Wanderings of a Naturalist 



succeeding May 30 was fine, and I was again left in the 

 hide by my companion. The golden plover, as the result of 

 her previous scare, was now highly suspicious, and showed 

 no inclination to return to her eggs, so after a spell of waiting 

 I went away. The following day I had better luck. I entered 

 the hide at 10.55 a.m., and at 11.7 the plover returned. 



I succeeded in exposing a plate on her without causing her 

 to leave the nest, but at 11.40, when changing the plate- 

 holder, the slight noise I made frightened her off. At 12.10 

 she returned, very suspicious, but soon left again. As I 

 gradually became familiar with the dim recesses of the hide 

 I found that in one particular position I could see, through a 

 chink between two sods, that part of the moor whither the 

 golden plover went on leaving the nest. She generally stood 

 quietly for a while in some short heather. Then, anxious 

 for her eggs, she screwed up her courage and decided to 

 return. A sheep track led close past the nest, and this she 

 invariably used, running along it rapidly till she got near 

 the nest, when she became extremely wary, and moved 

 stealthily towards, and on to, her eggs. My hiding-place 

 was not four feet from her, so I could clearly see the wild look 

 in her large and beautiful eyes as she brooded on her nest. 

 Her hearing was wonderfully acute. On one occasion on 

 lifting my lunch from a piece of paper on which it rested, 

 the faintest of sounds resulted, which, however, the plover 

 was quick to hear, for she hurriedly left the nest and did not 

 return for fifteen minutes. 



I was able to see that she had comparatively little dark 

 colouring on her breast, much less than one finds on the more 

 northerly breeding birds of the same species. Curiously 

 enough the cock bird never put in an appearance near the 

 nest, although I frequently saw him on the hillside five or 

 six hundred yards away. I was in the hide almost daily till 

 June 12, on which date I visited the nest for the last time. 

 On this day three out of the four eggs were commencing to 

 chip, the youngsters cheeping inside their prisons. 



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