AND OTHER BIRDS m 



by — a small tussock, flattened and pressed down 

 by the fury of the blast. This clutch was in 

 colour and marking similar to the eggs already 

 descril)ed and was equally conspicuous on the 

 light grey sands. I may mention here, as a 

 curious chance, that a large fragment of shell 

 picked up by me near the top of Table Hill, 

 where the Dotterel also breeds, w^as very pale 

 in ground colour and much more faintly 

 blotched. 



The clutches, in fact, laid on the sands would 

 have well matched the peats of the inooi's of 

 Table Hill, and the egg-shell foimd on these 

 uplands would have been hard to notice on the 

 granite sands of ]\rason Bay. 



During my first vigil of five hours on the ridge, 

 I could not but admire the way in which the 

 Dotterel managed to compress her feathers. 

 Even in the worst blasts they remained tight 

 to her body and smooth, comparing favourably 

 in this respect with the j)lumage, for instance, 

 of the Gannet or Caspian Tern. 



This Dotterel was sitting hard and had, 

 immediately on my first aproach, by a simulated 

 death agony, given away the secret of her nest. 

 As, however, she returned almost at once to the 

 eggs, I had hopes, even from the beginning, that 

 photographs of a sitting bird of this breed 

 might with cnution and j^atienee be obtained. 



In order to accustom her to new conditions, 

 unceasing perambulation of the ridge was 

 necessary. At first this promenading was 

 conducted at some twenty or twenty-five yards; 

 l)ut, foot by foot, as the hours passed the 

 distance was lessened. At each of these 

 encroachments the bird would perhaps for a 



