3390 The Zoologist— February, 1873. 



part of the readers, and thus, from the fear.of being charged with 

 telling a thrice-told tale, they withhold information which would be 

 acceptable to the majority of their readers, though perhaps perfectly 

 familiar to the better informed minority. Mr. Shelley's notes on 

 the breeding habits of this plover are interesting. 



" The spurwinged plover is one of the most abundant birds in Egypt, 

 where it remains throughout the year. In the fields and on the sand-banks 

 it may be constantly seen, either sitting motionless, with head depressed, 

 and shoulders up, trying to elude observation, or else standing erect, and 

 constantly moving the body with a little spasmodic jerk. Its cry is loud 

 and varied, and is frequently heard. In March this species commences to 

 breed, at which season I have found as many as thirty nests close together 

 towards the point of a sand-bank : it also breeds in the fields. The nest 

 consists of a neat circular shallow hole in the sand, roughly lined with short 

 pieces of dried reed, just sufficient to prevent the eggs from touching the 

 ground."— P. 232. 



Again, I cannot forbear quoting a short passage on that rarity 

 of rarities, the blackwinged stilt. How often have I read dear old 

 Gilbert White's account of the six that were seen, and the five that 

 were killed, on Frenshara Pond, and his reflection on their strange 

 and abnormal length of limb ! How often have I meditated on his 

 narrative, and his calculation that had the birds weighed four pounds, 

 and had the legs been elongated in proportion, they would have 

 measured "one hundred and twenty inches and a fraction !" How 

 often have I envied that good Bishop of Winchester who possessed 

 that "large lake lying between Wolmer Forest and the town of 

 Farnham" ! How often have I visited that large lake and looked 

 in vain for the "stilt plovers," as White was the first to call them. 

 How have I longed to see that classical specimen which was 

 " sluff'ed with pepper" ! How often have I thought of its being " a 

 bad walker, and liable, in speculation, to perpetual vacillations, and 

 seldom able to preserve the true centre of gravity." And here we 

 have a gentleman of veracity who says that he has seen them daily 

 striding about the shallow pools of the Delta perfectly indifferent 

 to the astonished gaze of man. 



"Abundant both in Egypt and Nubia, but more especially so in the 

 Delta, where it may be almost daily seen in siuall flocks, striding about the 

 shallow pools which are so frequent near the villages, perfectly undisturbed 

 by the presence of man, for the natives never molest it." — P. 260. 



