darker parts of the upper plumage 

 larger or more conspicuous.* 



To-day we found great areas of tundra quite unoccupied 

 by the species. They appear to be thinly scattered over 

 the tundra, preferring the lower-lying, damper portions, 



-■= This decision was reversed, however, when an actual comparison 

 was instituted at home. — H. B. 



