114 WILD NATURE'S WAYS. 



notice the lens peeping from the rushes and bent 

 grass, or did not heed it. At any rate, she showed 

 the measure of her satisfaction with existing 

 arrangements by frequently closing her beautiful 

 dark eyes, and indulging in a momentary nap. 



During the morning a gentle shower com- 

 menced to fall, and in order to show the fidelity 

 of the camera, I photographed the peewit with 

 a multitude of raindrops gleaming and twinkling 

 on her back plumage. In the afternoon the 

 skies cleared, and the sun rode in uninterrupted 

 splendour through blue seas of space. The 

 weather grew so oppressively hot that tlic bird 

 gaped and panted where she sat, and several 

 times left her exposed quarters to assuage her 

 thirst in a neighbouring rill. 



In the spring of IQ02, whilst hunting for a 

 ring ouzel's nest, in order to secure illustrations 

 of the adult birds for our edition of " White's 

 Selborne," I accidentally made the acquaintance 

 of a pair of bonny wee baby snipes croucliing in 

 their soft coats of down amongst the coarse 

 herbage of a moss bog. Fixing up my tent 

 which a bo}' was carrying for me close beside 

 them, I entered it, and awaited developments 

 with no great exuberance of hope, I must confess, 

 on account of the terrifying way in which a 

 strong wind was shaking my hiding contrivance 

 about. Judge of my surprise, however, when, 



