SUMMER VISITORS TO THE NEIGHBOURHOOD. 13 



dry place like Cadbuiy Camp and among the thick rough 

 grass of a damp osier bed. To find the nest is a puzzle 

 indeed, and you may spend many hoars searching, as I have 

 done, without success. However, I have seen two nests 

 which I helped to find — one near Oxford, and the other at 

 Cadbury Camp the summer before last. It was on May 19th 

 that I went with Mr. D. T. Price to look for the nest, and 

 after a long search for more than an hour, Mr. Price saw a 

 small bird flutter away at his feet, and then we found the 

 nest deep down in a tuft of grass close to bramble and gorse 

 bushes, — so deep down that you could not possibly see it 

 unless you moved the grass away with your hand. The 

 nest was made almost entirely of wide blades of dry grass, 

 with one or two leaves woven on the outside. It contained 

 six eggs, which were hatched three days later. When I 

 visited the nest again, the hen slipped off in the orthodox 

 manner described in books. When we stood by the nest 

 we saw no bird, but noticed the grass shaking as though 

 some small creature were moving under it ; presently this 

 movement reached a little path bare of grass, and then a 

 small head appeared from the grass on one side of the path, 

 looked up and down it, and a small body ran across like a 

 mouse and disappeared in the grass on the other side. That 

 was absolutely all that was seen of the bird. Each of the 

 nests I have seen was found in the same way, — that is, by 

 seeing the bird fly off it, — but though I paid several visits 

 afterwards, I never saw the hen fly off again, but she always 

 slipped away under cover and kept quite silent. There were 

 grasshopper warblers at Cadbury Camp again last summer, 

 but many hours were spent by friends and myself in vain 

 search for a nest. 



Before leaving Cadbury Camp we will walk quietly to a 

 bare rock among the gorse, for there a nightjar was in the 



