160 WILD NATURE'S WAYS. 



By the assistance of two farmer's sons, I 

 managed to find a nest belonging to this species, 

 but, alas ! it was in a small partly wooded pasture 

 tenanted by a huge bull, of threatening aspect 

 and sullen demeanour. More than one dangerous 

 experience having taught me never to risk an 

 unauthorised interview with one of these ferocious 

 brutes without a reliable lethal weapon in one 

 pocket and a cheque-book in another, I sought 

 hard and long, but in vain, for a wood wren's 

 nest in quarters affording greater personal safety. 



It was obvious that I could not take my tent 

 or any other hiding contrivance, such as the 

 stuffed ox, into that pasture for had the bull 

 come along whilst I was in situ obscura, he would 

 have had me at considerable disadvantage so 

 donning my reversible jacket and cap mentioned 

 in the opening chapter of the present work, and 

 carefully loading a heavy army revolver, I sallied 

 forth. 



When I reached the place where the nest was 

 situated, on a green grassy bank running up rather 

 sharply from a small stream, on the farther side 

 of which a number of tall larch trees grew, the 

 bull was nowhere to be seen or heard. Noise- 

 lessly fixing up the camera, I focussed a hazel 

 twig purposely stuck in the ground near the 

 wren's nest for her to alight upon, put a plate in, 



j covering the whole apparatus with a grass- 



