THE SEA SWALLOW 23 
miraculously restored treasure until it was thor- 
oughly warmed again. My next experiment was 
similar to the first, except in this, that the egg 
was placed on the sand surface within one inch 
only of the nest. As before, the Tern displayed 
anxiety, but made no attempt to deal with the 
problem, only as before running in perturbation 
about the neighbourhood of the bewitched be- 
devilled egg. It was then again replaced, and 
the bird once more allowed to proceed with its 
incubation. Upon the third removal of the egg 
it was balanced on the very rim of the nest-pit, 
poised so delicately that by the least touch the 
sand upon which it lay would begin to run and 
presently bear it into the nest. or the third time 
my Sea Swallow ran round its egg in puzzlement 
and perplexity, until, as I had foreseen, its for- 
tuitous perambulations stirred the sand about the 
rim of the nest, and the grit continuing to flow 
like the sand of an hour-glass, the egg slid on to 
the side of the pit. In this attitude, unfamiliar 
as it may have been, the Sea Swallow became 
for the first time able to deal with the situation. 
Three inches from the nest on hard sand, no line 
of action had suggested itself; one inch from 
the nest, no line of action had suggested itself, 
but the bird was not so totally devoid of ability 
to deal with a foreign experience as to be unable 
to cope with an egg now actually in the nest, 
