BIRDS OF BROADLAND AND STREAMSIDE. 191 



had been completed to my satisfaction, I knelt 

 down on an armful of marsh hay thoughtfully 

 provided by my companion inside it, and waited 

 the home-coming of a pair of birds that had been 

 very busy all the morning feeding their family 

 of five hungry chicks cosily huddling together in 

 a nest situated immediately in front of my 

 temporary abode. 



The female appeared for a long while to be 

 doubtful about the wisdom of venturing near 

 the great black eye of my camera, staring stolidly 

 from a newly-placed heap of reeds, but as her 

 distrust of it decreased, she grew bolder, and 

 gradually drew nearer and nearer, flying from 

 one elevated stem to another, until at last, to 

 my great delight, she pitched on the dead dock 

 stem shown in the picture on the next page. 

 After making a careful examination of everything 

 by a number of nervously rapid side to side 

 glances, she became convinced that the object 

 of her errand was worth the risk in carrying it 

 out, and making a series of half-hopping, half- 

 gliding downward movements, she quickly reached 

 the cover of the luxuriant herbage, where she 

 evidently felt safer. Running forward along a 

 kind of tunnel made by many journeyings, she 

 fed her offspring, and promptly went away in 

 search of more food. Once the ice was broken, 

 she came with increasing frequency and confi- 



