WOODCOCK S EGGS U^COX'tRHD 



I'hoti. Iiy llowani II, Cleaves 



dropped back into the pond (see illustra- 

 tion). 



The osprey, however, was not to be de- 

 prived of his breakfast so easily ; he was 

 hungry and had met with but poor luck 

 in fishing activities the whole morning. 

 So, instead of going away, he simply cir- 

 cled out over the pond and came up wind 

 looking for the fish again ; and the fish, 

 quite unlike any that the hawk had ever 

 met, was there awaiting him. 



Seven times the osprey fastened his 

 mighty talons onto the back of the stub- 

 born victim, and toward the last became 

 so exhausted that he lay on the surface 

 of the water for a time with wings out- 

 spread, while his claws remained closed 

 on the fish below. The hawk's final act 

 was to drag the fish into shallow water 

 near the shore and stand beside it while 

 he leaned over from time to time and 

 tried to bite into the head of the dummy 

 as it floated on its side. 



How long he would have remained 

 standing there cannot be known, for he 

 was frightened away by the noise of the 

 focal-plane shutter in the blind, eight feet 

 away. The bird had not noticed this 

 sound when the previous exposures were 

 made, for he himself had caused so much 

 commotion thrashing about in the water 

 that all minor noises were quite lost. 



Although experiences such as the one 



just described are unusual and not often 

 enjoyed, even by those who follow the 

 birds closely, yet there are many out-of- 

 the-(jrdinary experiments which one mav 

 devise ; but, on the other hand, much last- 

 ing joy is to be derived from doing and 

 seeing just the "ordinary" things. 



Tiii; kii,di;i-;r 



Who, for example, can recall with any- 

 thing but pleasure the thrill of finding his 

 first woodcock's nest and the excitement 

 of touching the eccentric bird on the back 

 before she would leave her eggs? And 

 the killdeer ! How lasting an impression 

 these vociferous and highly patterned 

 plovers make on a person's mind ! 



Several years ago a pair decided to 

 stop and nest in a cultivated field near 

 the pasture pond, and it was the best 

 possible fun to watch and photograph 

 them. The spot selected for the nest was 

 in the center of a potato field, and it 

 seemed certain that the eggs would be 

 destroyed when the plants were next cul- 

 tivated (see page 17). 



And yet, were I to disclose the where- 

 abouts of the nest, how could I be sure 

 that human hands would not prove as 

 destructive as horses' feet. Tlie head 

 gardener of the estates where the kill- 

 deers lived was a diminutive, tanned in- 

 dividual — a man accustomed to being 



29 



