THROUGH WILD EUROPE 173 



is very tricky and unreliable, for it turned out 

 afterwards that for some reason or other all these 

 exposures were failures. 



Then I used an empty nest as a hiding-place. It 

 was at a good height up, and, by burrowing a hole in 

 the mud with my feet, so as to make it rather deeper, 

 I found I could stand behind and partly under it and 

 be pretty well hidden, and at the same time get a 

 good, clear view of a likely nest opposite. 



Here, then, I remained almost motionless for two 

 entire days of ten hours each day, from eight o'clock 

 in the morning until six o'clock in the evening. I 

 had some food in my shoulder-bag, for my pockets 

 were full of water, and munched hard-boiled eggs 

 and dry bread when I was hungry. The only 

 exercise I could take to keep the circulation going 

 in my legs was working with my feet to deepen the 

 hole I was standing in. The water was up to my 

 waist, and to make things still more unpleasant, the 

 leeches found out some holes in my breeches made 

 by the reeds, and I was losing blood all the time ; 

 there were several also inside my boots. 



I had started the search with a pair of wading- 

 trousers. They were very old, however, and had 

 seen much service in England, Scotland, Spain, 

 Holland, and Denmark, and were nearly worn out 

 when I started, and the reeds here had quite 

 finished them some days ago. They were literally 



