118 EGYPTIAN BIRDS 



discovered three fresh eggs, which the artful bird 

 had completely buried. . . . Still I was unable 

 to account in my own mind for the very energetic 

 movements to and from the water which I had 

 witnessed on this occasion, until I received an 

 account from a cousin, Lieutenant George Verner, 

 of the Borderers, who was stationed about forty 

 miles farther down the river than I was, which 

 solved the mystery, as follows : — * On 25th April 1 

 was waiting in a boat alongside of a sandbank, and 

 my attention was attracted by a pair of Black- 

 headed Plovers which kept flitting about quite 

 close to me. I noticed that one of them was 

 continually wetting its breast at the water's edge 

 about ten yards below our boat, and then running 

 up the bank to a spot about the same distance in- 

 shore of us, when it would squat down and remain 

 about two minutes or so, after which it would get 

 up, and, running down to the water's edge above 

 us, fly round to the spot where it had dabbled 

 previously. . . . At the spot where the bird had 

 been crouching I found a clutch of eggs half 

 buried in the sand, their tops only being visible ; 

 the sand immediately surrounding them was moist, 

 although the bank I was on was an expanse of dry 

 burning sand." From this it seems clear, as 



