66 BIRD LIFE THROUGHOUT THE YEAR 



March ; abroad such colonies seem to be fewer and 

 their occupants comparatively quiet and subdued. 



Meanwhile another early breeder, the Long-eared 

 Owl, deposits its eggs in an old squirrels' "drey" or a 

 deserted nest of some crow or magpie, while the 

 Tawny Owl (the owl which hoots par excellence) seeks 

 a hollow tree, to brood in semi-darkness upon her 

 round white treasures. 



By the end of the month Lapwings are shaping their 

 nest-hollows on moor and fallow, and a few eggs have 

 been deposited. The hardy Water Ouzel is nesting, 

 as we might expect of a bird which dives and dabbles 

 in cold mountain streams all through the winter, 

 cheerful as a Serpentine bather on Christmas morning. 

 In the latter half of the month the Woodlark may 

 regularly be found nesting upon the warm bracken- 

 covered slopes which it loves. Amongst dead leaves 

 in a bramble-thicket near the margin of the lake, the 

 Wild Duck hides her eggs in a hollow lined with down 

 from her own breast, and in parts of the country where 

 the Woodcock breeds its eggs may sometimes be found, 

 completing our list of birds whose breeding season 

 falls thus early. 



The numbers of several of our familiar birds which 

 do not entirely leave us in winter are now augmented 

 by the return of many of their kindred from the south. 

 How seldom one saw a Pied Wagtail in January, but 

 now, in their dainty spring livery, they swarm upon the 



