40 PIRST WEEK IN APRIE 
and the Swifts. And what a wonderful . 
instinct nature has given them—to strike, 
in the first place, the opposite shore at night, 
in storm, perhaps, or chilly fog, and then to 
find the same county, district, field, and at 
last the very twig on which they perched 
the year before ! 
Ted and I got down to the enticing water 
once again. The day was dull and the pros- 
pects bad, but the camera and kit did not 
feel heavy for all that. The elders were now 
much more advanced in leaf, changing the 
aspect. to a pleasant green. The canmiag 
crows were busy at three nests. The birds 
themselves, however, were nowhere to be 
seen: they always disappear when human 
beings visit them. Getting quietly through 
the thick bushes into a clearing in the middle 
of the isle, I heard some sounds well known 
to me even as a boy—the ‘ kchee-a, kchee-a,’ 
or ‘ cheek-a, cheek-a,’ of a disturbed male 
Full Snipe. We saw the bird and his mate 
fly off. To our delight we found their nest, 
or rather the beginnings of it, upon the 
