92 BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 



and found that invariably on leaving the nest, he 

 uttered his imitation of a fowl cackling, and no 

 other note or sound of any kind. It was as if 

 he was not merely imitating a sound, but had seen 

 a fowl leaving the nest and then cackling, and 

 mimicked the whole proceeding, and had kept up 

 the habit after the young were hatched. 



To return to my experience on the common. 

 About fifty yards from the spot where I was there 

 was a dense thicket of furze and thorn, with a 

 huge mound in the middle composed of a tangle 

 of whitethorn and bramble bushes mixed with ivy 

 and clematis. From this spot, at intervals of half 

 a minute or so, there issued the call of a duck — 

 the prolonged, hoarse call of a drake, two or 

 three times repeated, evidently emitted in dis- 

 tress. I conjectured that it came from one of a 

 small flock of ducks belonging to a cottage near 

 the edge of the common on that side. The flock, 

 as I had seen, was accustomed to go some dis- 

 tance from home, and I supposed that one of 

 them, a drake, had got into that brambly thicket 

 and could not make his way out. For half an 

 hour I heard the calls without paying much at- 

 tention, absorbed in watching the quaint little 



