92 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 
My own observation of the habits of this species has 
been confined entirely to their seaside haunts, where their 
presence lends a charm to the most monotonous range of 
sand and shingle. Many an hour have I spent amongst 
them on the Hunstanton sand-hills, with no sense of 
loneliness, but, revelling in the enjoyment of liberty and 
leisure, have felt all the enthusiasm of Macgillivray when 
he writes, ‘‘ There is the broad blue sea, on that hand the 
green pasture, under foot and around the pure sand, above 
the sunny sky. Frown not upon the cheerfulness of 
nature; shout aloud, run, leap, make the sand-lark thy 
playmate. Why mayest thou not be drunk with draughts 
of pure ether?” Here their nests are placed not only on 
the beach itself, but on the margins of those little tide- 
washed plains between the sand-hills, where the storm 
waves in winter have broken through and, far above the 
ordinary high water-mark, have strewn the surface with 
the debris of shells and seaweeds. As on the warrens, a 
simple hollow in the sand forms the only nest, and, in 
such localities, as described by Hewitson, the eggs are 
not unfrequently screened from view by the long mar- 
ram and other grasses, that wave over them. 
The grey tints of their plumage, as well as the colour 
of their eggs, resemble so nearly the shingle on the beach, 
that it is difficult for any but a practiced eye to detect 
either, and usually the clear whistle of this plover, as 
it rises close at hand, is the first intimation of its pre- 
sence. If searching, however, for eggs in any known 
breeding place, the spot should be carefully marked from 
whence the bird first starts, when, after running rapidly 
for some distance, it either stops suddenly in an attitude 
of apparent indifference, or, rising on the wing, betakes 
itself to some further and generally higher ridge of 
shingle. What a model for our bird-stuffers it then 
presents, with its head drawn back between the shoulders, 
the feathers of the body well puffed out—a round com- 
