BRITAIN S BIRDS AND THEIR NESTS. 85 



pebbles, which must have been transported from at least 

 twenty yards away. Nests are also lined with broken shells, 

 and sometimes with small bits of stick or even of green 

 herbage. 



The eggs are normally four in number, and are of the 

 typical conical form characteristic of Waders. They are 

 buff-tinted or stone-coloured, with small blackish markings. 

 Against either sand or shingle they are extremely difficult to 

 find ; but the statement that they actually vary with the 

 nature of the ground requires confirmation. An indirect 

 relation is, however, not impossible. It may safely be said 

 that the Ringed Plover is one of the best examples of 

 protective coloration that we have. Not only are the 

 eggs protectively coloured, but also the birds in all stages 

 of their plumage. The down of the chick is white, 

 with buff" and gray mottlings above. As they can, 

 when still very young, i-un at a perfectly astonishing pace, 

 they are able to scatter well on the approach of danger, 

 and are thus even more difficult to detect than a group 

 of eggs, whose symmetrical outlines and arrangement may 

 catch the eye. The first plumage of real feathers re- 

 sembles the adult plumage, but has brown where that has 

 black, and has the colours duller generally, including those 

 of legs and bill. The adults are notably different from 

 most Waders, in showing very little diversity of plumage 

 between the two sexes or at different seasons. All the 

 true-feather plumages, then, may be roughly described as 

 sandy brown above and light below. The former hue must 

 obviously harmonise well with either sands or mud-flats. 

 But we know that the whole bird harmonises with such 

 backgrounds, and we can soon call to mind many instances of 

 protectively coloured birds and mammals whose under-parts 

 are of what seems a conspicuously light hue in a stuffed 

 specimen. But under natural conditions, with the light more 



