Sketches from Nature. 305 



when in the nest, it may be mentioned that a 

 person unaccustomed to birds'-nesting was sent 

 up a furrow in which were six nests, each con- 

 taining eggs, and these were to be collected. By 

 the time that the end of the furrow was reached 

 the collector had put his foot into one nest and 

 had failed to find the other five. This is not 

 always the case, however, and persons who study 

 the habits of the plover experience but little 

 difficulty in finding the nests. In fact, shepherds 

 and others often walk straight up to them. They 

 watch the movements of the parent bird, and 

 know from the conformation of the ground to 

 a yard where the nest will be. When you come 

 upon a breeding haunt of green plovers, it will 

 be noticed that many of the birds fly straight and 

 silently away. When this is so it will be certain 

 that the bird is the female and that it is sitting 

 upon eggs. The bird does not rise immediately 

 from the nest, but runs for a distance of some 

 yards before it takes wing. If it allows a near 

 approach, and -rises low, the probability is that 

 incubation is far advanced, and the eggs, of 

 course, will not be worth taking. There are 

 two ways, however, of determining this. Three 

 or four eggs are the usual complement, and if 

 there be fewer than three, or they are not warm 

 to the hand, the bird has not begun to sit. 

 Partly incubated eggs when placed in water 

 float with their large end uppermost ; if fresh 



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