118 EGYPTIAN BIRDS 
discovered three fresh eggs, which the artful bird 
had completely buried. . . . Still I was unable 
to account in my own mind for the very energetic 
movements to and from the water which I had 
witnessed on this occasion, until I received an 
account from a cousin, Lieutenant George Verner, 
of the Borderers, who was stationed about forty 
miles farther down the river than I was, which 
solved the mystery, as follows :—‘On 25th April I 
was waiting in a boat alongside of a sandbank, and 
my attention was attracted by a pair of Black- 
headed Plovers which kept flitting about quite 
close to me. I noticed that one of them was 
continually wetting its breast at the water’s edge 
about ten yards below our boat, and then running 
up the bank to a spot about the same distance in- 
shore of us, when it would squat down and remain 
about two minutes or so, after which it would get 
up, and, running down to the water's edge above 
us, fly round to the spot where it had dabbled 
previously. ... At the spot where the bird had 
been crouching I found a clutch of eggs half 
buried in the sand, their tops only being visible ; 
the sand immediately surrounding them was moist, 
although the bank I was on was an expanse of dry 
burning sand.” From this it seems clear, as 
