204 CHARADRIID-E. 



selves invisible, though all the time their eyes are fixed on the 

 object which disturbs them, and they keep on the alert ready to 

 rush off again if one continues to approach them. 



" The age of the young birds can be well made out by the zig- 

 zag markings with which the plumage is speckled, which becomes 

 clearer each moult till the end of the second year, when they 

 assume the regular adult livery. There is no difference at any 

 age in the plumage of the sexes. 



" In 1849 they did not leave till the llth of September, when 

 a chasseur brought me one slightly wounded in the wing. I 

 tried to keep this bird alive ; but it died directly the weather 

 became cold. It proved on dissection to be a female ; and from 

 the large size of the eggs in the ovary it appeared as if it would 

 soon have nested, probably in October or November, when 

 doubtless they retire to a much warmer climate. 



"Towards the end of August, 1851, two others were brought 

 to me, both slightly wounded one an adult, the other an imma- 

 ture bird. To prevent the birds this time from dying of cold, I 

 placed them by day in a room where there was always a fire kept 

 up. At night I put them in a box, making a door at the side, 

 lining the top and sides with cotton-wool, placing sand an inch 

 deep on the bottom ; this was warmed and dried by putting a 

 charcoal brazier inside during the day. I fed the birds on grass- 

 hoppers till November, when these insects became very scarce, 

 and, as each bird ate fifty daily, it was necessary to change their 

 diet to the larvee of coleoptera, which, after some reluctance, they 

 began to take. This food suited them better than grasshoppers, 

 the birds becoming fatter, at the same time eating less. They 

 did well till January, when, the adult bird pining and refusing 

 food, I tried to save it by cramming ; but this was useless, as it 

 died in February, and on dissection I found that death was 

 caused by a very large tumour in the stomach. It proved to be 

 a female ; and from the ovaries it appeared the season for laying 

 had passed. 



