APRIL. ROEBUCK — HOODED CROW — WILD -DUCK. 217 



narrow footpath on the top of the rocks which over- 

 hang the river, when his dogs, running into the 

 cover, started a buck, who, taking a sudden spring 

 into the footpath, found himself unexpectedly within 

 a few inches of Mr. Stuart, in fact almost touching 

 him. Without pausing for an instant the fright- 

 ened animal with another spring went right over 

 the high rocks into the deep black pools of the river 

 below. Mr. Stuart got clown to the water and 

 managed to pull the roebuck out, but the poor 

 animal was quite dead, killed by the shock of 

 jumping from so great a height, although his fall 

 must have been much broken by the water. 



When a crow leaves her nest on being disturbed, 

 her quiet, sneaking manner of threading her way 

 through the trees tells that she has young or eggs 

 in the thicket as plainly as if she uttered cries of 

 alarm. These birds are early breeders : I found 

 a hooded crow's nest with eggs nearly hatched on 

 the 16 th April. 



The common wild-duck often builds her nest in 

 a situation from which one would suppose it would 

 be very difficult for the young, when first hatched, 

 to make their way to the water. My retriever put 

 up a wild-duck on the 1 6th in some very high and 

 close heather at some distance from any water. I 

 found that she had her nest in the very centre of 



