THROUGH WILD EUROPE 189 



about the disordered nest. The second was found 

 by myself, for, thinking that the men were keeping 

 too much to the narrow, navigable channels, and 

 seemed very averse to getting their feet wet, I 

 stopped my boat at a likely-looking place and waded 

 through the tall reeds. I had not gone very far 

 before I was waist-deep in mud and water, the 

 water being very deep in this lake and the bottom 

 very uneven, but I soon found another nest of 

 Ardetta minuta containing five eggs, which proved 

 to be much incubated. The nest was very small 

 and slight, just a collection of small, dead reed- 

 leaves and stems at the base of the growing reeds, 

 on which the five white eggs were conspicuous 

 enough. 



The Little Bittern is one of the most extraordinary 

 birds I know. It is quite small — not much more 

 than a foot in length — and its colour is dark greenish- 

 black and light buff, strongly contrasted, but it is 

 firmly convinced that it is invisible. In this idea 

 it is justified by results — and this not by carrying 

 fern-seed, or the invisible cap of fairyland, but simply 

 by faith in its own power of immovability. When 

 approached it will grasp the surrounding reeds with 

 its very prehensile toes and point its yellowish beak 

 straight up in the air. The long, compressed body, 

 always kept facing the intruder, is so exactly like 

 a dead reed-stem as to escape notice from all but 



