48 C.C. NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 



At Chatcomb, Witcomb, and Coomb Hill, a good number of 

 grasshopper warblers are to be found. The nest is open like a 

 meadow pipit's, but is very hard to find as it is built in amongst long 

 grass. The only way to find them is to walk the ground up and 

 down very closely, and when you have put up a bird, you must go 

 down on hands and knees, and turn every tuft of grass over in the 

 hopes of finding the nest. The birds themselves are apt to run off 

 through the grass and consequently are very difficult to see. Their 

 name is given them because their note is like the noise of a 

 grasshopper and unless you were told it came from a bird you would 

 scarcely believe it. When you have found its nest the bird becomes 

 quite confiding, coming up close to you, making a growling noise 

 and writhing its body and tail about in a most peculiar manner. 



A bird which is probably to be found on the larger ponds near 

 here and on the Avon and Severn is the dabchick or litde greeb. 

 Their nest is merely an accumulation of rotten weeds and rushes 

 actually floating on the water but held in position by a growing reed 

 or overhanging rush and the eggs are always wet from the moment 

 they are laid. At first they are white but in a few hours they get dis- 

 coloured by the rotten weeds of which the nest is made. 



The old bird always covers the eggs up on leaving the nest so that 

 there is nothing to catch the eye beyond what appears to be a natural 

 accumulation of rubbish. The young birds when first hatched can 

 swim at once and look like baby mice with yellow and brown stripes 

 and fine hair rather than little birds with down. When too weak to 

 walk and not a day old they may be seen crawling out of the water, 

 pulling themselves up the side by taking hold of the materials of the 

 nest with their beaks and so shuffling themselves back into the nest. 

 Young waterhens are in just the same hurry to get into the water as 

 soon as they are hatched, only they are like little black balls of down 

 and are so buoyant that they have quite a struggle to get under water. 



The early part of egg-collecting is easy enough but as soon as you 

 begin to look for particular sorts all kinds of difficulties crop up. 

 Still, if you make a point of noticing every little thing you see, you 

 will always find a pleasure in your expeditions, and it is quite possible 

 to make a study of birds without making a collection at all. Do not 

 take eggs just because you find a nest and think it is the proper thing 

 to do. You could find a nest and watch it for an hour or two every 

 day and find out something fresh about the habits of the birds that 

 built it each time. And if you want to do the thing thoroughly get 

 to know the birds and their nests first and their eggs afterwards. 



