46 WILD NATURE'S WAYS. 



Turning the green side of my reversible 

 jacket outwards, and donning this odd piece of 

 headgear, I secreted myself in the middle of a 

 small hazel bush growing within six feet of a 

 water-tub let into the ground in a wood for the 

 convenience of pheasants, and waited develop- 

 ments. By-and-by along came a family of 

 bullfinches to drink and wash. The chicks were 

 the first to descend, and seemed fascinated with 

 the delights of bathing. Standing on a number 

 of slightly submerged flints in the middle of the 

 old tub, they flapped their little short wings in 

 ecstasy, and made the spray fly in all directions 

 whilst their parents stood on the edge waiting 

 their turn, and admiring the proceedings. Several 

 times a bedraggled chick would return, like a 

 small boy, for just another dip, which he indulged 

 in with juvenile gusto. 



Once a member of the company actually 

 alighted on the old stub in which my head was 

 enveloped, and the telephonic qualities of the 

 wood made the noise produced by its feet sound 

 as if a rook had settled there. 



When the bullfinches had taken their departure, 

 a robin came along and enjoyed himself for several 

 seconds, ducking and splashing, although I never 

 once saw him take a drink. Whether he detected 

 my eyes staring at him through the holes in the 

 mask, or noticed a branch which I was partly 



