END OF APRIL 93 
Were this very common plant introduced 
from some foreign country and nursed in a 
hot-house, it would be very highly prized. 
We are not half alive to the beauties that 
surround us, often seeking to find them 
elsewhere, rather than to open our eyes and 
appreciate what we have at our feet in this 
beautiful island of ours. 
The other ducks’ nests were cunningly 
concealed under brambles, and thus protected 
from molestation. The birds flew off as we 
almost trod on them. We also flushed a 
Landrail (or Corncrake, as it is sometimes 
called, from its loud ‘crake, crake’ notes, and 
its love of running in thecorn), a sleek nar- 
row-shaped light-brown bird about ten inches 
long. “This uncommon bird, somewhat resem- 
bling a partridge, slipped away at once into 
the undergrowth, from which it would have 
required a very good dog to dislodge it. 
The old female swan was sitting in her re- 
newed nest in her beautiful sanctum, just as 
pae! had) sat slast.year (see-Part 1, p- 15). 
The male was nowhere to be seen. It was 
