BREEDING SEASONS. 11 



long before you can get near them. If little bushes or tufts of grass 

 are scattered about here and there, the pony should be guided to pass 

 close by them ; and if a lark or pipit or other bird of similar habits 

 should happen to have a nest under the shelter of one of them, the bird 

 will rise sometimes almost at the horse's feet. For thick low jungle where 

 the riding plan fails, the place should be beaten or dragged with a rope, 

 which latter will make even quail, which are exceedingly close sitters 

 rise from their eggs. The object of the rapid approach on horseback 

 is to startle the bird and make it rise hurriedly, as otherwise it would 

 creep quietly away unobserved to the other side of the bush. 



With gregarious birds the matter is more simple, the breeding 

 haunts may easily be found in most cases, except when the powers of 

 flight are very great as with the spinetails and swiftlets, by noting 

 where they tend to congregate when the proper season arrives. When 

 once the breeding ground is known, it is easy to find the individual 

 nests. 



A plan tried by Captain Cock of nailing up a sheepskin to a tree, 

 and watching with binoculars the birds that came to take the wool, was 

 found very successful with tits and some small birds, but experience is 

 the best guide in all cases ; and with these general remarks I must have 

 the reader to arrange his own course of action in each case. 



