THE MODERN ART OF BIRDSNESTING 285 



of meadow-sweet. Tree tops seen from a point 

 of view which brings them level with the eye are 

 to most a reminiscence of boyish days of climbing. 

 To photograph the larger nests crow's, heron's, 

 magpie's, and sparrow-hawk's Mr Kearton climbed 

 the neighbouring trees, lashed his camera to the 

 boughs, and so presents us with a true ' bird's-eye 

 view' of the site. Some of these pictures are as 

 decorative as the Japanese studies of trees, notably 

 one of a magpie's nest in a straggling pine. Then 

 down to earth again, and we see the kingfisher's 

 hole beneath the bank, taken from the middle of 

 the River Mole, the artist being knee-deep in water. 

 All the pretty rusticity of thatchroofs, straw-built 

 sheds, old orchard trees, the homes of starlings, 

 missel-thrushes, and tits, are here, things only 

 studied closely by the prying birdsnester. 



The great incident of a day's birdsnesting in the 

 woodland and hedgerow districts is the discovery of 

 a cuckoo's egg. Pure luck, and nothing else, in 

 most cases leads to this success, and, as in other enter- 

 prises, this present of Fortune is perhaps unduly 

 valued. But it lends as much excitement as the 

 chance woodcock does to a day's covert-shooting. 

 On Whit-Monday 1895, the writer, according to 

 custom, spent the morning in seeking nests, and 

 the only egg found was a cuckoo's. The fact was 



