O'er Fell and Dale 



the fallen terra-cotta red stalks and fronds of last year's 

 bracken crop, and the other well hidden in a bunch of 

 rushes. In the first, the cock, shown in our illustration 

 (facing page 94), was as bold as brass and could hardly 

 be driven away from home, whereas his mate was shy 

 and showed the greatest reluctance to come near it or 

 my hiding-tent. All she would do was to run round at 

 a respectful distance and tell her mate in loud, clear 

 notes what a brave fellow he was. 



These experiences were most radically reversed at 

 the second nest, where the female had all the courage 

 and the male none at all. It may be mentioned, how- 

 ever, that if his mate dallied round too long catching 

 flies or indulging in any other frivolity of a like nature, 

 he was not above trying to bully her into a sense of her 

 duties by attempting to chase her back to the nest. 



On the rocky hillside forming the western boundary 

 of our avian paradise the ground is scarred and seamed 

 by the workings of long-forgotten miners in search of 

 lead ore. Concluding the precious metal might be 

 found near the surface at one point these ancient delvers 

 had " hushed " (washed out with a diverted stream of 

 water) the earth and stones away from part of the hill- 

 side, leaving a hole at one point twenty to thirty feet 

 deep. On the upper side of this to-day a storm- wracked 

 rowan tree is fighting hard to maintain its precarious 

 existence. 



One evening a young shepherd told me he had seen a 

 pigeon fly out of this place the previous day, and 

 imagined it had a nest. 



95 



