rweds and Rushes. 31 



morning we visited the spot again, and on the edge of the 

 marsh were two little heaps of feathers — one brown, the 

 other a delicate pink — all that was left of the duck and 

 the beautiful gull. 



On the dry ground some distance from the marsh, or 

 perhaps raised above it, many interesting birds were 

 nesting, and all betrayed their anxiety as we approached. 

 This they did in different ways, the pratincoles •' with their 

 strong swallow-like flight whirled round our heads and 

 made as much noise and fuss as the stilts. They often 

 settled very near us, but instead of dancing like the stilts 

 they crouched, and spreading their long wings to the full 

 extent rested them upon the ground. When they wish 

 to rise from this position and fly they invariably close their 

 wings, possibly because their legs are too short to raise 

 the wings sufficiently, but they run fast with their wings 

 closed. The eggs of this bird, two or three in number, 

 are laid side by side in a little scoop in the dry mud. They 

 are handsomely marked and mottled, but as their shape 

 and colour are similar to a stone or a piece of mud at a short 

 distance they are not easily discovered. There were other 

 birds nesting in this dry mud near the water. Black and 

 white avocets laid their four brown eggs in a hollow in the 

 mud, usually adorned by a feather or two — often a bright 

 pink one from a flamingo. In one spot we could stand 

 still and touch five separate nests with a gun, and our 

 horses sometimes trod on the eggs, so plentiful were they. 

 Avocets do not annoy one like stilts and pratincoles ; when 

 their eggs are approached they fly round complaining for a 

 few minutes, and then go away to stand and await develop- 

 ments at a distance ; and so do the lesser ternsf and Kentish 

 plovers, the eggs of which we also found on this mud. 



* Glareola pratincola. f Sterna minuta. 



