BIRDS' NESTS. 127 



reappear for a few seconds, no one knows how 

 many yards up or down the stream. In the 

 watery thicket which has just been deserted 

 with such precipitation may be found, if only 

 one has courage to risk a wetting, a compact 

 nest of reeds, sedge, and other coarse water- 

 plants, containing seven or eight reddish- white 

 eggs, blotched and speckled with chocolate 

 colour. The nest is often placed so near to 

 the water as to be carried away by the summer 

 floods ; but an instance is recorded in which 

 the parent birds, warned by instinct or expe- 

 rience of the impending danger, added to the 

 structure of the nest until their eggs were out 

 of reach of the rising water. 



Crew pratensis. 

 PLATE VI. TIG. 1. 



THE Landrail or Corncrake, far more often 

 heard than seen, makes a very slight nest of 

 dry grass, generally in hay-fields. Its eggs 

 are from seven to ten; they are of a pale 



