








226 Messrs. H. Seebohm and J. A. Harvie Brown on 
down about forty yards from the nest, well concealed behind 
a ridge of the dryer ground; and very soon after I heard the 
ery of the birds. Then I saw them fly round, low over the 
tundra, and alight on the tops of the hummocks. Presently 
one ran towards me, stood up again on a hummock, and cried 
“ Pl-wee,” the first syllable short and low, the second louder 
and prolonged—shriller, I thought, than a Golden Plover’s. 
The birds’ behaviour near the nest appeared to me to be ex- 
actly similar to that of a Golden Plover—sitting erect on the 
higher hummocks, running rapidly across the hollows, whis- 
tling at intervals, then flying in a wide circle round the nest— 
not, like the more cautious Dotterel, running round the hum- 
mocks or grey stones, pausing in the hollows, silent, running 
over a ridge out of sight, head down, and reappearing from a 
diametrically opposite direction. I missed both barrels at 
the bird. I misjudged the distance, my eyes being almost 
level with the tops of the hummocks, and the intervening hol- 
lows being shut out from my range of vision. But it came 
again, and after a stalk I shot it. It was the male bird.” 
Early in the season we found it an easy matter to watch the 
birds to the nests ; and it was thus that we found most of our 
nests. On this day, however, we found four nests by simply 
searching for them, Simeon finding two, Gavriel one, and 
Harvie Brown the fourth; at each of these nests one of the 
birds was shot. As we afterwards came to learn, the habits of 
the male and female differ somewhat, as with the Golden Plover, 
as the season advances. When the eggs are fresh, or slightly 
incubated, the hen is the more anxious parent, and is far 
more restless than the male, running backwards and forwards 
near the nest, approaching and retreating, and uttering the 
alarm-note, whilst the male stands for the most part silent, 
and for a considerable length of time in the same place. Later 
in the season, when the eggs are almost hatched, the male 
becomes as solicitous as the female, constantly uttering the 
alarm-note and shamming lameness ora broken wing. In one 
instance a male bird, when near the nest, suddenly ran across 
a grass-covered bit of flat bog, head down and bill open, lay 
down on his breast, and stretched out his wings to the full 






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