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after waiting a quarter of an hour caught sight of the bird on the top of a distant tussock. 

 Presently she ran nearer to another ridge, looked round, and then ran on to the next, until she 

 finally came within fifty yards of where I was lying. I had just made up my mind to risk a shot 

 when she must have caught sight of me, and flew right away. In a quarter of an hour I caught 

 sight of her again, approaching by short stages as before, but from an opposite direction. I must 

 have been in full sight of her. When she had approached within fifty yards of me, as near as I 

 could guess, I fired at her with no. 4 shot and missed. I remained reclining where I was, with 

 little hope that she would try a third time to approach the nest, and whiled away the time with 

 watching aBuffon's Skua through my glass as it cautiously approached in my direction. Turning 

 my head round suddenly I caught sight of the Grey Plover running towards the nest within fifty 

 yards of me. I lifted my gun and fired again, but was so nervous that I missed her a second 

 time. I was so vexed that I got up aiid walked towards the Skua, which still remained in statu 

 quo. I missed a shot at it too, spent some time in a vain search for its nest, and returned to my 

 old quarters. In ten minutes I saw the Grey Plover flying up. It took a wheel in my direction, 

 coming almost within shot, and evidently took stock of me, and satisfied itself that I was a harm- 

 less animal practising with blank cartridge, and having no evil design upon its eggs. It alighted 

 about fifty yards beyond the nest, and approached less timidly than before. When it came 

 within fifty yards of me I fired this time with no. 6 shot, and laid the poor bird upon its back. 

 As we returned to our boat Harvie-Brown found a fourth nest, and, after watching as before, 

 secured the bird. We accidentally broke two of the eggs belonging to the third nest, but reached 

 Alexievka at midnight with fourteen identified . Grey Plover's eggs. Two sittings were quite 

 fresh, and made us an excellent omelette for breakfast the next morning. The other two were 

 very slightly incubated. 



" From the 25th to 28th June we made an excursion to Stanavialachta, some forty versts 

 lower down the river. The tundra here was more hilly, and we did not find any of the dead flat 

 bog which the Grey Plover frequents ; consequently we did not meet with any of these birds ; but 

 the Golden Plover was common enough, and we took two of their nests. 



" On 3rd July we took advantage of a cold north-east wind, which banished the mosquitoes 

 for a time, to cross over to the tundra again to renew our search for Grey Plover's eggs. We 

 soon heard the note of the birds we were in search of, and saw two or three, but could not dis- 

 cover any signs of their having a nest. After our previous experience we decided to vary our 

 tactics. Hitherto we had found the nests by sheer perseverance in searching, and had afterwards 

 watched the female to the nest and shot her. We now decided to watch the female onto the 

 nest in the first instance, and, having by this means found it, to secure the female afterwards as 

 a further and more complete identification of the eggs. It was also perfectly obvious that the 

 extreme care we had taken not to alarm the bird was unnecessary. Our little manoeuvre of 

 walking away from the nest in a body, leaving one behind lying flat on the ground to watch, 

 under the impression that the bird could not count beyond three, and would think that we had 

 all gone, was clearly so much artifice wasted. The birds were evidently determined to come 

 back to their nests in spite of our presence; nor was there any cover to hide us if the contrary 

 had been the case. Our care not to handle the eggs until we had secured the bird was also of 

 no. use, as we often proved afterwards. On a marshy piece of ground I shot a Reeve; and then 



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