58 BIRDS, BEASTS, AND FISHES 



and lined with reed-feather ; occasionally a coot's or swan's 

 feather being thrust jauntily into the reedy boat-shaped 

 cradle />our s'aj/mser. As you part the dry and crackling 

 chate, you may catch sight, for a moment only, of five yellow 

 bills peeping from brown heads, lost in a mass of blackish 

 feathers tipped with buff, and you may hear a cheep, cheep, 

 and lo ! they have bolted out of the nest and run like mice 

 away into the stuff. Still you may know them to be near, 

 for the old birds will come working and calling round you ; 

 you can hear them cJiinging and making a peculiar grunting 

 kind of noise. That is a signal for you to move off into the 

 deep reed, for they will surely return to their nest even when 

 they can fly — indeed, young reed-pheasants are the only 

 birds who do this — and they will return four or five times a 

 day. Having taken your mark, you draw off, and return 

 upon a rainy day or early in the morning after a heavy dew, 

 and you will see the old birds hunting under the sheaths 

 of the reed-stalks and at the nodes for the maggots where- 

 with to feed their nestlings — for they love damp reed to 

 work upon. Spiders, midges, and the seed of reed, too, 

 are found in their bill of fare. Should you, however, be of 

 a predatory nature, and attempt to take the nest rashly from 

 its moorings, it will fall to pieces unless you be cautious to 

 tie it together beforehand ; but 'tis safer to cut the hover from 

 the reed-bed — nest, chate, and all — but best of all it is to leave 

 the long bulky nest where it is and go search for others. 



You may find as many as nine eggs in a nest, but five is 

 the more usual number ; and they will, if robbed, build five 

 or six nests in a season, moreover, and not far from the 

 spot where the first cradle was lodged. Nine days suffice 

 for those little architects to complete a new home, which 

 is nearly always built of reed-leaf and feather, but I have 

 seen nests built of litter and lined with fine grass. At 

 times they will not wait to build a new nest, if robbed, but 

 will drop their eggs where the old nest rested, and build a 

 new nest over them. I have known fenmen who have 



