10 A PHILOSOPHER WITH NATURE 



marsh pastures. Pee-wit, pee-oi-ku-si, pee-wit, their 

 plaintive musical calls resound through the air over- 

 head. The nesting season is well advanced and the 

 birds rise one by one out of the herbage with sub- 

 dued excitement visible in their movements. These 

 grass-covered flats which extend for miles have all 

 been reclaimed from the sea, and much of the salvage 

 would again be retaken at high tides but for the 

 system of banks and dykes. They are a favourite 

 breeding ground for great flocks of the lapwing, as 

 the common plover is generally called. 



The birds place their nests in fixed relationship 

 to the lie of the ground, desiring above all things to 

 be able to get off the eggs and slip away unobserved 

 by taking advantage of some neighbouring hollow 

 or depression. Without knowing this one might 

 look here for hours and not find a nest ; and yet with 

 such local lore half a dozen or more are discovered 

 in almost as many minutes. The eggs lie in little 

 round depressions in the ground with scarcely any 

 attempt at providing lining materials. They are 

 no larger than pigeons' eggs, and they lie always four 

 in a nest with the small ends together. If you 

 would have it otherwise and change the position and 

 return you will find that the birds have altered 

 your handiwork. The ground colour is grey with 

 a blend of yellow and green in it, and it is thickly 

 splashed with large and small blotches of black. 

 On the rough ground and in a bright light and sur- 

 rounded with grass they are almost invisible at a 

 short distance. These are the plovers' eggs of fame 

 which fetch such high prices in London for con- 

 sumption at fashionable weddings. As they lie 

 here amid the lush herbage starred with flowers, with 



