294 GRAY LADY AND THE BIRDS 
is about the size of the Spotted Sandpiper, equally beau- 
tiful, and with a certain dignity all its own. We always 
used to have them in the river meadows, but, since my 
return this year, I have not seen a single one. 
“JT have found the curious, creamy, pear-shaped eggs, 
with brown spots, in a grassy hollow, with no other bed than 
the turf itself. Strange eggs they are, seemingly so much 
too large for their owners, and an apparently careless 
arrangement to leave them with no protecting nest. 
But the shape of the egg prevents accident, for, if dis- 
turbed, they simply turn round and round on the pointed 
end, but do not roll away. 
“The young chicks are the prettiest little creatures; 
even when first hatched, they are well covered with down, 
and have strong, useful legs, with which they can follow 
their parents all day long until their pinions have de- 
veloped to let them fly. It is a peculiarity of the game- 
bird that, like our domestic poultry, the chick comes from 
the egg open-eyed, well covered, and able, ina measure, to 
care for itself from the moment that it is hatched. The 
song-birds, birds of prey, and others are hatched blind 
and naked, and require several weeks’ time before they are 
fit for independent life. 
“No prettier scene of young bird-life can be drawn than 
that of Mother Killdeer, walking through the dewy mead- 
ows, with stately gait, followed by her four chicks, now 
- brooding them with a warning cry, if the shadow of a 
hawk appears; now turning over leaves and bits of dead 
wood in search of their insect food. When danger is 
near, the young squat, and the blending of their colours 
with those of the ground gives them the benefit of what is 
