TWO KINDS OF PLOVER 167 



attention to the bird it will run leisurely a few yards 

 further on and then give another little bow, or duck of 

 the head. This may be all very well, but it does not 

 help you to find the eggs, so, after making quite sure 

 that there is no semblance of a nest you again retire 

 a little distance to enable you to solve the mystery. 

 The bird soon returns to the same spot, shuffles for a 

 second or two very quickly with its feet, and then sits 

 down. This time you make no mistake about the 

 exact place, and you locate the position of the bird 

 with the aid of two little bits of herbage growing near ; 

 again you approach, the bird rises as before, and repeats 

 the same performance, standing a little way off, and 

 looking as though it would help you if it could, and 

 if you would only tell it what you were looking for. 

 The ground is quite undisturbed, and there is no sign 

 of a nest or eggs ; the little bits of drift-wood and bark, 

 though, which lie between your feet are loose, and the 

 earth underneath them is loose also, and then you feel 

 beneath the loose earth and there are two eggs ! The 

 bird need not have taken so much trouble to hide 

 them, for they are just the colour of the earth itself, 

 being about the size and shape of a Snipe's egg. The 

 bird does not seem to mind your having found the eggs, 

 she stands a few yards away, looking towards the river 

 and bowing every now and then in a rather absent 

 manner. If you had time to wait, you would see that 

 at her leisure she collected such little odds and ends 

 as she thought would be useful to her in concealing her 

 eggs, so that on the approach of any one she might not 

 be hurried when covering them up. After these little 

 pieces of bark and suchlike materials are placed over 



