56 



IN NATURE'S WAYS 



In a clump of rushes or a tuft of coarse grass, you 

 may find the four eggs, yellowish white, spotted with 

 brown on the larger ends. In her slight nest the hen 

 sits, well disguised by her plumage, to hatch the eggs, 

 while her mate sports in the air through the day. 



The little sharp-flying Jack Snipe is a winter 

 visitor a more solitary bird, and smaller, than the 

 common snipe. But he puts on his courting raiment, 

 his brown and black mottled feathers becoming bright 

 and shining, before he leaves us in April to make his 

 nest far in the north of Europe, in Arctic regions. 



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Jack Snipe, dressed in his best, leading us for foreign parts. 



