1 66 BIRD LIFE GLIMPSES 



pecking on the ground, as before described, whilst 

 he rolls, again, just in front of her. The two birds 

 then rise, and stand together, making little desultory 

 pecks. After a while the hen walks away, leaving 

 the cock, who rolls a little more before following 

 her. A strange performance this rolling is, when 

 seen quite plainly through the glasses. The whole 

 body is lifted up, so that the bird often looks not so 

 much sitting as standing on his breast, the rest of 

 him being in the air. The breast is, thus, pressed into 

 the sand, whilst a rolling or side-to-side movement 

 of it, varying in force, helps to make a cup-shaped 

 hollow. This curious raised attitude, however, 

 alternates with a more ordinary sitting posture, 

 nor is the rolling motion always apparent. After 

 each raising of the wings and tail, they are depressed, 

 then again raised, and so on, whilst, at intervals, there 

 is the curious waggle of the tail, before described, 

 suggesting actual copulation. 



In none of the above instances did I walk to 

 examine the place where the birds had rolled after 

 they had left them. They would, indeed, have been 

 difficult to find, but upon another occasion, when 

 the circumstances made this easy, I did so, and 

 found just such a little round basin in the sand as 

 the eggs are laid in. No eggs, however, were ever 

 laid here, whilst the bird was afterwards to be seen 

 rolling in other parts. It is easy, under such circum- 

 stances, to keep one peewit or at least one pair of 

 them distinct from others, for they appropriate 

 a little territory to themselves, which they come 

 back to and stand about in, however much they 

 may fly abroad. And here the birds return, in my 



