236 WILD WINGS 



about " les petits oeufs." Finally we made the Frenchmen 

 understand that we would give them ten cents for every plov- 

 er's nest not Spotted Sandpiper's they would find us. 

 It did not take long to begin. One of them soon shouted 

 and beckoned. We hurried over, and, sure enough, there 

 was the first nest of the Ring-necked Plover that I had ever 

 seen, with four handsome eggs, more pointed than those of 

 the Piping Plover and much more heavily marked, resemb- 

 ling in that respect terns' eggs. It was just up from the 

 wide sand-flat shore, at the edge of the sparse grass, a mere 

 hollow in the sand with a few straws laid around it. The 

 owners were trotting around on the flat or flying back and 

 forth, uttering their familiar alarm-note. While we were 

 photographing this nest, the Frenchmen found another 

 a little farther back among the dunes, and thus they kept us 

 busy photographing and handing out dimes. One of our 

 party also discovered a nest of the Red-breasted Merganser, 

 containing six eggs. It was situated in the thick grass of 

 a marshy depression. The bird, in leaving, had drawn the 

 grass skilfully over the eggs. 



Meanwhile another friend had found and caught a young 

 Ring-neck, a cunning, little striped thing that could run like 

 a witch. Presently, farther along, I also captured a plover- 

 chick belonging to another pair of the birds. These were 

 so extremely solicitous, as they limped and fluttered about, 

 that I conceived an idea which I at once put into practice. 

 Tethering the youngster to a blade of grass out on the dry, 

 open sand, to keep it from running away, I sat down with 

 my reflex camera not more than two or three paces from 

 the young bird. Then I had some camera-shooting that was 

 worth while. Both the plovers were pattering close around 

 me. When they came together, I would get them both on 

 one plate. 



