172 Wild Life in Wales 



rushes, where I found them. The rain had converted the 

 channels at either side of the lane into runnels, through 

 which it was quite impossible for them to have waded, and 

 the firm manner in which the female held the chick to her 

 breast convinced me that she could easily have flown away 

 with it. 



During my walk that same day, I watched a Crow syste- 

 matically hunting for a Sandpiper's nest, the near neighbour- 

 hood of which he had located. He was marching about, 

 prying hither and thither, closely attended by the anxious 

 birds, one of which I noticed more than once make a feint 

 at lameness in order to draw his attention from the nest. 

 This is the only occasion on which 1 ever remember to 

 have seen such tactics resorted to by one bird to deceive 

 another in that way, though, of course, it is a common 

 device with many of them when trying to decoy a human 

 intruder, or a dog, or even a cat or weasel, from their nest 

 or young. I have no doubt the Crow would have per- 

 severed in his search until he had discovered the nest, had 

 I not interrupted him. After he had been sent about his 

 business I found the eggs, just on the point of hatching, 

 lying snugly under cover of a tuft of heather, close at hand. 

 Several times hereabouts I found Sandpipers' nests at the 

 roots of whin bushes, where they were, comparatively, out 

 of the reach of sheep's feet. 



On another occasion I witnessed a Sandpiper's very 

 narrow escape from the clutches of a small male Sparrow 

 Hawk. I had been fishing, and having come into the 

 neighbourhood of a nest, or young, I had sat down against 

 some rocks, and was watching the anxious Sandpipers flitting 

 about from stone to stone, by the water side, complaining 

 of my presence so near their treasures. Suddenly I caught 

 sight of the Hawk gliding like an arrow in our direction, 

 from a tree on the steep bank a hundred yards away, and 

 considerably above us. In a twinkling he had shot past 

 me, with scarcely a movement of wings or tail, and had 

 made a dash at one of the Sandpipers, which at that moment 

 was balancing itself on a stone in mid-stream with deepish 

 water all round. Completely taken by surprise, it did not 



