Some Punjab River Birds. 
37 
to meet him at the spot later on. It so chanced that I was 
first at the tryst, and espied the Sand Plover running- along 
the sand as if leaving her nest: so I sat down to watch under 
the impression that the nest must be quite close by; but 
although the birds were present they showed no intention of 
returning to their eggs while an intruder was anywhere 
about. So tirhig of the trial of patience I went to the spot 
where the bird had been running, and tried to track her 
on a heel scent. Meanwhile Shikari arrived and poiiit'^d 
out the nesting site. The tracks did indeed come from the 
nest, which was some way off, in fact !>ehind me v/hen 1 
had first seen the bird, which must have been running for 
some time before she had caught my eye — a sandy-coloured 
bird on a background of sand. There lay the two handsome 
eggs in a hollow where the sand had been scooped out under 
the lee of a sprig of tamarisk, without any attempt at a nest. 
The man said that he had found the nest without reiei'ence to 
the birds by foUowhig their footmarks on the sand, and that 
after one or two false trails he had come on the eggs. 
With the experience gained from this pair of birds 1 
found many nests all by tracking; one has only to visit a 
sandbank where a pair is nesting, and walk across it, keeping 
a sharp look out some hundred yards ahead, until one or both 
birds is seen stealing away, continually stopping to watch 
the invader; then if one has seen the birds before they iiave 
taken flight it is usually easy to carry the trail back either 
to the eggs, or to an area covered with a network of tracks 
(if there has been no wind) where the eggs may be searched 
for and found; on occasion I have found nestlings onh^ a day 
or two old, and once the two eggs were found to be sprung, 
when I took them and hatched out the chicks but failed to 
rear them. When one is in the close neighbourhood of the 
nest the parents ily round whistling in a most agitated manner. 
The Great Stone Plover {Emeus recurvirostris, Cnv.) 
is a larger bird — 20ins. as against lOins. in length— with a 
more massive bill than the Norfolk Plover {.Edienemus scoh- 
pax, s.g. Gnd.) — a race of which is also found in India. 
Whereas the latter bird is an inhabitant of dry open stony 
country, the former haunts the sandy margins of rivers and 
the sea. 
