186 GRUIDJ:. 



two eggs lay with their long diameters parallel to one 

 another, and there was just room for a third egg to be 

 placed between them. The nest, about two feet across, was 

 nearly flat, made chiefly of light-coloured grass or hay 

 loosely matted together, scarcely more than two inches in 

 depth, and raised only two or three inches from the general 

 level of the swamp. There were higher sites close by ; and 

 many of them would have seemed more eligible. 



" It was just at the lowest edge of the strip, but so much 

 exposed, that I thought I should be able to see even the 

 eggs themselves from a spot at a considerable distance, to 

 which I proposed to go. There was a common story 

 amongst the people of the country, that a Crane, if its nest 

 were disturbed, would carry off its eggs under its wing to 

 another place ; so I purposely handled one of the eggs, and 

 hung up a bit of birch bark on a birch-tree beyond the nest, 

 as a mark by which to direct my telescope. Then I went 

 with Ludwig to a clump of spruce growing on some dry 

 sandy land which rose out of the midst of the marsh. Here 

 I made a good ambuscade of spruce boughs, crept into it, 

 got Ludwig to cover me so that even the Crane's eye could 

 not distinguish me, and sent him to make a fire to sleep by 

 on the far side of the wood, with strict orders on no account 

 to come near my hiding-jDlace. I kept my glass in the 

 direction of the nest; but it was long before I saw anything 

 stir. In the meantime the marsh was by no means quiet ; 

 E,ufi"s were holding something between a European ball and 

 an East-Indian nautch. Several times ' keet-koot, keet-koot,' 

 to use the words by which the Finns express the sound, told 

 where the Snipes were. A cock Pintail dashed into a bit of 

 water calling loudly for its mate. The full melancholy 

 wailing of the Black-throated Diver came from the river ; 

 watch-dogs were barking in the distance ; I heard the sub- 

 dued hacking of wood and the crackling of Ludwig's fire. 

 It was already about midnight ; Fieldfares were chasing 

 each other through the wood : one came pecking about my 

 feet ; and another, settling on the branches that covered my 

 back, almost made my ears ache with the loudness of its 



