VOL. IX.] " WAIT AND SEE " PHOTOGRAPHY. 259 



smile while the bird frets and fumes. But frequently 

 the bird scores. 



Day after day I tried to secure photographs of Red- 

 shanks dancing. Directly a couple came along and the 

 courting display began, down dropped a particularly 

 pugnacious Lapwing and drove them away. This Peewit 

 seemed to lie in wait especially for Redshank and Ringed 

 Plover. He took a fiendish deUght in spoiling their 

 romances by cutting short the rippling spring call of both 

 species and interrupting their dances. These two waders 



Fig. 1. THE LAPWING " IN AN ATTITUDE OF SPLENDID DEFIANCE." 

 {Photographed by Miss E. L. Turner.) 



cannot carry on their love-making quietly, their joyous 

 cries are flung afar. The female Ringed Plover usually 

 crouches while the male careers round her, but both 

 the male and female Redshank dance and " jodel " 

 together. 



But one forgave the Lapwing a good deal — even the 

 Avrecking of one's photographs, because of his chivalrous 

 devotion to his own mate. When she came down to feed 

 or bathe, he hovered over her or mounted guard on the 

 banks in an attitude of splendid defiance (Fig. 1). Any 

 intruders, especially those of his own species, were at once 

 driven off if thev ventured near. 



