254 WILD NATURE'S WAYS. 



the unquenchable fires of enthusiasm carried me 

 through, and I completed the new structure roof 

 and all before sundown. 



The following day being Sunday, we all enjoyed 

 a much-needed rest at any rate, I did, after 

 taking one anxious peep and finding things going 

 well with my " sitters/* 



Monday was hailed with excitement, and 

 provided an amply satisfying measure of hard 

 work. I knelt five hours with the oyster-catchers, 

 and secured a number of what turned out to be 

 successful pictures, our full-page illustration on 

 page 249 being one of them. 



Angus arrived with my lunch about two 

 o'clock, and half an hour afterwards he had 

 shifted the doorway timber from Oyster-Catcher 

 House to Ringed Plover Villa, and I was tucked 

 up and waiting for the latter bird to come home. 

 Five minutes after my assistant had taken his 

 departure she was covering her eggs, and I 

 straightway added her portrait to our gallery. 

 The slight noise of the fast shutter frightened 

 her so much, however, that she did not venture 

 to return to her nest for an hour and ten minutes. 

 All this while she kept running round and round 

 the stone house, trying in vain to solve the 

 mystery of the strange sound-maker inside. She 

 frequently picked up pebbles in the same way 

 that the oyster-catchers had done, but, unlike 



