AMERIOAN ORNITHOLOGY. 285 



closer distance. As I said, this nest was in a clearing where there was 

 not a particle of shelter, not even a spear of grass to keep the sun's 

 rays off at any time during the day. As I spent a great many pleasant 

 hours watching this bird, I used often to think of her on exceedingly 

 warm days, sitting there, panting but faithful to her charges. Four 

 days of the heaviest rainfal that we have ever had also occured at this 

 time, and I was very doubtful about her being able to stand it, but 

 when the sun appeared on the morning of the fifth day, she slipped 

 away from the nest upon my approach, apparently none the worse for 

 the drenching. Only one who has been caught in the fields or woods 

 far from shelter in a driving rain can appreciate what the birds have to 

 undergo at such times. I wonder how much sleep this bird could get 

 on these two nights with the rain coming in torrents, while she had to 

 sit in one spot without a bit of shelter. 



My first photograph of her sitting on the nest was made by operating 

 the camera shutter with a thread from a distance of about fifty yards. 

 I was concealed under a bush but her bright eyes discovered me and 

 she was very shy about going to the nest. While I was making the 

 camera ready she was standing on a stone a short distance away, on 

 the edge of a cornfield, and with many "teeterings" and calls, which 

 were answered by her mate from the edge of the pond, watched me at 

 my work for a few minutes, and then flew down to the pond too. Soon 

 after I had concealed myself I heard a low musical "peet" of an entire- 

 ly different tone from the usual "peet-weet" that they utter. This was 

 repeated at intervals of three or four seconds, and soon I saw her run. 

 ning up the hill towards me. She would run a few feet, then stand and 

 bow a few times, and by repeating this performance soon reached the 

 nest 



Not the slightest regard was paid to the camera and she would run 

 in and out between the tripod legs as though they had always been 

 there. For some reason, however, she seemed to be afraid to settle on 

 the eggs. This, from her subsequent actions, I attributed to the fact 

 that she knew where I was. She walked entirely around the nest sev- 

 eral times, and then carefully stepped up and felt of the eggs with her 

 bill, acting as though she thought there was some trap to catch her. 

 Finally she ran right across the nest and then turned around quickly to 

 see if anything had happened. At each attempt she gained confidence 

 and finally was sitting on her eggs contentedly as though I had never 

 disturbed her. I made but one picture of her at this time, but on 

 succeeding days made about a dozen more, being concealed in a blind 

 that I constructed within a few feet of the nest. As she could not see 

 me she come and went indifferently, acting just as she would, had I not 



