18 OURFIRST. DAY'S “OUTING: 
he settled down, and took things quietly. 
But not for one second did that black eye 
shut. And my lady would persist in keeping 
up the swaying movement with her head. I 
gave them four exposures of four seconds 
each before I got one in which she was quite 
still. Well, this was good luck. To start 
so fortunately with the largest of the 
feathered tribe we sought, and under such . 
propitious circumstances too! ‘How can 
we get her off her nest, to photograph the 
eggs P’ I asked. But this was done in due 
course, as shall be narrated further on, We 
felt quite satisfied with our work, but still 
we had another find, a thrush’s nest, built 
in a bush, a few feet from the ground, with 
four greenish-blue black-spotted eggs. The 
mother bird betrayed her whereabouts, 
though cunningly enough, by slipping out 
into the undergrowth, and then running a 
few yards, not breaking cover till she reached 
the shore, when out she flew low down upon 
the water to the mainland bank. But we 
had noticed her. 
