The Spotted Forktail 



and contained young, because I had repeatedly 

 seen the parents carrying grubs in the bill. 

 My difficulty was that the stream to which 

 the birds had attached themselves was in a 

 deep ravine, the sides of which were so steep 

 that no animal save a cat could have descended 

 it without making a noise and being seen by 

 the birds. Eventually I decorated my topi 

 with bracken fronds, after the fashion of 'Arry 

 at Burnham Beeches on the August bank 

 holiday. Thus arrayed, I descended to the 

 stream and hid myself in the hollow stump of 

 a tree, near the place where I knew the nest 

 must be. By crouching down and drawing 

 some foliage about me, I was able to command 

 a small stretch of the stream. My arrival was 

 of course the signal for loud outcries on the 

 part of the parent forktails. However, after 

 I had been squatting about ten minutes in my 

 cache, to the delight of hundreds of winged 

 insects, the suspicions of the forktails subsided, 

 and the birds began collecting food, working 

 their way upstream. They came nearer and 

 nearer, until one of them passed out of sight, 

 although it was within 10 feet of me. It was 

 thus evident that the nest was so situated that 

 what remained of the tree-trunk obstructed 

 i55 



