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over his back, while his hen kept niiining round and 

 admiring liini. In one of these so-called 'scrapes' 

 in the ground, lined with a few bents, the hen lays 

 her four pear-shaped eggs, all lying with their points 

 inwards so as to occupy a minimum of space. After 

 some twenty-four days the young chick hatches, and 

 from the first is well covered with down and able to 

 run, and in the course of two or three days to feed 

 itself. 



While the incubation period is going on, the 

 parents, if their nesting ground be invaded, make off, 

 the cock flying high in the air and tumbling like a 

 Pigeon, while he makes at the same time a great noise 

 and covers the retreat of the hen, who flies slowly and 

 silently away near the ground. As soon as the young 

 are hatched both sexes, when disturbed, remain and 

 fly round the intruder, trying with their piteous cries 

 to beguile him from the vicinity of their young, who, 

 in obedience to those cries, lie absolutely motionless, 

 squatting close to the ground. 



Another well known Wader is the Golden Plover, 

 which nests on the dry moors of Scotland and the 

 North of England. Slightly smaller than the Green 

 Plover and lacking his contrasting colours, it is 

 nevertheless a beautiful bird, especially in summer, 

 with a mottled yellow back and black underparts 

 edged with pure white. He is not so familiar during 

 the nesting season, and does not indulge in the antics 

 of his southern brother, but calls the hen from the 

 nest with a shrill pipe consisting of one note, and the 

 two birds will then continue this mournful mono- 

 syllabic language, escorting you perhaps for half a 

 mile and eventually passing you on to the next pair 

 with similar results. 



Another form of Wader is the Stone Curlew, or 

 Norfolk Plover, which lays two eggs on the bare sand 



