98 CHARADRIID^. 



stances, both in the same locality and elsewhere, and I have in every 

 instance remarked, that until the young were hatched the female only 

 appeared near the eggs, and that she never uttered any cry, even when 

 she saw me in the act of removing some of her eggs. So soon, how- 

 ever, as the young were excluded, both of the parents were in constant 

 attendance, crying incessantly when there seemed to be the slightest 

 cause for apprehension. If alarmed, when sitting on the eggs, the 

 female invariably runs in silence for some distance from the nest, and 

 she seldom returns to it without making various circuits on foot, run- 

 ning a few yards quickly, and then standing motionless for a con- 

 siderable leugth of time. 



" The easiest method of finding the nest is to. watch the suspected 

 locality before coming too close to it, and whenever the bird is observed 

 running, to search in the direction from which she proceeds. 



" The young birds, until they are able to fly, crouch as closely as 

 possible to the ground when approached, and lie, apparently lifeless, 

 permitting themselves to be lifted in the hand, but they run very nimbly 

 when not apprehensive of danger. 



" I have always found the eggs to be four in number (except in the 

 instance first mentioned), and the smaller ends placed in the centre. 



" Mr. Hewitson has given admirable representations of the eggs ; 

 but, so far as my observations have gone, he has fallen into an error as 

 to the habits of these birds whilst they have nests. He observes — 

 c During the breeding season the ring dotterel is ever on the alert, and 

 on wing long before you reach its "eggs, making its circuits round you, 

 and uttering its sweet plaintive whistle of alarm — a sure indication that 

 you are in the near neighbourhood of its eggs or young.'* I would 

 suggest, that the birds so observed were the parents of young broods 

 previously hatched, and which were in the same neighbourhood as the 

 eggs of other birds of the same species, who were silent spectators of 

 the scene. 



" It may be observed, that the instinct which induces silence on the 

 part of the female during incubation, is not peculiar to this species, 

 Mr. Selby having recorded its existence in the common sand-piper 

 (Totanus hypoleucos.) 



" Mr. Francis Rankin informs me, that one of these birds placed 

 its eggs on the bare ground, in one of his father's fields near Kirk- 



* Egg's Brit. Birds, p. 255. 



