Miss E. L. TURNER : RUFF IN NORFOLK. 67 



the shutter and took my chance, which resulted in failui-e, 

 the rain having fog'g'ed the lenses. 



The next day I failed again — my fingers were too 

 numb to press the ball at the right moment, and my 

 eyes were blurred with long gazing through the criss-cross 

 strands of grass that hid me. Depressed and limp, I 

 crept back to my cabin and awaited the coming of another 

 day. 



Success came on the 18th June, when I secured my 

 first picture, and this was followed by two on the next 

 day, and one on the 20th, after which I failed to induce 

 the bird to return while the camera was in front of 

 the nest. I had always much more difiiculty in getting 

 the Reeve to face the stereoscopic camera than the 

 ordinary single lens, and throughout she was a difficult 

 subject, for in eight days I only secured four pictures out 

 of six chances. 



The bird was seldom far away unless off on the feed, in 

 which case she would return suddenly and run straight 

 on to the nest, always approaching from the one direction. 

 Grenerally, however, she would run to and fro, or take 

 short flights over the marsh, or I would hear her s23lashing 

 round me in the swamp, sometimes uttering a low note, 

 resembling the quack of a duck more than anything else. 

 Once she returned accompanied by a Redshank, which 

 perched on my rubbish heap— a favourite " preening " 

 place for all the birds in the neighbourhood — and for 

 half-an-hour whistled and called. The Reeve meanwhile 

 would move her head from side to side and look up at 

 him, as if cheered in her loneliness by his neighbour- 

 liness. On one occasion a Snipe ran across the foreground 

 just as I dropped the shutter ; a fraction of a second 

 later both Snipe and Reeve were side by side, and so I 

 just missed a unique and doubly-interesting picture. 



I did not see a Ruff during my waiting hours, though 

 to-day (July 6th) both a Ruff and a Reeve were seen in 

 the locality of the Reeve's nest. 



The eggs of the Reeve closely resembled those of a 



