STONE-CUELEW. 6 



eggs had two little holes in them, and the beaks of the nestlings were showing 

 inside ; at 6 p.m. on that day the first bird hatched, and at that hour was half out 

 of the shell, and still wet, the egg having evidently only just broken ; at 8 p.m. 

 I again examined the nest, and found the first bird quite dry, and the still 

 remaining egg not yet broken, though clearly on the point of doing so. But the 

 egg-shell which I had seen in the nest at 6 p.m. was now nowhere to be seen. 

 This was unquestionably removed by the parent birds as soon as the young one 

 was hatched and clear of the egg, and must have been done immediately after 

 my visit at 6 p.m. 



" The young birds and the eggs are both protective in colour ; but a broken 

 egg-shell, with the remains of membranes and blood-vessels inside, is by no means 

 so. In fact, it is a kind of sign-post pointing out the whereabouts of the nest to 

 all comers. No one passing the nest could fail to see the broken egg-shell 

 lying on the ground, and a Stoat or a Rook would observe it even more 

 readily. 



" Young Thick-knees are able to leave the nest at a very early period ; but I 

 doubt if this period is ever less than twelve hours, and in the case of an egg 

 remaining unhatched for some hoius after the other (as happened here), the 

 danger of leaAdng the egg-shell would be very great." 



Mr. A. Trevor-Battye watched, under more favourable conditions, a pair of 

 Stone-Curlews nesting on a sandhill near the Norfolk coast. He has published 

 the following graphic account of his experiences * : — " Over there, where the 

 sandhills are planted with various kinds of pine, a pair of Thick-knee or Noi-folk 

 Plover nested this year, for the first time on record. This bird, quite apart fi-om 

 its ovm very quaint appearance and habits, must always have a great interest for 

 British ornithologists, as it is the nearest surviving link Ave have with the Great 

 Bustard, now, alas! extinct in this country. It is nocturnal in its habits, and is 

 extremely wary and shy. Although on its arrival in spring it keeps well away in 

 the open, it generally lays its eggs not far from a covert or belt of trees. The 

 pair of which I speak had chosen the middle of a gravelly space among the pines. 

 By creeping up on hands and knees under cover of a bank one could gain a 

 position, just fifteen paces away from the nest, without being observed : so close 

 that with my glass I could see the light shine through the crystal prominence of 

 the sitting bird's great yellow eyes. At intervals one bird would relieve the other 

 on the nest. "When disturbed the birds always ran for shelter to a bank beneath 

 the pines. And here the bird that was not sitting always stood as sentry. "When 



* ' Pictures iu Prose ' (London : Longmans, Green, & Co., 1894), pp. 167-170. 



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