32 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. xv, 



of the shutter or of the changing of the sUdes. After he had 

 sat on the three eggs for about ten minutes and showed no 

 sign of deaUng with the other egg, I thought it might be 

 possible to rouse him to some further nest-making. I spoke 

 to him gently and he turned round a little, so as to have a 

 better view of the tent. After he had settled down again 

 I spoke once more ; he gave two sudden upward jerks with 

 his head and ran off the nest. I heard his call-note several 

 times some distance behind me, but he never came in sight 

 again. I waited for ten minutes, by which time three of 

 the eggs were completely covered, and then left the tent at 

 2.35 p.m." 



At 3 p.m., after rearranging the eggs, I took my place in 

 the tent, and almost immediately the male appeared calling 

 on the right of the nest, and was answered by the female close 

 behind. The latter, however, had not sufficient courage to 

 take her place on the eggs, and her mate came forward as 

 before. The eggs by this time were almost completely covered 

 by the sand, but with a sharp movement he dug his bill into 

 the middle of them and jerked one out with a twist of his 

 head (Fig. 5) . The others were dealt with in a similar manner. 

 The bird again continued his curious behaviour endeavouring 

 to move the eggs to a more sheltered position, several times 

 making a scrape at the same spot as before, and once within 

 a few inches of the eggs. The appearance of a man in the 

 distance caused him to leave before he had succeeded in 

 arranging the eggs to his satisfaction. 



Before leaving we placed a larger branch upwind from the 

 eggs as a further protection, and, on his return two days 

 later, my brother found that all four eggs had been removed 

 into a well-defined hollow close up against this branch and 

 at a distance of about a foot from their original position. 



On another windy day, I noticed the male scraping out a 

 new hollow and making a half-hearted attempt to move one 

 egg towards it ; and on another occasion, although there 

 was no wind blowing, the female, while hesitating to cover 

 the eggs, sat down about a foot away and made a scrape, 

 following this up by giving one of the eggs a slight peck, 

 but not actually moving any of them. With these exceptions, 

 however, as far as our observations went, there was no serious 

 repetition of the curious behaviour noted on the first occasion. 



