WILD LIFE IN SEVERN ESTUARY 31 



against overhead telegraph wires. One recognizes 

 the night hunter at a glance. The profession of 

 these insect-feeders who have abandoned the 

 struggle for existence in the day and taken to 

 hawking for moths in the night must be a successful 

 one, for the dispersion of the birds in the present 

 age of the world is almost universal. The general 

 resemblance of the bird to the American night- 

 hawk and to the whip-poor-will is immediately 

 apparent. The enormously wide gape with the 

 mouth fringed with bristles and coated inside with 

 a sticky secretion is noticeable. 



A rail swims across one of the pits of inky water, 

 jerking her tail with exactly the same little manner- 

 isms which one sees in her relatives in other lands. 

 Through the reeds in the further distance the long 

 neck and motionless grey head of a solitary heron 

 watching the intruding footsteps is just visible. 

 The bird in this attitude resembles the stork as one 

 sees it fishing in the reed-marshes along the Rhine ; 

 but it does not stay to be approached, taking 

 flight immediately, the gaunt legs straggling behind 

 as it rises in the air; while the long neck, at first 

 outstretched, is tucked rapidly into the shoulders. 



Low down across the sky comes a bird which 

 looks like a pigeon. Yet it still more closely re- 

 sembles a hawk. It is being followed and mobbed 

 by small birds and the grey plumage is seen to be 

 barred like a hawk's, as the bird comes to rest in the 

 topmost branches of the thick clump of high bushes 

 on the right. Suddenly there rings out from the 

 bough, clear, soft, and penetrating in the stillness, 

 the most characteristic bird-note of early summer 

 throughout Europe the double note of the cuckoo. 



