92 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 



My own observation of tlie habits of this species has 

 been confined entirely to their seaside haunts, where their 

 presence lends a charm to the most monotonous range of 

 sand and shingle. Many an hour have I spent amongst 

 them on the Hunstanton sand-hills, with no sense of 

 loneliness, but, revelling in the enjoyment of liberty and 

 leisure, have felt all the enthusiasm of Macgillivray when 

 he writes, '^ There is the broad blue sea, on that hand the 

 green pasture, under foot and around the pure sand, above 

 the sunny sky. Frown not upon the cheerfulness of 

 nature; shout aloud, run, leap, make the sand-lark thy 

 playmate. "Why mayest thou not be drunk with draughts 

 of pure ether ?" Here their nests are placed not only on 

 the beach itself, but on the margins of those little tide- 

 washed plains between the sand-hills, where the storm 

 waves in winter have broken through and, far above the 

 ordinary high water-mark, have strewn the surface with 

 the dehris of shells and seaweeds. As on the warrens, a 

 simple hollow in the sand forms the only nest, and, in 

 such localities, as described by Hewitson, the eggs are 

 not unfrequently screened from view by the long mar- 

 ram and other grasses, that wave over them. 



The grey tints of their plumage, as well as the colour 

 of their eggs, resemble so nearly the shingle on the beach, 

 that it is difficult for any but a practiced eye to detect 

 either, and usually the clear whistle of this plover, as 

 it rises close at hand, is the first intimation of its pre- 

 sence. If searching, however, for eggs in any known 

 breeding place, the spot should be carefully marked from 

 whence the bird first starts, when, after running rapidly 

 for some distance, it either stops suddenly in an attitude 

 of apparent indifference, or, rising on the wing, betakes 

 itself to some farther and generally higher ridge of 

 shingle. What a model for our bird-stulfers it then 

 presents, with its head drawn back between the shoulders, 

 the feathers of the body well puffed out — a round com- 



