Birds- Nesting 



save for a wandering angler there is perfect solitude 

 for the bird to take and enjoy his fish in. But many 

 are the distractions that occur before the wood is 

 reached. From a fork in one of the outermost trees 

 of a spinney by the way a bird darts with the swift- 

 ness of an arrow. It's a sparrow-hawk, and he neither 

 soars nor hangs in air. 'The pale, brown-marked eggs 

 are left unbroken in the ancient crow's nest where 

 they have been laid, but the place is marked for a 

 return, for here in a few weeks will be pets worth 

 having : always supposing, of course, that some fine 

 morning the gamekeeper on his round does not add 

 the parents' heads to the gruesome trophies stoats, 

 weasels, carrion-crows, and magpies which are nailed 

 to the wall of the kennel. But a discovery like that 

 only whets one's appetite for the treasures across the 

 river ; and accordingly it is waded where a willow 

 trunk has fallen athwart the deepest stream, and 

 thereon you clamber, and so do you win to shore. 



An inland boy knows no greater joy than that 

 of rifling a heron's nest, and it is one not to be had 

 once the suppleness of youth is passed. Up on the 

 small branches at a tall tree-top perches a great bunch 

 of sticks lined with wool ; and, however difficult the 

 ascent, it yields no thrill at all comparable to that 

 you feel at the top. The slender boughs bend with 

 your weight, as though at every moment you were to 

 be launched into space ; and if there be a breeze to 

 sway you to and fro, you will have to hold on firmly 



