62 PHOTOGRAPHY FOR BIRD-LOVERS. 



unfortunately, was placed among the debris of a 

 narrow line of drift-wood which indicated the high- 

 water mark of some winter's flood that had come 

 boiling down the moorland stream. All around 

 for more than 30 feet there was not cover enough 

 to hide a golf ball. Save for this thread of flattened 

 drift-wood, there was nothing but the hard sheep- 

 cropped fell- grass, rivalling in its shortness that 

 of a well-kept lawn. To attempt to build a hiding- 

 place here seemed too impertinent, and the only 

 thing that offered any promise of concealment 

 was a small gorse bush growing some forty yards 

 away. This I cut down, and gradually moved 

 towards the nest, until some four days later it 

 stood about eight feet from it. But since the 

 whole bush could be picked up in the arms, it 

 could not possibly conceal a man, and, as ill-luck 

 had it, the nest being on a promontory, there 

 was no other cover on the same side of the stream 

 from which a view of the eggs could be obtained. 

 The thing seemed almost hopeless, but the elasticity 

 of this double method saved the situation. On 

 the opposite bank was an old stone-wall and in 

 front of it grew a dense patch of gorse, an ideal 

 place to hide in. From here I could look straight 

 across the river and up the sloping bank to the 

 nest, and through binoculars I could just see the 

 tops of the four eggs amongst the drift-wood. 



