140 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



day — in which there are but three eggs, leaving another to be 

 laid — the one I have been occupied with has four. When I was 

 yet so far off that I should have thought there was no need for 

 alarm, a bird that I have no doubt was the layer of the eggs 

 began flying about and " witty- wittying " in the most plaintive 

 manner. There was no bird on the nest when I came up to it, 

 and none flew off. No fourth egg had been laid, though I had 

 been out of this bird's way for four or five hours. Before this, 

 however, I had waited for it to go to the nest, which, after some 

 two or three hours, it did do. 



On each side of the nest, to mark it, I had made a mound of 

 turves, and, just between these, the bird sank down — at least it 

 disappeared, and that, I suppose, was how it did. It would seem, 

 therefore, that one bird or both — more probably, perhaps, the 

 female alone — covers the eggs for some time before the full 

 number has been laid, and does not repair to the nest only 

 to lay. 



I also watched a Golden Plover's nest, at a distance which I 

 should have thought was sufficient, to allow of its being approached 

 by the bird, but it never was, so far as I could ascertain. I 

 remarked, however, that there was always a bird close about me, 

 that seemed to watch me, and uttered, ever and anon, a plaintive 

 "peeng." In the light of my previous experience, I took this to 

 be the male. 



July 1st. — Started, this morning, up the course of the stream, 

 to see something more of the Eagles, but it only ended in a 

 horrible experience with Mosquitoes, or Flies for those who prefer 

 to call them so — but such Flies ! They swarmed now along the 

 banks, which, low and flat where the homestead stands, got 

 higher, as we advanced, till they became, at last, rocky precipices, 

 between which the river, here much compressed, rushed in an 

 impetuous, foaming torrent, making, with the wide-watered 

 shores of the great gloomy lake from which it leapt, almost 

 suddenly, out, as fine a scene, perhaps, as I had looked upon 

 since leaving the Zambesi and its Falls — the sea alone, and 

 always, excepted. At the head of the gorge, where lake and 

 river merge, we dismounted, and, having unloaded the ponies, 

 began to get the things into the boat, and it was here, and whilst 

 doing this, that the plague reached its climax, making a state of 



