AND OTHER BIRDS 107 



every inch of the plain half a chain apart. We 

 marched thus, north and south, and then, with a 

 pause for formulation of theories why the 

 Dotterel must all indubitably have already 

 hatched their eggs and why they could not pos- 

 sibly all have hatched their eggs, east and west. 

 I then got McLean to walk across the plain 

 whilst I hid amongst flax on the edge of a 

 dune ; this plan however utterly failed, as it was 

 impossible on account of the sand to keep the 

 eyes open. Running first after one bird and 

 then after the other and attempting capture, 

 I allowed the pair to imagine they were fooling 

 me to the top of my bent. Thus I allowed them 

 to beguile me across the plain and high into the 

 sand dunes. There the birds left me, but, 

 turning instantly as they flew over my head and 

 continuing my uninterrupted walk backwards, 

 I noted their return to the spot marked on the 

 first day by a little cairn. Hoping that McLean 

 might have overlooked the eggs, this spot was 

 revisited. Again I marched over the likeliest 

 ground with one of the birds skirmishing on my 

 flank, keeping about parallel, and chilling me 

 with its unemotional companionship and dis- 

 interested scrutiny. 



To this day I cannot solve the conduct of the 

 pair. They possessed no chicks; for I cannot 

 believe that, even with young hidden, the parents 

 could have so calmly watched me when seated 

 so near the little cairn. The dissimulation 

 would have been too perfect. There was, 

 moreover, no spot where, within a few minutes, 

 any stationary object would not have been 

 overwhelmed. Neither was the hen incubating 

 her eggs, for after the discovery of a nest, and 



