ig8 WILD NATURE'S WAYS. 



During my last photographic trip to the 

 Broads I several times stayed up all through the 

 short hours of summer darkness developing plates, 

 and when the weather was fine the male repre- 

 sentatives of two pairs of these birds breeding 

 close to the house-boat robbed the situation of 

 its loneliness by keeping up an unending rivalry 

 of song. If atmospheric conditions had called 

 a truce in their war of notes, and I turned out 

 during the wee small hours when even the peewits 

 were at rest, and broke the deathly stillness of 

 night by tossing a bucket of chemical-tainted 

 water into the dyke, the splash immediately 

 woke the birds and fanned their vocal ardour 

 into full blast again. 



Although the male sedge warbler makes an 

 excellent husband and father, he does not appear 

 to possess either architectural ability or ambition 

 to acquire it, for when his little helpmate is nest- 

 building with incredible industry, he contents 

 himself by idly following her about or the taking 

 of short, fluttering singing excursions in the air 

 just over their prospective home. 



Whilst on the river Avon, close to Stratford, 

 a summer or two ago, with a couple of ornitho- 

 logical friends, we found two sedge birds' nests, 

 containing eggs, on the stems of young pollards 

 growing in the middle of a small island. Passing 

 that way about an hour afterwards, we were 



