164 SOME BIRDS OF SOUTH AFRICA 



feed down by the water's edge. They feed in a very 

 quiet manner, turning over the debris and dead sea- 

 grass that the tide has left, looking the while for any 

 small insects that there may be. They seem to feed 

 differently to our Ringed Plovers at home, and to take 

 life altogether in a more sober way. If they find 

 themselves too far separated, one of them presumably 

 the male bird gives his low cry pir-rit, which is 

 answered by the female, when they know that they 

 are within call of each other, and continue their feeding. 

 Photographs of these Sand-Plovers were not so 

 difficult to obtain on the nest, although even that took 

 considerable time and labour, but I was rather anxious 

 to get illustrations of the bird standing, and this was a 

 different matter. It is impossible to obtain a satis- 

 factory photograph of any of these kinds of birds by 

 stalking them, you must know exactly where they are 

 coming to, and as a difference of three inches from the 

 place where you are expecting to photograph them 

 would throw the picture entirely out of focus, the diffi- 

 culties to be contended with may be imagined. The 

 illustration of the bird in the act of rising from the eggs 

 is interesting, as showing the exact position assumed 

 by these birds which nest on the ground when covering 

 their eggs. It was almost miraculous how, time after 

 time, the eggs escaped being broken. Not unfrequently 

 a team of oxen would be outspanned near the shore of 

 the estuary, and these oxen would generally find their 

 way to this particular stretch of sand, which would 

 afterwards be trodden all over with hoof-marks, except 

 perhaps just where the eggs were laid. On one 

 occasion I saw the oxen lying down all round the sitting 



