chap, xviii. BIRD NESTING. 221 



upon a pair of grey plovers, which rose a couple of hundred 

 yards ahead of us, their wings glittering in a gleam of sun- 

 shine after a smart shower. These birds have frequently a very 

 curious flight as they rise from the nest, tossing their wings 

 up in the air, reminding one somewhat of the actions of a 

 tumbler pigeon. We lay down, as near as we could tell, to 

 the spot from which they rose, and were somewhat puzzled 

 at their behaviour. The male seemed equally, if not more 

 anxious than the female, running about as much as she did, 

 continually crying, and often coming very near us, and 

 trying to attract our attention by pretending to be lame. 

 The female rarely uttered a note. We suppose this must 

 have been because one of us was too near the nest. Harvie- 

 Brown moved his post of observation after we had spent some 

 time without being able to discover anything ; and then the 

 female behaved as usual, and I soon marked the position of 

 the nest. We walked straight up to it, and found the four 

 eggs chipped ready for hatching. We had no difficulty in 

 shooting both birds, and afterwards hatched out two of the 

 eggs, obtaining a couple of good specimens of young in 

 down. With a little practice this mode of finding birds' 

 nests becomes almost a certainty. One has first to be quite 

 sure which is the male and which is the female. When the 

 birds are near enough, and one can compare them together, 

 the greater blackness of the breast of the male is sufficient 

 to distinguish him ; but we found that the females varied 

 considerably in this respect, and that it was better to notice 

 the habits of the birds. The female generally comes first to 

 the nest, but she comes less conspicuously. She generally 

 makes her appearance at a considerable distance, on some 



