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making any effort to shoot the bird, having perfectly identified her, and being almost tired out 

 by the mosquitoes. The eggs in this nest were considerably incubated. The nest was placed, as 

 before, in a hollow on a ridge. The ground on this ridge was not so mossy as usual, and there 

 was much bare brown turf to be seen. Whether this had any thing to do with the colour of the 

 eggs it is difficult to say ; but the fact is that these eggs are quite brown in ground-colour. 



" Our ninth nest of the Grey Plover we took on the 12th of July. A stiff warm gale from the 

 east, with occasionally a smart shower of rain, kept the air clear of mosquitoes in the morning. 

 In the afternoon the wind fell, and the mosquitoes were as bad as ever ; but we were too busy to 

 heed them much. At eleven we crossed to the tundra. We soon came upon a pair of Grey 

 Plovers, which rose a couple of hundred yards ahead of us, their wings glittering in a gleam of 

 sunshine after a smart shower. These birds have frequently a very curious flight as they rise 

 from the nest, tossing their wings up in the air, reminding one somewhat of the actions of a 

 Tumbler Pigeon. We lay down, as near as we could tell, near the spot from which they rose, 

 and were somewhat puzzled at their behaviour. The male seemed as much, if not more anxious 

 than the female, running about as much as she did, continually crying, and often coming very 

 near us, and trying to attract our attention by pretending to be lame. The female rarely uttered 

 a note. We suppose this must have been because one of us was too near the nest. Harvie- 

 Brown moved his post of observation after we had spent some time without being able to discover 

 any thing ; and then the female behaved as usual, and I soon marked the position of the nest. 

 We walked straight up to it, and found the four eggs chipped ready for hatching. We had 

 no difficulty in shooting both birds, and afterwards hatched out two of the eggs, obtaining a 

 couple of good specimens of young in down. With a little practice this mode of finding birds' 

 nests becomes almost a certainty. One has first to be quite sure which is the male and which 

 the female. When the birds are near enough, and one can compare them together, the greater 

 blackness of the breast of the male is sufficient to distinguish him; but we found that the 

 females varied considerably in this respect, and that it was better to notice the habits of the 

 birds. The female generally comes first to the nest, but she comes less conspicuously. She 

 generally makes her appearance at a considerable distance, on some ridge of mossy land. When 

 she has looked round, she runs quickly to the next ridge and looks round again, generally calling 

 to the male with a single note. The male seldom replies ; but when he does so it is generally 

 with a double note. When the female has stopped and looked round many times, then the male 

 thinks it worth while to move ; but more often than not he joins the female by flying up to her. 

 The female very seldom takes wing. She is very cautious, and, if she is not satisfied that all is 

 safe, will pass and repass the nest several times before she finally settles upon it. The female 

 rarely remains upon one post of observation long ; but the male often remains for ten minutes or 

 more upon one tussock of a ridge, watching the movements of the female. 



" We walked some distance before we came upon a second pair ; but at length we heard the 

 well-known cry, and got into position. We spent nearly two hours over this nest, and were 

 quite at sea at the end of the time. We changed our position several times, but to no purpose. 

 The female went here and there and everywhere, as much as to say, ' I'm not going onto the nest 

 as long as you are so near.' At last the mosquitoes fairly tired us out, and we gave up the 

 watching game and commenced a search. At last we found out the secret of the bird's behaviour. 



