68 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



When at a certain distance from it, he flew past it, in a circling 

 manner, giving it a wide berth, and alighted at some distance 

 beyond it, and from here walked on to it. He did not come up 

 to the nest in a stealthy manner, and did not crouch, and, in 

 sitting, held his head well up, though his whole attitude on the 

 nest was not nearly so upright as that of the Golden Plover that 

 I watched ; neither was there the same immobility, the head 

 being freely moved. During all the time that the male sat, the 

 female Whimbrel stood about, at some two hundred yards or so 

 from the nest, and uttered, occasionally, the same plaintive note, 

 but, on the whole, was silent. Upon someone passing, though 

 not at all near, the male again flew up from the nest, and his 

 manner of returning to it, and deportment during the interval, 

 as well as the length of this, were just as before. The female 

 still kept approximately in the same place, and again, once 

 or twice, uttered her plaintive cry, but, for the most part, sat 

 silent and invisible, in the grass. Some cows now began to 

 browse down in the direction of the nest, and one of them 

 coming straight towards it, the sitting bird again flew up, this 

 time closer to the ground than before, and without going so far. 

 The cow came up, smelt at the top piece of turf that had been 

 placed, as a mark, behind the nest, and passed on, on the further 

 side. The disturbed bird did not wait so long, this time, and, in 

 returning, walked straight to the nest, and sat on it with its head 

 turned, now, the opposite way. The female had, some time 

 before this, flown some way to the other side of the nest — coming 

 down no further away from it, however, than she had been 

 before — and I have, since, neither seen nor heard her. It is 

 now nearly 6 p.m., and the male Whimbrel still sits on the nest. 

 After this, the female gave some low subdued "wit-tees" and, 

 towards 7.30 p.m., became, for some time, quite vocal, walking 

 about, at the same time, and I thought she would now go to the 

 nest, and that I should see the change upon it, but in this I was 

 disappointed. Instead of going towards the nest she came 

 towards me and sat on some cut turves almost under me. I, 

 being on the turfed-up eaves of a small cow-shed, had a splendid 

 view of her, standing thus and crying, but it was not what I 

 wanted. 



(To be continued.) 



