250 WILD NATURE'S WAYS. 



of wild animals to differentiate sounds. I have 

 watched a blackbird sitting on her nest in absolute 

 composure whilst a violent thunderstorm was 

 shaking the very air around, and yet when I 

 made the slightest noise in my hiding-tent, erected 

 near by, she took instant alarm. 



In about half an hour the oyster-catcher 

 came back, and repeating her circular peregrina- 

 tions of inspection for ten minutes, regained con- 

 fidence, and covered her eggs for the second time. 



A peculiarity of birds that make shallow nests 

 is that when they sit down upon them they do 

 so very much breast first, like a ship sinking by 

 the bows, and work their eggs into position 

 amongst their nether plumage by a series of side 

 to side wriggling movements. 



After I had exposed two or three plates at 

 intervals upon the female oyster-catcher, and 

 noted with pleasure that she was growing en- 

 couragingly bolder, the male came to take his 

 turn at the work of brooding. Whether the 

 presence of his mate gave him confidence, or he 

 regarded the mysterious black eye of the camera 

 peeping through the wall of the stone house with 

 greater indifference I cannot say, but he set 

 about the duties of incubation with a much 

 smaller waste of time than his mate. Here I 

 did what proved to be an indiscreet thing. The 

 light had grown very poor, and having aforetime 



