MISADVENTURES OF BIED-WATCHING 59 



turned my attention to the warblers. For half an 

 hour nothing of unusual interest happened ; 

 but the monotonous alarm-notes indicated that 

 the birds knew I was near, and that the utmost 

 caution was their order of the day. At last, 

 cramped and tired, and anticipating all manner 

 of ills from lying in the drenched undergrowth, 

 I rose, determined to make for home in spite of 

 the bull. This time, happily, the enemy was 

 nowhere visible. He had evidently gone down 

 the bank to the ford above the cataracts ; so I 

 crossed the gap, and, taking advantage of every 

 clump of furze and broom along the way, came 

 down the glen ; then, turning sharply to the 

 right, ascended the cattle-path, and skirted the 

 hay-field above the copse. There, peeping 

 through the hawthorns, I discovered that the 

 bull had com^e up from the ford, and, with head 

 through the gap by which we had left the 

 thicket, was leisurely engaged in an attempt to 

 discover my hiding-place. 



Next evening heavy showers came over the 

 valley soon after I had taken my position near 

 the copse, and thus I was doomed again to dis- 

 appointment. These showers were the beginning 

 of a week's wet weather, and on the next visit to 

 the thicket I discovered that the young birds had 

 left the nest. 



Now it had happened that on one occasion, 



