48 BIRDS, BEASTS, AND FISHES 



down if disturbed. I don't think he sits at all, as does the 

 reed-warbler. She is artful enough to manage it all, how- 

 ever ; for, should you flush her from her nest in the open, 

 she will feign to be wounded or lame, like many another, 

 and lead you astray, as mayhap other ladies have done 

 before. 



In the fulness of time, when the young maws are born, 

 you see the old birds busily gathering maggots, cater- 

 pillars, insects, moths, and midges, chiefly from the top of 

 the water, ere they hurry back to the nest. You may at 

 times stand on a marsh and see four or five pairs flying 

 to and fro feeding their hungry young, for it is very easy 

 to watch them to their nests ; their journeyings to and 

 fro are so frequent, that if you lose sight of the parents 

 the first time you see them, they soon reappear. Should 

 you approach the clump of sallow where the young are, the 

 old birds will come to meet you, and fly around uttering 

 a short chuck, hoping to lead you astray ; for they are 

 jealous of their homes, and you may often see rival pairs 

 chasing each other away from their particular sallow islet 

 across the green sea of rush or sedge. 



Sometimes, before the young are half fledged, they will 

 come from the nest to hunt for food, returning again ; but this 

 is rare. The young are difficult to catch as a rule, escaping 

 along the ground and through the stuff, coursing rapidly 

 along like mice, and seldom will you see them in the nest 

 fully feathered, though at times you may, when they will at 

 once flit from their cradle like mice, and scatter through the 

 herbage. 



Soon these young birds begin " to do " for themselves, and 

 the parents forthwith begin to build a second nest and raise 

 a second family — a piece of work only undertaken by the 

 reed-warbler when he has been robbed of his first family. 



In fine seasons I have heard the little fellow singing as 

 late as the last week in October, but never later than that, 

 for the cold grey mists rising from the rivers and lagoons 



