18 EARLY SPRINGS 
as they carefully searched the trees to decide 
on the most suitable positions for their nests. 
And cock robin sang his plaintive song with 
an accent still reminiscent of the black and 
cheerless wintry days. The lordly male 
swan was at his post, guarding, as before, 
with ruffled wings and ferocious mien, the 
entrance to his Bridal Path (see Part I, pp. 
10-18). We ascended this, and again found 
a high mass of sticks and mud almost in the 
same spot as the pair had chosen the past 
year, but not yet shaped or ready for the 
eggs. These swans afterwards hatched out 
six cygnets, a fine family. Three of them 
disappeared mysteriously. Those. who saw 
them concluded that they were killed and 
eaten by. the carrion crows. (It is the 
marauding and cannibal habits of these 
birds that spoil their character.) A lonely 
Full Snipe, disturbed by our approach, flew 
wildly off, just topping the trees overhead. 
A solitary Heron high up in the air pursued 
his slow and lonely course, and a pair of 
Lapwings flapped lazily along lower down, as 
