204 Birp LIFE AND Brrp PHOTOGRAPHY. 
dragoons, and so gave him time to effect his escape. This 
picture shows the curlew on its nest. | Wild and wary as she is, 
maternal instinct has tamed her timorous disposition. 
LAPWING. 
Our next three pictures concern the lapwing or green plover, 
a bird so exceedingly useful to the agriculturist that it is 
regretted by some that it should still be legal to take its eggs up 
till the 15th of April. | Here we see a nest made in a meadow; 
while our next photograph shows a nest made on a ploughed field. 
To get a photograph of a lapwing on its nest we had a hut made 
of spruce branches and placed for several days conveniently near 
a nest; but when we went to photograph the bird we found her 
eggs had all been destroyed by rooks. | When moving the hut 
we found a blackbird had made its nest in the spruce branches ; 
so care was taken when erecting the hut near a fresh lapwing’s 
nest not to disturb the blackbird. ‘This lapwing’s nest was also 
destroyed by rooks, so the hut was moved a third time to another 
lapwing’s nest ; and this photograph was obtained. As I sat in 
the hut with my camera the blackbird, who had fearlessly 
followed her nest, incubated her eggs within two feet of me. 
Eventually, as the field had to be harrowed, the spruce branches 
of our hut were carefully placed at one side of the field, and 
here the faithful blackbird had the satisfaction of rearing her 
brood unmolested. 
MERLIN. 
This photograph is of a merlin’s nest and eggs. One of 
these shows most remarkable colouration, being more like that 
of a kestrel than of a merlin-hawk. This photograph, as also 
the following one, was taken in Iceland by Mr Legard. It 
shows young merlins in the nest. This picture is interesting, 
as showing the development in the plumage of the nestlings you 
have seen in the preceding photograph. Only seven days had 
elapsed since the first photograph had been taken. 
BLacK HEADED GULL. 
Our next series of photographs deal with the black headed 
gull; a bird I consider misnamed, as for the greater part of its 
existence its head is white, and only in spring does its head 
become brown. A far more appropriate name would be the 
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