306 
CHARADRIIDvE. 
-stone. Simple and hard though the materials be which 
compose its nest, it is as particular in the arrangement 
of them, as many of our smaller birds are in the softer 
and more luxurious composition of their neat and beauti¬ 
ful abodes. Whether the position for the egg is chosen 
upon the pebbly beach, or upon the harder surface of the 
rock, it is always carefully strewed with these small flat 
pieces of shell or gravel: the whiter they are, the better 
they seem to please the taste of the architect, which 
seems, however, to experience some difficulty in placing 
them to its liking, and prepares numerous nests before 
it makes use of one; this I have always noticed with 
some wonder, and in some instances have seen as many 
as a dozen, all apparently as well-finished as the one 
which contained the eggs. Nothing can exceed the 
eager and anxious solicitude evinced by this bird as 
you approach its nest: flying round and round you, 
it utters its loud and piercing cry, becoming more and 
more noisy as you near its nest. It lays three eggs: 
amongst a large number of the nests which I have 
seen, I never met with one containing more than three; 
Mr. Yarrell says that it lays four eggs, and I beg to 
tender my apologies to him for having expressed my 
incredulity on this subject in the last edition of this 
work. I can best make amends by quoting my own 
refutation from Lloyds Scandinavian Adventures . He 
says, “Hewitson, in his interesting work on Oology, 
imagines Yarrell to labour under mistake when saying 
that he has found as many as four eggs in the nest 
of this bird. But in this matter I can, from personal 
observation, confirm YarrelTs statement; for though 
two or three eggs are more common, it is not unusual 
to meet with four/' 
The spotted variety of the plate is more frequent than 
