Stone Curlew m 



stalking the birds beliind the bush, but always failed, till at last the 

 idea occurred to me of walking boldly up, disturbing them, and then 

 lying up in the whin-bush. This proved successful. After waiting 

 about half-aa-hour, I had the satisfaction of seeing the female bircl 

 steal up to the nest and settle on the eggs. The male bird appeared 

 at the same time, and stood on a raise! knoll at some distance from 

 the nest, evidently on sentr}' duty and watching for danger from 

 every quarter. 



While I was looking at them, T unfortunately broke a small 

 twig of gorse in trying to shift myself into a more comfortable 

 position. In a moment I was detected, both the birds turned their 

 heads sharply in my direction ; the male disappeared over the side 

 of the knoll, the female cautiously raised herself off the eggs, and stole 

 away with head lowered, and neck extended at a fast crouching kind 

 of a run. I waited for another half-hour, but nothing would induce 

 them to return, though I occasionally caught a ghmpse of the head 

 of the male, just showing over the top of the knoll, and evidently 

 prospecting to see if the ground was clear. Not wanting to disturb 

 the birds, I left m^- hiding-place, but I never had another opportunity 

 of watching them, for they would not again approach the nest 

 without first carefully scanning the gorse bush, and miaking sure that 

 no one was concealed there. 



Both these eggs were sprung on May 31st. On the morning of 

 June 1st the eggs had two little holes in them, and the beaks of the 

 nestlings were showing inside. At 6 p.m. on that day the first bird 

 hatched, and. at that hour, was half out of the shell and still wet, 

 the egg having only just broken. At 8 p.m. I again examined the 

 nest, and found the first bird quite dry, and the still remaining egg 

 not yet broken, though clearly on the point of being so. But the 

 t'gg'SheU which I had seen in the nest at 6 p.m. was now nowhere to 

 be seen. It was unquestionably removed by the parent birds as 

 soon as the young one was hatched and clear of the egg, and this 

 must have been done immediately after my visit at 6 p.m. This is 

 only another instance of the fact that birds laying their eggs on the 

 open ground, remove the broken egg-shells at the earliest possible 

 moment. The egg is protectively coloured, so is the nestling ; the 

 broken egg-shell, with its glistening white interior, is a source of 

 danger, and is remo\'ed the moment the chick is free of the shell. 



The downy nestling is exceedingly pretty. The general colour 

 of the upper parts — and it is only the upper parts which have any 

 bearing on the question of protective colouration — is a sandy stone- 

 colour. There is a short mesial black stripe on the crown. Two 

 other stripes run through the eye, and are continued over the back 

 of the head, and down the whole length of the back, on either side 

 of the spine, to the tail, where they meet two .shorter lateral bands 

 over the hips. There is a small black patch over each shoulder. 

 The under-parts are pale-gre\', almost white. 



The down itself is peculiar in texture — short, close and woolly,. 



