Photographing Cranes’ Nests 121 
Cranes’ nests. One of them, belonging to the pair which had 
caused me such perplexity by their evasive and_ indeterminate 
movements upon my second visit to the marsh, had obviously been 
robbed, and it was their nest which I came across on the occasion 
of my third visit. 
With regard to the third pair, unless their eggs were found and 
eaten by my friend the predaceous local sportsman, after my 
EGGS OF COMMON CRANE (photographed at 18 in.), showing relative position of two eggs, 
with inclination of larger diameters. Size 4 in. X 2°5 in. 
departure (when they must have been fairly hard set), I have every 
hope and belief that they hatched off in safety. 
It is illustrative of the vicissitudes of the wandering naturalist in 
his researches that upon passing this locality the following year, 
I found that owing to the lack of rainfall in the early spring after 
an exceptionally dry winter the whole marsh was dry and that the 
Cranes had shifted their nesting-place to another district. I had no 
wish to disturb them in their new quarters and so left them to 
carry out their domestic arrangements in peace. 
