Yol. xxxiii.J HI 



Ringed Plover (sEgialitis hiaticola). Two slides of these 

 birds afforded beautiful instances of protective coloration. 



Golden Plover (Charadrius apricarius). This bird had 

 laid its eggs close to a clump of withered Deer's-hair grass. 

 The colour-pattern of its plumage approximated very closely 

 indeed to the reddish-yellow colour of, the grass. 



Ptarmigan (Lagcpus mutus). The sitting-bird shown 

 must have been well protected by the harmony of her 

 plumage with its surroundings, as a pair of Eagles regularly 

 hunted the mountain-slope on which she was nesting. She 

 was known to have been incubating for about twenty days. 

 The stalker had shown him two other nests of Ptarmigan, 

 from which the old birds had disappeared, presumably taken 

 by some beast or bird of prey. 



Capercaillie (Tetrao urog alius). The nest was in a small 

 hollow at the foot of a Scotch Fir-tree, the sitting-hen, 

 viewed from the hill- side above, closely resembled a heap of 

 pine-needles lying at the foot of the tree. 



Woodcock (Scolopax rusticola). Both this bird and its 

 eggs harmonized perfectly with their surroundings. 



Oyster-Catcher {H&matopus ostralegus). This black and 

 white species was an exception, for although it bred in the 

 open it was by no means protected either by its colour or 

 the pattern of its plumage. He mentioned an instance of 

 an Oyster-Catcher which had nested in a grass-field, where it 

 was a conspicuous object when looked down on from higher 

 ground. In this species he thought protection was achieved 

 by the extraordinary vigilance of the mate, Avhich was always 

 on sentry-duty near the nest. 



Dotterel (Eudromias morindlus). This species was 

 breeding on the same mountain-slope as the Ptarmigan. 



This exquisite set of slides, which were very greatly 

 admired, illustrated in the most remarkable manner the 

 protective coloration of the plumage in most of the species 

 selected for exhibition. 



Miss E. L. Turner exhibited slides of the following 

 species of birds : — 



Red-throated Diver (Colymbus stellatus). A series 



