4 CHARADEIIDtE. 



spot, I sm-prised the bird again, sitting on three corks. I forget whether I threw 

 these away or not. On June 7th I again put the bird off the nest, which this 

 time contained foiu- corks. These I threw away. On July 19th, six weeks later, 

 I visited the place again, and, to my surprise, put a bird ofi" from a nest about two 

 yards from the site of the old one. This contained four corks, one of which I 

 threw away. The first nest was full of sand, and only recognizable by the few 

 fragments of shell which had originally lined it. On July 2Gth I surprised the 

 bird again upon the nest, finding on this occasion four corks and half a cork. I 

 threw them all away but the half cork, and lay down to watch. In a short time 

 the bird came back and sat on the nest. Some people passing disturbed it and it 

 ran off, soon, however, to come back. This happened several times, until a lady 

 with some children sat down on a sandhill in full view of the nest, when the bird 

 ran off and then flew away. I marked two corks and dropped them near the nest 

 before leaving. The following day, towards evening, I again visited the nest, put 

 the bird off, and found the two marked corks in the nest and the half cork six 

 inches away. These I threw away, and again lay down to watch. The bird soon 

 came back, and settled down in the empty nest for a short time. Soon, howevex, 

 it got up again, and after this seemed uneasy, as it would stay in the nest for a 

 minute or two, then run away a short distance, only to return. This was repeated 

 several times. As it got too cold to watch I went away, leaving two or three 

 corks near the nest. There was a heavy storm of wind and rain on the night of 

 the 28th, and on visiting the spot once more, on the 29th, I found nothing but a 

 few fragments of shell to mark the spot. I left St. Anne's on the 31st, and did 

 not return for two months. During my various visits to the spot, which were 

 made at all hours of the day, I never once observed anyone at the nest, and 

 cannot help thinking that the bird itself put the corks in the nest — at any rate 

 after they had been thrown away once." 



Eeferring to this species, Mr. H. Seebohm writes * : — " The eggs are laid 

 from the middle of April to the end of May ; but they have been found as early 



as the last week in March and as late as the beginning of August The 



eggs are four in number, and do not vary much in colour. They are very pale 

 buff or stone-colour, spotted with blackish brown and with underlying markings 

 of inky grey. The spots are pretty evenly distributed over the surface, but on 

 many specimens are most numerous on the large end, and vary in size from 

 specks to that of a very small pea, the average being about that of No. 10 shot. 

 The eggs are pyriform in shape, and vary in length from 1-55 to 1-3 inch, and in 



* ' History of British Birds,' vol. iii. p. 23. 



