CONCEALMENT. 83 



The Story of a Lapwing. 



Take, for example, a well-known bird like the 

 Lapwing, whose wary nature and ever-watchful 

 eye are common knowledge to all dwellers in the 

 country. Ordinarily she is up and gone from her 

 eggs before one has climbed the railings bordering 

 the field, and yet the writer has lain concealed in 

 a " hide " within four feet of one, and from that 

 distance has endeavoured, without success, to 

 drive the bird from her nest by shouting ! 



When first the tent was pitched it stood some sixty 

 yards away, but gradually it was moved up until 

 only some fifteen feet separated it from the eggs. 

 Here photography was begun, but the Lapwing 

 at this time was very nervous, starting violently 

 and often leaving the nest on the slightest sound, 

 while the release of the shutter was sufficient to 

 send her wheeling headlong from her eggs, too 

 scared to run before rising. The acuteness of her 

 hearing was truly astonishing ; the faint click of 

 the retaining catch of the dark-slide being quite 

 sufficient to make her start suddenly. But day 

 by day, though the tent was steadily approaching, 

 her fears of it as consistently decreased, and when 

 at last it stood some four feet from her home 

 she no longer regarded it with suspicion. I 

 could then set the shutter, change the slide, and 



6A 



