212 The Field Naturalist' s Quarterly Aug. 



(gnat) could stir without their noticing it, and each was as 

 keen as possible to secure, for their respective patrons, any of 

 the rarer birds or their still rarer eggs, and so the chances were 

 against both the Harriers and myself. Arranging, therefore, 

 with a trusty friend to keep watch all night over the sus- 

 pected area, lest Josh or Tom should rob the nest at day- 

 break, I promised to bring my watcher his breakfast early. 

 Needless to say that I was up before the lark in the morn- 

 ing, but having some miles to drive, and then some distance 

 to boat, and being unable to resist the temptation to try a 

 spin for perch en route, I was somewhat later than I had 

 intended ere I reached my weary watchman in his reedy 

 rendezvous. His greeting was neither complimentary nor 

 very reassuring, but somewhat reproachful. " I kind o' gan 

 yer up," he sung out ; " Tom he come at daylight, and had 

 a good spell at looking round, but he never found nothing, 

 and I hain't caught a glint o' the Harriers. The male bird 

 must be daad, don't he'd a brought her some wittals afore 

 now ; her eggs must be close on hatching, don't she'd a been 

 off to feed afore this — p'raps she's gone an' all." How- 

 ever, after making a hearty old-fashioned breakfast, in which 

 local barley essence took the place of tea, we made a pro- 

 spect of the intercommunicating ditches, and anchored our 

 flat-bottomed punt in what we thought would be the most 

 likely coign of vantage for a view of the surrounding marshes. 

 For six long hours we sat silently and watchfully without 

 seeing the vestige of a hawk of any kind, when suddenly the 

 third member of our party excitedly whispered, " There she 

 be " ; and sure enough there she was, flapping leisurely along 

 above the tall reed tops in the distance. But where she had 

 risen from not one of us could say, and soon whither she had 

 gone was equally unknown, for through or over the distant 

 reeds we could not see even with the aid of our good 

 spying-glasses. For more than half an hour we again waited 

 anxiously for her return : the sun was boiling hot, the heron- 

 tinted gunwale of the boat was so strong a radiator as to 

 sting our stockingless legs as we hung our feet in the water, 

 and even the screw-stoppered bottles of refreshment might 

 have spontaneously exploded had we not taken the pre- 

 caution to sling them likewise overboard. Several Swallow- 



