THE BIRDS OF COWSLIP CORNER 155 



persistently all through the day. He 

 often sat on the topmost twig of a willow 

 stem, and from this high perch the 

 Willow-Wren gave out his pretty undu- 

 lating song while his mate was sitting 

 on her eggs. I knew that it would be 

 a hopeless task to attempt to search for 

 their nest in the thick grass, so I waited 

 until they had young. One bright day 

 in late May I saw the two birds with 

 food in their beaks, and I guessed that 

 the young had arrived. Hiding behind 

 a small bush near by, I waited for them 

 to drop into the grass and so show me 

 the site of the nest. I waited and waited, 

 yet those birds would not go down. 

 They knew that I was near, and watching, 

 and refused to help me. One bird, the 

 hen, kept flying from one small branch 

 to another about three yards apart, and 

 I imagined that it was near here that the 

 nest was situated. So I got up, and 

 walked right away, gave the birds a few 



