598 BRITISH BIRDS. 



only a patch of cultivated land here and there^ which the farmer looked 

 upon as oases in the great desert of heath. Now, only a few of the wildest' 

 and roughest parts of the heath remain here and there between the farms — 

 patches of hilly and broken ground, covered over with heath with occa- 

 sional clumps of furze bushes, places which we ornithologists look upon as 

 oases in a desert of miserable fields and commonplace acres of corn, green 

 crops, and such-like rubbish ! We spent some time in examining the 

 decoy, with all its complicated arrangement of " pipes," and walls, and 

 cuttings, for luring the Wild Ducks to their fate in winter, and then 

 started for Black Heath, where our decoy-man told us he had taken two 

 Stone-Curlew's eggs a fortnight before. He showed us the place, a large 

 square bare piece of the heath, where he had some years ago cut away the 

 turf for fuel, and which was now only sprinkled here and there with young 

 heath springing up from the old roots. There was not the slightest 

 apology for a nest ; a mere hollow was scratched in the bare peat without 

 any lining whatever. 



We walked on until we came to the brow of the hill, where we saw a 

 Stone-Curlew rise from the ground about seventy yards ahead of us. We 

 marked the spot; but before we had quite reached it, we found the two 

 eggs on a place where the heath was short. As before, it was a mere 

 hollow scratched in the bare black peat; not even a bit of grass had 

 drifted in to serve as an apology for a lining. The two eggs were very 

 different, both in size, shape, and markings, and no one would have sus- 

 pected them to form a clutch ; they were on the point of hatching, both 

 eggs were chipped, and we could hear the young chirping inside. But 

 for all that, the female flew right away, without any attempt to lure 

 us from the spot, and though we stayed near the nest some time, we saw 

 no more of her. 



A little further on we noticed a Stone-Curlew on the heath, about a 

 hundred yards or more ahead of us. She was sometimes running with 

 head depressed, and sometimes standing still with head erect, looking 

 eagerly around. As we approached she took wing and flew right away. 

 We were unsuccessful in our search for her nest, though we spent some 

 time in tramping the heather. The Stone-Curlew is a very conspicuous 

 bird on the wing, the light and dark markings on the secondaries being 

 specially conspicuous during flight. It is also easily seen on the heath, 

 even at a great distance, being so much paler and yellower than the pre- 

 vailing colours of the grass, heath, and peat ; as the season advances these 

 naturally become burnt up or parched, and then the Stone-Curlew is much 

 less conspicuous. 



A little further on a third bird rose from the ground, and was shortly 

 joined by her mate; both flew right away. We had no difficulty in 

 finding the eggs. The bird runs about fifteen to twenty yards and then 



