112 Sumincr Studies of Birds and Books chap. 



personal experience. I have never found the nest, 

 and it is so well concealed as to have baffled the 

 most indefatigable nest-finder I know. The birds 

 are so restless, and so happily artful in misleading 

 you, that even if you know within twenty yards or 

 so where the nest must be, the task of finding it 

 needs more time and patience than most of us have 

 to spare. To judge by the beautiful specimen in 

 Lord Walsingham's collection at South Kensington, 

 the nest itself is so well concealed as to escape your 

 notice even if you are almost treading on it ; and the 

 eggs are spotted all over with a soft yellowish brown, 

 which helps to hide them among the yellow- green 

 stalks of the grass and the darker shadows cast by 

 taller plants.^ 



But though it thus hides its nest and eggs with 

 infinite care, it is astonishing how bold this little 

 bird will be in the breeding time ; more than once it 

 has let me approach it within a yard or two as it 

 runs delicately through the grass, picking off invisible 

 insects from the fresh shoots ; and several times I 

 have known it decoy both me and my dog away from 

 the nest, by letting us come very close, and then 

 running or half flying a little way on in front. It 

 knows very well that a dog is dangerous ; and I once 



^ They do not invariably nest among tlie flowers and herbage ; 

 it nest was found tliis spring on a dunghill near my village. As 

 the manure was needed on the farm, it was taken, eggs and all. 



