AND OTHER BIRDS 109 



fully looked over such random collections and 

 segregations of pebbles as chanced to occur, 

 approximately ovoid in shape, and size. 



No large tussock could conceal a nest. Each 

 was piled uj^ witli loose drift, and for this reason 

 we had rather neglected flats of almost pure 

 sand supporting scattered plants of this poa. 

 Yet it was on tliis type of surface that the first 

 nest was eventually found; and, alth(mgh, as 

 we well knew, no Dotterel could select a well 

 grown clump for shelter, yet this nest and 

 another got at a later time received a sort of half 

 shelter from small spindly t\issocks, or rather 

 T may say that these clumps had been selected 

 because to some extent they diverted the thin 

 drift always, except during heavy rain, on the 

 move. 



The eggs lay on bare sand in a deep elegant 

 cup which had been scooped out to fit the form 

 of the sitting bird. The picture of these eggs 

 had to be taken in great haste, as immediately 

 the bird quitted the nest, its lines became 

 blurred and by the time the plate was exposed, 

 only a third of the eggs was to be seen. The 

 ground colour of this clutch of three was a not 

 very pale brown, the shells thickly spotted and 

 blotched with patches of a much deeper hue 

 and most markedly so in a circle round the 

 blunt end of the egg. The tops were compara- 

 tively free of deep colouring. 



In order to secure a fit site, the New Zealand 

 Dottei'el must study the vagaries of dunes, as a 

 broker the share market. He must know their 

 drifts and cross drifts, eddies, and swirls, and 

 above all must select a spot where the sand 



