194 WILD NATURE'S WAYS. 



secluded dyke, I witnessed the sight of a reed 

 sparrow hawking one of the large specimens, 

 which it dexterously caught and decapitated, 

 flying away with the head, and dropping the 

 wings and body, for which it did not return. 



There is no place, in my experience, to be com- 

 pared with Broadland in IMay for cuckoos. They 

 are there literally in scores, telling their name 

 night and day to all the countryside. I have 

 seen as many as five chasing each other, whilst 

 north, south, east, and west of me others could 

 be observed flopping awkwardly down into the 

 long marsh growth, dihgently searching for cater- 

 pillars of the drinker moth. 



Noticing that when e\'erything was saturated 

 witli dew in the early hours of the morning 

 they sought for some dead dock stem or withered 

 reed rising higher than its fellows to indolently 

 perch upon, I reasoned that the birds might 

 possibly be induced to use some resting-place 

 within range of the camera, so forthwith secured 

 an old forked piece of blackthorn, which I thrust 

 butt end downwards into the soft ground some 

 fifteen feet in front of my place of concealment. 

 A cuckoo almost immediately showed its 

 appreciation of my efforts at providing a sub- 

 stantial outlook in the middle of a great brown 

 sea of dew-steeped vegetation by coming and 

 alighting upon it. I could easily have made a 



