BIRDS' NESTING SEASON 143 



ground, down a little hollow, following the indentations 

 of the ground where the sand, which had drifted 

 between tussocks of grass, exactly matched its colour. 

 It was a Little Ringed Plover, afraid, if it rose as shyly 

 as at any other time it would have done, of betraying 

 four pointed eggs, evidently hard set, arranged, points 

 inward as a Maltese cross, in a saucerful of little scraps 

 of sandstone and speckled granite, carefully chosen to 

 match their colouring. 



But for the knowledge that almost all birds, if their 

 nests are disturbed at all early in the season, lay again, 1 

 the prick of conscience, without which an egg which 

 the bird has been at so much pains to conceal cannot 

 be taken, would be too dear a price to pay, even for the 

 pleasure and interest of a collection, with the refreshing 

 recollections it can awake of ' thick groves and tangled 

 streams ' hunted in boyish days, and island-dotted lakes, 

 moors and marshes, and sea-beaten headlands, since 

 visited in intervals of sterner occupations. 



Most Sea Gulls, certainly the Herring and Lesser 

 Black-backs, whose eggs are largely collected for food 

 wherever they are at all common and easily got at, 

 have very considerable powers of egg-production at 

 will, though the ordinary ' clutch ' when undisturbed is 

 seldom more than three or at most four. The only 

 difficulty seems to be with the colouring material, 

 which is apt to run short, and the more eggs are taken, 



1 A remarkable instance of the perseverance with which a bird 

 will at times cling to the spot selected for a nest is recorded in 

 Appendix B. 



