78 A LONG DAY (WEE: THE BIRDS 
On the edge of a dyke some pure white 
starworts grew together with many horse- 
tails. How often one comes across such 
pretty little bits. 
As I was taking a photograph a bird flew 
out of the greenery with a great flapping of 
its wings. We just caught sight of it. It 
was a cuckoo that was taking a midday siesta 
in the cool shade of the may and blackthorn 
overhead, or had come down from the hills 
for a drink. Its mode of flight, its general 
dusky plumage and long tail (though I did 
not ‘see its barred | breast (see Part? Yor 
77), Were unmistakable. Before we left 
the flats Ted found the nest of a long-tailed 
tit made of lichen, as usual, but at a very 
uncommon elevation and position for this 
bird. It was only two feet from the ground, 
in a low blackthorn bush, at the edge of a 
ditch and hanging over water! I could easily 
get at it for a photograph, and the sun was 
well placed to one side. It contained a 
ereat quantity of small soft feathers in which 
lay more than a dozen of the small eggs (see 
