A SPRING HERESY 101 



Snipe-like bird, brown above and white below, and 

 the other with mottled brown plumage like that of a 

 Lark, they should be seen together by the water side 

 fully to appreciate how similar in their actions may 

 be two birds so dissimilar in their appearance. Both 

 frequent river banks and moist places, running hither 

 and thither with the same walking gait and with the 

 same up-and-down wagging of the tail; both are 

 largely upland breeders ; their notes when heard 

 apart are all but indistinguishable save for the greater 

 volume of that of the Sandpiper : yet, the Pipit lays 

 its Lark-like eggs in a Lark-like nest, and like a Lark 

 usually mounts to deliver its song in the air, whilst 

 the Sandpiper lays the four large eggs typical of the 

 Snipe tribe, and like all the latter has a vocal 

 performance in his case a simple trilling more 

 curious than musical. 



As I approached a strip of hawthorn hedge running 

 down to the edge of the river, a Kestrel, whose near 

 presence on the hedge top was as great a surprise to 

 me as my approach appeared to be to the bird itself, 

 cut back and away into the fog. As usual, it was a 

 I might almost say the female bird ; for during 

 a large portion of each year, and sometimes throughout 

 the year, such a female Kestrel works this particular 

 spot. It is so local in its feeding range that I seldom 

 go out without seeing it ; and I know it to be the 

 same bird by its perching regularly in certain trees 

 and hunting habitually in certain places. For two 

 years it left us in mid-winter and for the breeding 

 season, but in 1904 it appeared regularly throughout 

 the summer, and in August of that year two birds 

 were with us together. They hovered together, and 



