Birds by Land and Sea 



her innocent wiles to mask her intention. In the 

 end she dropped to the ground, and stood at the 

 entrance of her nest, still watching us, who remained 

 some ten or twelve feet away, with a deprecating air, 

 as if she would say, " You are not looking now, are 

 you ? You will not touch me if I put my head 

 inside ? " And so, with a chirp which brought up 

 seven little yellow gaping bills, she ducked inside, 

 but in a moment had withdrawn her head to see if 

 we were attempting to take a mean advantage. As 

 our attitude appeared to be quite correct, she ducked 

 again, this time distributing her caterpillars, and after 

 picking up any odd castings, flitted to a near branch 

 to watch us, and consider if it would be safe to go in 

 search of more. In the end she went off, but was 

 back again in less than a minute with a fresh bundle 

 of caterpillars. She does not like them to wriggle, 

 so she beats them into submission against a branch. 

 Then begins again the whole comedy of transparent 

 subterfuge. I spent a large part of two days at that 

 nest, in the course of which she must have returned 

 to it fully a hundred times or more, and although I 

 gave her small occasion for offence, she never learned 

 that I was harmless, but every time she returned, 

 tacked hither and thither with the same innocent 

 arts, the same sad little cry, and yet in the end 

 dropped to the nest with the same simple confidence 

 that I had not seen, or could not see. I advanced 

 my camera until it was no more than a foot from 

 the nest without further alarming her ; for I promised 



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