GREY PLOVERS AGAIN 169 



and all around us ; and at the end of half an hour we 

 were no wiser than at first. There was evidently some- 

 thing wrong. Harvie- Brown then shouted to me, " Have 

 you marked the nest ? " I replied by walking up to him 

 and comparing notes. We then watched together for 

 another half-hour with exactly the same result. I sug- 

 gested that we must be so near the nest that the bird 

 dare not come on, and advised that we should retreat to 

 the next ridge, which we accordingly did. We had not 

 done so many minutes before the female made her way 

 on to the ridge where we had been lying. She then ran 

 along the top of the ridge, passed the place where we had 

 been stationed, and came down the ridge on to the flat 

 bog towards where we then were. I whispered, " She is 

 actually crossing over to us." Suddenly she stopped, 

 lifted her wings and settled down on the ground. We 

 both whispered, almost in the same breath, " She is on 

 the nest." I added, " I saw her lift her wings as she 

 settled on to the eggs." Harvie- Brown replied, " So did 

 I," and added, " I can't hold out any longer against the 

 mosquitoes." I replied, " I am perfectly satisfied ; she is 

 within range, take her." He lifted his gun to his shoulder. 

 She ran off the nest to the top of the ridge and stood 

 there until my companion shot her. We then walked up 

 to the nest, the first we had seen on the flat. The eggs 

 were quite fresh, or nearly so ; and the nest must have 

 been made nearly a fortnight later than those we had 

 previously taken. During that time the bogs had become 

 much drier, so that we could cross them without much 

 difficulty ; and this was probably the reason why this nest 

 was placed lower down. The eggs had all the appearance 

 of a second laying, being less blotched than usual, one of 

 them remarkably so. It is worth noticing that whilst we 

 were watching in our first position, very near the nest, 



