202 Birp LIFE AND BIRD PHOTOGRAPHY. 
pyriform eggs, I believe, that are known: they measure 1.1 by .83 
inches. Here the patient male bird can be seen attending to his 
unnatural duties. No screen of any kind was needed to take this 
photograph, for the tameness of these birds is past belief, as can 
be seen by our next picture. Having found some nestlings, and 
seeing that their parent kept hovering close to our heads, I got my 
friend to hold a nestling in his hand, and focussed my camera on 
it. I had only a few minutes to wait before the bird came running 
up quite boldly to enquire after its young. 
BLACK GAME. 
This photograph is of a nest of the black grouse, who are 
perhaps better known as black game, the male and female being 
called respectively the blackcock and greyhen. Situated as these 
nests usually are on grassy hillsides, they are frequently (as hap- 
pened in this case) destroyed by rooks. Here we see a greyhen 
on its nest, more securely hidden in a young larch plantation. 
It is to be regretted that this bird has decreased in this locality. 
The diminution of cropping, the draining of hill marshes, and 
the fertility and increase of the pheasant, all help to banish black 
game. 
PHEASANT. 
This nest of pheasant eggs would be regarded as a good 
clutch. The bracken has been laid aside, so as to better reveal 
the eggs. This slide shows the old bird on its nest, and was 
taken by Mr Legard in Yorkshire. The pheasant is a notoriously 
careless layer. I have found pheasants laying in the nests of 
ducks, black game, grouse, partridges, and woodcock, and in 
one case I knew of seven pheasants laying in one nest. 
WoopDcock. 
It is satisfactory when we can affirmatively state that some 
bird is becoming a more constant visitor to this locality, and 
this, I am glad to say, is the case with the woodcock. Ten years 
ago a woodcock’s nest was regarded as a rarity ; now it is quite 
common. At Capenoch I can see woodcock in every month of 
the year. Here we see the woodcock’s nest and eggs. The 
nest is but a depression in the ground, scantily lined with leaves 
or bracken. The eggs are not nearly so pyriform as might be 
expected of a bird of this family. This picture is of a woodcock 
