birds most carefully. Now and then I saw a dull-coloured bird, but it generally 

 stayed only a short time, and then flew away to its nest again. 



The nest is usually placed in the middle of a thick tuft of grass, and is 

 sometimes more than a foot above the surface of the actual ground ; it is nearly 

 always lined with a few dry stalks, and little bits of the dead roots of water- 

 plants ; most nests I have seen have been very shallow. 



Four eggs are laid, with their small ends pointed inwards ; they vary in 

 ground-colour from pale yellowish buff to pale olive green, or pale yellowish 

 brown, and are thickly blotched and spotted with pale brown, rich amber, and 

 blackish brown surface-markings and a few underlying spots of greyish brown. 

 The markings are much bolder and richer on some specimens than on others, 

 and on some eggs they take the form of streaks lying obliquely to the longer 

 axis of the egg. As a rule the largest markings are on the big end of the 

 egg. They vary in length from r2O to 1*05 inch, and in breadth from 

 "85 to 79 inch. 



Young in down are most beautiful little creatures ; they are buffish 

 chestnut on the throat and upper parts, mottled with black on the back 

 and head, two nearly white lines down the back, and white under parts, below 

 the breast, which is buffish in colour. Only one brood is reared in the year ; 

 but if the first clutch be destroyed, a second set of eggs is often laid. When 

 the young are hatched, the old birds are most attentive to them. I came 

 across a brood of these charming little birds in Shetland and watched them 

 for some time ; the old bird was so tame, and came so near me, in his 

 efforts to lead me from his young, that I dropped my cap over him and 

 took him in my hand. On releasing him again he fluttered about on the 

 ground quite close, and at last succeeded in getting his little charges into 

 the water, when they swam away and were soon hidden among the leaves 

 of the bog-bean, which covered most of the little pools. 



