THE OOLOGIST 



123 



Bartram, but I had not gone twenty 

 yards the other side of the fence when 

 I was delighted by a Bartram who re- 

 mained upon her nest, until almost 

 touched. This nest was in a field of 

 timothy, and I could not see the nest 

 without stooping to part the foliage. 



Nineteen hundred and eight was a 

 cool, rainy spring. The flooded creeks 

 had driven the rails to the uplands, 

 where they were laying. I found an 

 unusually handsome nest containing 

 only three eggs of Rallus Blegans, but 

 each had a blotch on it the size of a 

 cherry. On my way to gather this 

 set, ten days later, I intuitively chang- 

 ed my course, and walked through a 

 meadow where I had never seen nor 

 heard an upland Plover. Two hun- 

 dred yards from my usual course, I 

 sui'prised a Quaily from four badly 

 soiled eggs. There was a faint peep- 

 ing from one of the eggs, which was 

 pipped. I examined the second which 

 appeared to be unusually light in 

 weight, and I could hear the contents 

 shaking as I tilted the shell. The con- 

 tents of this egg was removed in about 

 half a minute, and I found the other 

 two eggs in the same condition I 

 thought this a peculiar incident to dis- 

 cover a nest with one egg hatched and 

 the other three eggs being unaddled, 

 but absolutely infertile. 



This last find gave me the most val- 

 uable key to the situation I conclud- 

 ed that the Bartramian Sand piper 

 when incubating, was a very close 

 setter The males, while not in evi- 

 dence, were usually gleaning the sur- 

 face of a nearby pasture within call- 

 ing distance of the mate. Originally 

 I had been mislead because of the ex- 

 citement displayed by both birds. 

 These manoeuvers I found to be very 

 deceptive, because only when the 

 young have hatched do the parents 

 sally forth to meet an intruder, hov- 



ering overhead continually whistling 

 or "thrilling." 



This year I visited the vast stretch 

 ct pasture and meadow lands I pre- 

 viously tramped periodically for six 

 years, and in a space of approximate- 

 ly two hundred acres I noted six 

 pairs of Bartrams This was in May, 

 and they were unquestionably about to 

 take up their summer homes in close 

 proximity. 



The following week found me in the 

 same environment but I noted only 

 one or two individual "Plovers." To 

 all appearances there was "nothing 

 doing." No thrilling, and but occa- 

 sionally did I hear the plaintiff whis- 

 tle. I had come upon three clutches, 

 and one brood of young in previous 

 seasons, and while each find was equi- 

 valent to many miles of tramping, tne 

 instances were vivid in my mind, so 

 I felt confident of another "royal 

 flush." 



It was about 3:30 p. m., and I cross- 

 ed ard recrossed the pastures in so 

 many places, that it seemed as if I had 

 met myself several times. Plodding 

 on automatically. I stopped two feet 

 behind a Plover as she cackled 

 through the grass alternately limp- 

 ing and flying. I found the eggs to 

 be one-half incubated, which plainly 

 indicated how near I must have come 

 to this same bird the previous week, 

 when I tried to canvass the entire 

 field. Six days later I adopted the 

 same tactics, automatically beating 

 back and forth through the same 

 fields. I startled a sitting Bartram 

 within fifty feet of the nest, which I 

 found the previous week, and the last 

 clutch was at least twelve days old, 

 which proved conclusively that I 

 must have been within a yard of this 

 bird when I found the ether nest near 

 the cow path. 



In the adjoining field and adjacent 



