238 



WILD WINGS 



It is dangerous for the camera-hunter in such a rich game- 

 country to be without reserve plates. This I realized keenly 

 enough when, as we sailed back, away out in the middle of the 

 lagoon, we passed close by a mother Black Duck, with her 

 brood of eight small ducklings, all bravely paddling for the 

 rather distant shore. We, too, were shoreward bound, though 

 on a longer voyage. The cold beam wind drove us on, and 

 when the western sky was rosy with the sunset, we rounded 

 the bold red-sandstone promontory, soon to wade ashore and 

 with happy talk of the successful day's excursion, encum- 

 bered with big boots and cameras, trudge to the fisher's 

 cottage up on the wind-swept headland of the cold Northern 

 isle, with its bare slopes and stunted spruces. 



- . . .- 



NEST AND EGGS OF RING-NECKED PLOVER 



