lof) Pictures of Bird Life 



used regularly as a look-out statiou before descending 

 to tlie Avater. wliich is ^ery sluit in by ti-ees all round. 

 Xever again, however, was I favoured with another ehanee. 



Though the Teal may occasionally })e met witli in 

 winter, the AVild Duck is the only re})resentative of the 

 family which nests. In the sununer months it is a connnon 

 thing to find its nest, or to see the old duck, followed 

 two and two by her numerous family. To these she is a 

 devoted mother. In the event of dang-er the voung" ones 

 scatter, hiding in any cranny or hole, while she flutters, 

 apparently wounded and lielpless. in the hennc attempt to 

 distract attention from her brood. 



The nest is sometimes a considerable distance from 

 water. I have seen one in the middle of a field, quite 

 a hundred yards away from the water ; another was hidden 

 under a furze-bush, and contained eleven eges. These Mere 

 safely hatched, and the resulting ducklings afterwards seen 

 on several occasions with their mother on a small brook 

 about eighty yards from the nest. JMany nests, though 

 carefully and artfully liidden under overhanging brambles 

 and luxuriant nettles and long grass, have been never- 

 theless discoAcred by the Carrion-crows and robbed of 

 CA'ery egg. 



The ^Vood-pigeon flourishes exceedingly in all the Avoods 

 around, and nests abundantly not only in the trees, but 

 less often in the tall hedgerows. It has even within this 

 last ten years in\aded I^ondon itself, numbers nesting in 

 all the parks and in many of the squares and gardens. In 



