CHAP. XVIII. GREY PLOVER. 2if 



we repeatedly heard our two especial favourites the Pet- 

 chora pipit and the Siberian chiff-chaff. As soon as we 

 got beyond the willows we landed on the tundra, and started 

 in pursuit of a large flock of Buffon's skuas, but were soon 

 stopped by a pair of grey plovers, which showed by their 

 actions that we were near the nest. We lay down as before, 

 forty or fifty yards apart, and watched the birds. They ran 

 about, up and down, and all .round us ; and at the end of half 

 an hour we were no wiser than at first. There was evidently 

 something wrong. Harvie-Brown then shouted to me, " Have 

 you marked the nest?" I replied by walking up to him and 

 comparing notes. We then watched together for another 

 half-hour with exactly the same result. I suggested that we 

 must be so near the nest that the bird dare not come on, and 

 advised that we should retreat to the next ridge, which we 

 accordingly did. We had not done so many minutes before 

 the female made her way on to the ridge where we had been 

 lying. She then ran along the top of the ridge, passed the 

 place where we had been stationed, and came down the ridge 

 on to the flat bog towards where we then were. I whispered, 

 " She is actually crossing over to us." Suddenly she stopped, 

 lifted her wings and settled down on the ground. We both 

 whispered, almost in the same breath, " She is on the nest." 

 I added, " I saw her lift her wings as she settled on to the 

 eggs." Harvie-Brown replied, "So did I," and added, "I 

 can't hold out any longer against the mosquitoes." I replied, 

 " I am perfectly satisfied ; she is within range, take her." 

 He lifted his gun to his shoulder. She ran off the nest to 

 the top of the ridge and stood there until my companion 

 shot her. We then walked up to the nest, the first we 



