268 BIRDS AND MAN 



the snipe, the startled quack-quack of the mallard, 

 and the beautiful mysterious cry of the lapwing. 



Every evening the nightjars, in pairs or small 

 parties of four or five birds, could be heard 

 reeling on all sides ; and some of them, spying 

 my motionless figure, and curious to know what 

 manner of creature I was, would come to me and 

 act in the most fantastical manner — now wheehng 

 round and round my head like huge moths, anon 

 tossing themselves up and down hke shuttlecocks ; 

 in the meantime uttering their loud, ratthng, 

 Castanet notes, and smiting their wings violently 

 over their backs, producing a sound like the 

 crack of a whip-lash. 



Returning to the house, I would sit for an 

 hour in the rick -yard to watch our one white 

 owl ghding ghost-like around and among the 

 stacks, hunting for mice. One evening I missed 

 him, and he came not the next night, nor the 

 next ; then he was discovered in the granary, 

 having found his way in through the cat -hole, 

 cut out at the bottom of the door ; but not 

 being a wise owl it had not occurred to him to 

 make his egress by the same way. The poor 

 creature was in the greatest terror when I 



