146 BULLETIN- 14 6, UNITED STATES NATIOITAL MUSEUM 



he makes for the nearest " scrape " and at once drops into it, working 

 with furious energy and occasionally dropping bits of straw over 

 his shoulder. At first the hen makes no response, but about a fort- 

 night after the beginning of the courtship she approaches the spot 

 where he is at work by indirect stages. The male then rises and steps 

 forward, with his back to the hen, slowly lowering his bill to the 

 ground and raising his tail perpendicularly, thus displaying his 

 richly colored undertail coverts. The female now settles into the 

 " scrape " and imitates the actions of the cock, but with less energy, 

 the male meanwhile retaining his strange uptilted attitude and col- 

 lecting nesting material which is jerked over his shoulder toward 

 the " scrape." When at length the hen leaves the " scrape " the male 

 reenters and sometimes the hen also repeats the process. Coition 

 takes place a few days before the eggs are laid and immediately aft- 

 erwards the hen works in the " scrape " with far more energy than 

 before, the male often taking his place in another scrape. Both birds 

 go through the ceremony of throwing bits of nest material over the 

 shoulder. No serious attempt is made on the part of other males to 

 interfere with a paired hen, and she on her part seems to avoid aAy 

 strange cock bird. 



Nesting. — ^Although it is usual for several pairs to breed in com- 

 pany the actual nests are usually some distance apart, and neark/ 

 always on slightly raised ground. They may be found on plowed 

 land or on pasture and occasionally moorland, and vary somewhat 

 in size, some being merely muddy hollows witji a few bits of straw 

 and bent, while others, especially on grass lands, are fairly substan- 

 tial edifices of dead vegetable matter collected round the nesting 

 " scrape " originally made by the male. 



Egg's. — Ndrmally four, but on rare occasions five, have been 

 recorded, and when a bird has been robbed twice, sets of three and 

 even two or one egg may be found late in the season. When the birds 

 have been much persecuted as many as 20 have been laid in one 

 season by a single female. They are pyriform in shape and lie in 

 the nest with the points touching one another. As a rule there is 

 not much variation, the usual ground color being stone color or 

 brownish olive with black spots and blotches chiefly towards the 

 large end. Some eggs have the ground almost hidden by dense 

 black markings, and there are types in which the spots are mainly 

 replaced by short black lines. More remarkable varieties are those 

 in which the ground color in bluish white or some shade of green- 

 ish olive, with scanty markings of black, and the rare erythristic 

 type in which the ground color is pale brick red or deep red brown 

 with rich red brown markings. This wonderful variation has been 

 recorded from Friesland as well as many parts of the British Isles. 



