OUR RARER BRITISH BREEDING BIRDS. 83 



get separated, called in a low, tirring kind of 

 note. 



I saw two nests containing four eggs each. One 

 of them was situated on dry ground some sixty 

 yards from the bog, in a tuft of grass that might 

 not unreasonably have been expected to hold a 

 Lark's nest, and the other in a tussock growing on 

 what had once been probably the foundation of a 

 boundary fence running right into a part of the 

 marsh. Both nests were lined with fine dead 

 grass, and differed little from those of the Meadow 

 Pipit, except that they were not quite so tidy and 

 symmetrical. The latter of the two was close 

 beside a little muddy pool, from which its owner 

 evidently walked on to her eggs, as they were be- 

 smeared with mire. 



One of the nests I have mentioned had already 

 been robbed, but I induced the possessor of the 

 eggs to allow them to be put back in order that 

 I might photograph them. The other I tried my 

 best by a system of periodic bribery to save, but it 

 was of no use. I gave the two lads who found and 

 showed it to me some money to allow the eggs 

 to remain in it, promised them some more if I 

 found everything in order on my next visit, and 

 was going to leave some money with a local 

 gentleman to give to the lads when the young 

 Phalaropes had been hatched. I visited the nest 

 one day when the boys were likely to be in 

 school, and found the eggs gone, and seven birds 

 on the pond where I had previously only seen five. 



The natives assured me that when the bird 

 is robbed of her first clutch she invariably lays 

 again, and it is to be hoped with more chance of 

 escaping detection and robbery on account of an 

 increased wealth of vegetation. 



