Bartramia lornu cauda. 
Heath, Massachusetts. 
Copy. 
Heath , Massachusetts . 
My dear Professor Brewster, 
We are watching with the liveliest interest a plover 
that is sitting a few rods from our house. We saw her first 
on the tenth but the farmer who discovered the nest says that 
she has been sitting two weeks. The first visit to her nest 
right 
was an event in our lives. We stood^over it while she re- 
mained motionless keeping her head as low as possible. She 
was colored so like the grasses under which she sat that it 
was difficult at first to distinguish her. While we stood 
over her with bated breath we raised our eyes to the top of 
the upland slope which the plover haunt and saw a beautiful 
deer clearly outlined against the sky. He came a little to- 
ward us and down the slope, so that we soon lost sight of him. 
When we turned from the plover's nest she slipped from it and 
displayed the four exquisite eggs of shaded brown which seem 
so big for her size. 
She did not go far from the nest but moved hesitatingly 
and nervously about a bed of sheep laurel close at hand, 
raising and lowering her gracefully curved wings and spread- 
ing her singular tail to its fullest extent. She made no 
sound and there was no sign of the male bird. She did not 
return to the nest while we were in sight. 
