138 OUR RARER BRITISH BREEDING BIRDS. 



and photographed another this year in the same 

 neighbourhood, and those were the only two we 

 heard of in the district, although the keen-eyed 

 marshrnen keep a sharp look-out for such objects of 

 interest. 



I met with a pair inhabiting a reed-grown ditch 

 running round a small garden in North Uist last 

 summer, and have no doubt whatever that they had 

 their nest there, although I was unable to find it. 

 When discovered in the open, the bird's quick sight 

 and compressed form enable it to dart away into 

 the reeds and be gone without appearing to stir a 

 blade of anything. 



Whilst out on the Norfolk Broads late in the 

 evening, on several occasions I have heard its soft 

 -whit-like note, which at once strikes the ornithologist 

 as something strange and new to him on hearing 

 it for the first time. 



The nest figured in our illustration was photo- 

 graphed not far from Lismore, in Ireland. It was 

 situated amongst coarse grass and other herbage 

 growing in a bog, in which the photographer stood 

 up to his knees. Those we have seen in Norfolk 

 were both on floating reed beds. The structure is 

 large for the size of the bird, and usually composed 

 of reeds, sedge grass, and flags. 



The eggs number from five to eleven, but a clutch 

 generally consists of six or seven. They are creamy 

 white marked with small reddish and ash-grey spots, 

 the latter of which are underlying. The eggs of 

 young birds laying for the first year are smaller than 

 those of older members, but there is not much fear 

 of their being confused with those of any other 

 species breeding in the same kind of situation. 



