Page:Polar Exploration - Bruce - 1911.djvu/140

136 like, and is very difficult to see, either when the eggs are bare or when the bird is sitting upon them, because of the remarkable resemblance of the bird, eggs, and nest to its surroundings. One may almost tread on the bird before it will rise, and even then the nest is difficult to find. A known nest at a definite number of feet in a certain direction from a prominent mark is very difficult to see. Of course, this may also be said of many other birds and eggs, but it is perhaps as pronounced in the case of the purple sandpiper as any other bird. There are many other birds that could be noticed—the Knot (Tringa canuta), whose eggs have only recently been found; the Sanderling (Calidris arenaria); the Grey Phalerope (Phalaropus fulicarius); the Dunlin (Tringa alpina); the Little Stint (Tringa minuta), which Pearson found breeding in such numbers in Novaya Zemlya; the Lapland Bunting (Calcarius lapponicus), Redpoles (Linota) and many others of the smaller birds too many to enumerate. Then there is the Ptarmigan (Lagopus rupestris and L. hemileucurus), and the Willow Grouse (Lagopus albus), which vary their plumage with the season, so that they are at all times very much in accord with their surroundings, whether the snow is white or dirty yellow, or whether they are sitting among lichen-covered stones. These birds form most