IGJ ANNALS OF BIRD LIFE. 



Summer Snipe, a little wading bird that retires to 

 the muddy coasts of South Africa during winter, 

 visiting our northern waters to rear its young. It 

 runs daintily along the shore, or even perches on 

 a boulder in the stream, making its slight nest 

 irider a little bush near the water, in which it lays 

 its four pear-shaped eggs, creamy buff, spotted 

 with dark-brown and gray. 



In the pastures, where the lazy cattle are 

 grazing or standing in the cool shade of the 

 spreading trees, impatiently lashing their tails or 

 turning their heads from side to side, to rid them- 

 selves of troublesome flies, we are sure to find the 

 dapper little Yellow Wagtail. The nest is made 

 Hedged, icth unc j er t ] le shelter o f yonder hedgerow, and the 



parent birds come hither to catch the insects. See 



how daintily they run about among the grazing 



animals, close to their very mouths, busy in search 



swifts by- of food. High in the blue sky the Swifts are 



ing.srdjune. 1 , , . n 



darting up and down, screaming as they fly ; 

 whilst in the lower atmosphere the Swallows and 

 House Martins are coursing to and fro, twittering 

 to each other in their joy. Round and round the 

 cattle they fly, sweeping under the branches, 

 busily ridding the poor tormented animals of 

 their insect plagues. The Tree Pipit now sings 

 rapturously ; and now and then you may chance 

 Partridges to come upon 3. brood of young Partridges and 

 sothjSSe. their parents, especially in the quiet corners of 

 the fields near the gateways where the anthills 

 are often seen. It is a pretty sight to watch 



