2o6 The Field Naturalist's Quarterly Aug. 



and provide for. It is wonderful what an amount of fore- 

 sight birds exercise in the selection of a nesting-place, 

 and this is particularly noticeable in the case of ground- 

 builders which lay many eggs, such as Pheasants and 

 Partridges, but the remark applies more or less to every 

 species ; and unless one is very careful to mark exactly the 

 spot where the nest of Wild Duck or Water-Rail, Wood- 

 cock Owl or Willow Wren is, when the first q.^% is laid, by 

 the time that the parent bird is sitting hard, and so loath to 

 leave her eggs and betray their whereabouts, the rediscovery 

 of them by the former finder is rendered very difficult by the 

 intermediate growth of the surrounding vegetation. 



I have notes of two Pheasants' nests made between double 

 rows of garden peas : in both cases the eggs were fairly con- 

 spicuous when first laid, but as the pea haulms advanced to 

 clothe their artificial supports, the selection of the nesting- 

 site for protective purposes was amply justified. The 

 Warblers, too, find the same concealment from the rapid 

 growth of nettles, grass, reed, and climbing plants around 

 their cradles, and tree-building birds are also assisted in the 

 protection of their young by the denseness of the foliage in 

 leafy June. A young Rook, which might perhaps have been 

 wood-bound from the rifle bullet a few days previously, is now 

 as leaf-bound from the sportsman's eye below as the young 

 Wood-pigeon would be from the Peregrine's vision from 

 above — were there any Peregrines left here to molest them. 

 Carelessness and trustfulness, which are apparent traits in 

 spring bird-life, have now passed away, and the knowledge 

 of natural concealment at hand is rapidly taken advantage 

 of. Small birds when disturbed now do not fly far away and 

 view the intruder from a tall and distant twig or pointed last 

 year's reed stem, but lose themselves in the labyrinth of 

 adjacent greenery, and creep mouselike through the foliage 

 if farther followed. So crepuscular are the habits of the 

 Grasshopper Warbler in particular, that if once flushed and 

 marked down no amount of brushing or quiet search will 

 induce it to rise again above the sedge or grass tops. And 

 the way in which the Whitethroat will throw himself 

 shuttlecock-like over a hedge, tail uppermost, as he turns 

 in to hide on the farther side, is most distinctive of the 



