54 MISADVENTURES OF BIRD-WATCHING 



I remained motionless for a while ; then, 

 thinking that she had settled down to brood over 

 her eggs or her nestlings, I crept towards the 

 bramble spray, knowing that directly I came near 

 she would flutter up from the grass and betray 

 the whereabouts of her nest. But I had not con- 

 sidered that it would be necessary to climb a 

 difficult hedge before entering the copse. The 

 hedge proved to be nothing less than a labyrinth 

 of brambles, furze, hidden stakes and hawthorn 

 branches, in the midst of which, having an eye 

 only for the appearance of the warbler, I got 

 hopelessly entangled, and, floundering about, 

 fell into the torturing embrace of a myriad 

 sinuous nettles. 



On regaining my feet, the first sound I heard 

 was the rapid heu-wee, heu-wee, heu-whit of the 

 startled warbler that, flitting from bough to 

 bough overhead, indicated in plain language 

 how unmistakably suspicious was my conduct. 

 Nor was her opinion altered when, after forc- 

 ing a way back from the thicket, I danced 

 about in the manner peculiar to one whose 

 cheeks and hands are tingling with the effects 

 of nettle poisoning. After half an hour's in- 

 terval, during which numerous blisters had been 

 soothed by the application of bruised dock- 

 leaves, I crept up to the hedge, and, hiding as 

 far as possible in the ferns, peeped through 



