14 The Wilson Bulletin — No. 94 



nest to a greater or less extent, depending- upon the character 

 of the nest, each time they return to it. This usually consists 

 of scratching a slight depression first with one leg, then with 

 the other, and these holes seem to function as the resting 

 place for the legs. It will be remembered that these nests are 

 essentially shallow depressions in the sand, with but a thin 

 lining of "legal" nesting- material. The sand, being very dry, 

 is jarred out of place every time the bird springs from the 

 nest : hence, probably, the necessity, or at least the desira- 

 bility of hollowing out the nest again. In the cases where a 

 considerable amount of lining is used this scratching is omit- 

 ted, but when there is little lining, as in the case of the bird 

 most photographed, scratching almost invariably occurs. 



Both sexes incubate — as pointed out by Dr. Jones, and the 

 process of changing ofif is as he describes. Evidently the fe- 

 male does a large part of the incubating ; in the case of the 

 photographic subject the male did not put in an appearance 

 during the seven hours I was in the blind ; the female had 

 a broken primary that made it certain that it was always the 

 same bird that returned to the nest. She never called for her 

 mate, nor did she in any way show signs of expecting" his ap- 

 pearance. It is possible that owing to some tragedy, he had 

 not materialized for some time, and the female had given up 

 hopes of his arrival and had consoled herself to the task ahead 

 of her. As an incubator the male is very restless, and evi- 

 dently does his share under protest. Often he does not sit 

 upon the eggs at all, but stands over them, calling continually, 

 and fidgeting about nervously. Whereas the female waits 

 until the male is nearly at her side before leaving the nest, 

 the male seems to stand the strain of incubating as long as 

 possible — usually not more than fifteen minutes — then, after 

 an outburst of complaints, leaves the nest as if he could en- 

 dure it no long-er. The female usually appears within a min- 

 ute or two to take his place. 



What impressed me most during my vigil was the mar- 

 velous amount and variety of noise the birds were capable of 

 making, ^^^^ile on the wing the birds have their well known 



