276 BIRDS, BEASTS, AND FISHES 



fourth egg sound, but bright, smooth, and warm to the touch, 

 as all hard-set eggs are. The eggs are lying in the grass- 

 lined cup on a slant, their small ends pointing inwards, and 

 that is their usual position, though the hen turns them 

 round every day, as, indeed, I think most birds do, so that 

 they may be evenly warmed into life. The pretty little 

 fellow is evidently only just born, or he would be out of the 

 nest, crouching in the print of a cow's or horse's hoof, and 

 the eyes of Argus alone would find him. Once only did I 

 find a youngster out of his nest, and that was on a bare 

 mountain in Perthshire : there was no cover. This youngster 

 here, had he been old enough, would have run out of the 

 nest, and, once having left his cradle, nothing would have 

 induced him to return. But he is only just hatched : for 

 had the four chicks been born, both old birds would have 

 stayed to defend their young ; by that sign shall you know 

 whether there be young. 



But let us lie behind this heap of stuff over here and 

 watch the first hen we flushed ; she ought to be returning 

 soon, for I have seldom known them leave their eggs more 

 than twenty minutes, if there be more than one egg. But she 

 is not sitting yet, or the cock-bird would have stayed longer ; 

 and she begins to sit when the third egg is laid, though 

 four is her full number. 



Let us wait here, though a drizzle has come on, greying the 

 trees and distant sandhills, for the birds are sure to be back 

 soon now; for a peewit never leaves her eggs exposed to 

 the wet. She always covers them, or more usually returns 

 at all hazards and sits upon them. But hist ! there she 

 comes across the wall and flies down to the marsh. See 

 her. She is looking intently. "All's well," she thinks. 

 See her running along for a few yards for peewits seldom 

 walk, but run, after appearing to pick up something as they 

 go. Then she stops again, and listens, and on she goes 

 right on to the nest by that heap near the dike. Soon you 

 can scarcely see her with the naked eye. And yet these 



