236 
WILD WINGS 
about “ les petits oeufs.” Finally we made the Frenchmen 
understand that we would give them ten cents for every plov¬ 
er’s nest — not Spotted Sandpiper’s — they would hnd us. 
It did not take long to begin. One of them soon shouted 
and beckoned. We hurried over, and, sure enough, there 
was the first nest of the Ring-necked Plover that I had ever 
seen, with four handsome eggs, more pointed than those of 
the Piping Plover and much more heavily marked, resemb¬ 
ling in that respect terns’ eggs. It was just up from the 
wide sand-fiat shore, at the edge of the sparse grass, a mere 
hollow in the sand with a few straws laid around it. The 
owners were trotting around on the fiat or flying back and 
forth, uttering their familiar alarm-note. While we were 
photographing this nest, the Frenchmen found another 
a little farther back among the dunes, and thus they kept us 
busy — photographing and handing out dimes. One of our 
party also discovered a nest of the Red-breasted Merganser, 
containing six eggs. It was situated in the thick grass of 
a marshy depression. The bird, in leaving, had drawn the 
grass skilfully over the eggs. 
Meanwhile another friend had found and caught a young 
Ring-neck, a cunning, little striped thing that could run like 
a witch. Presently, farther along, I also captured a plover- 
chick belonging to another pair of the birds. These were 
so extremely solicitous, as they limped and fluttered about, 
that I conceived an idea which I at once put into j^ractice. 
Tethering the youngster to a blade of grass out on the dry, 
open sand, to keep it from running away, I sat down with 
my reflex camera not more than two or three paces from 
the young bird. Then I had some camera-shooting that was 
worth while. Both the plovers were pattering close around 
me. M'hen they came together, I would get them both on 
one plate. 
