Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 6 (1902).djvu/176

138 a little the hen ran (or walked) away, leaving the cock, who rolled a little more before leaving the place.

In the above notes I have laid more stress upon the peculiar movements which precede and accompany the rolling of the bird than upon the actual rolling itself, by which I have named the whole performance. It must be remembered, however, that I watched it through powerful glasses, by which means all the actions become plainly visible, and take their proper proportion. But to the ordinary casual spectator it is different. He is at some distance; he has only his own eyes, and he is quite uninterested. Under these circumstances it is the general features that alone strike him, or, to speak more correctly, are at last by sheer necessity forced upon his observation. The main features, here, are that the bird sits for some time together with its breast pressed into the sand, augmenting the pressure by various more or less pronounced movements of the body, and that many little cup-shaped depressions, but a small proportion of which ever have eggs laid in them, are to be found about over the warrens and other such Peewit-haunted parts that are open and loose-soiled, during the early spring-time. All the rest—the curious little run forward with its strange, set attitude, the peculiar motions of the tail, everything minute and intricate—is unremarked, even though it be actually seen. As for the actual pairing of the birds, with the curious little drama between them which follows, this must be patiently watched for in the early and often bitterly cold morning—that, at least, is the only time that one can be tolerably sure of its taking place.

In none of the above instances did I walk to examine the places where the birds had rolled, after they had left them. They would, indeed, have been difficult to find; but upon another occasion, when the circumstances made this easy, I did so, and found, as I say, just such a little round basin in the sand as the eggs are laid in. No eggs, however, were ever laid here, whilst the bird was afterwards to be seen rolling in other parts. It is easy, under such circumstances, to keep one Peewit, or, at least, one pair of them, distinct from others,