170 Pictures of Bird Life 



Then, if you have ciiimingly arran(>ed your camera, and 

 covered it up carefully with clods of earth and tufts of 

 grass, and set the shutter, you can pull the long string pro- 

 vided to release it : and you ///(/// get your photograph, or 

 you may not. I lun e known the bird time after time 

 spring up at the click of the shutter, either in time to 

 escape altogether or to give only a blur and flash of wings. 



The freshly hatclicd young birds seem to leave tlie nest 

 as soon as they are dry. and do not return to it. They can 

 not only run nimbly after their mother, and hide when 

 danger threatens, but they can swim, like young A^"ater-hens, 

 without any doubt or hesitation. I fancy they must drink 

 a good deal. A young I^apwing crouching in the grass is 

 curiously inconspicuous. I have often found one, and then, 

 having taken my eyes off it for a moment. Jiave been unable 

 to see it again for a considerable time. 



Mention has alreadv been made of the sewa"'e-farm 

 as attracting wading-birds to its tanks and tilter-beds. 

 Doubtless on migration these birds, wlien passing over at 

 night, have been attracted by the gleaming pools, and on 

 alighting have found plenty of food and shelter, until they 

 have regularly visited such a congenial spot. Xo doubt a 

 similar state of things would be found to exist in other sewage- 

 farms : but it is very interesting to And sucli l)irds at all so 

 near London — in fact, within the London postal district ; and 

 more interesting still to And them nesting. In 1901 I was 

 able to communicate to the l^'icld and the Zoologist an account 

 of the nesting of the Hinged Plover at the Enfield sewage-farm. 



