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with strict orders on no account to come near my hiding-place. I kept my glass in the direction 

 of the nest ; but it was long before I saw any thing stir. In the mean time the marsh was by no 

 means quiet ; Ruffs were holding something between a European ball and an East-Indian nautch. 

 Several times ' keet-koot, keet-koot,' to use the words by which the Finns express the sound, told 

 where the Snipes were. A cock Pintail dashed into a bit of water calling loudly for its mate. 

 The full melancholy wailing of the Black-throated Diver came from the river ; watch-dogs were 

 barking in the distance ; I heard the subdued hacking of wood and the crackling of Ludwig's 

 fire. It was already about midnight ; Fieldfares were chasing each other through the wood : one 

 came pecking about my feet ; and another, settling on the branches that covered my back, almost 

 made my ears ache with the loudness of its cries. I often heard the waft of known wings ; but 

 three times there sounded over head the sweeping wave of great wings to which my ears were 

 unaccustomed. I could scarcely doubt it was the Cranes' ; but 1 dare not turn up my eye : I even 

 once or twice heard a slight chuckle that must have been from them. At length, as I had my 

 glass in the direction of the nest, which was three or four hundred yards off, I saw a tall grey 

 figure emerging from amongst the birch trees, just beyond where I knew the nest must be ; and 

 there stood the Crane in all the beauty of nature, in the full side light of an Arctic summer 

 night. She came on with her graceful walk, her head up ; and she raised it a little higher and 

 turned her beak sideways and upwards as she passed round the tree on whose trunk I had hung 

 the little roll of bark. I had not anticipated that she would observe so ordinary an object. She 

 probably saw that her eggs were safe, and then she took a beat of twenty or thirty yards in the 

 swamp, pecking and apparently feeding. At the end of this beat she stood still for a quarter of 

 an hour, sometimes pecking and sometimes motionless, but showing no symptoms of suspicion 

 of my whereabouts, and, indeed, no manifest sign of fear. At length she turned back and passed 

 her nest a few paces in the opposite direction, but soon came in to it ; she arranged with her 

 beak the materials of the nest, or the eggs, or both ; she dropped her breast gently forwards ; 

 and as soon as it touched, she let the rest of her body sink gradually down. And so she sits 

 with her neck up and her body full in my sight, sometimes preening her feathers, especially of 

 the neck, sometimes lazily pecking about ; and for a long time she sits with her neck curved like 

 a Swan's, though principally at its upper part. Now she turns her head backwards, puts her beak 

 under the wing, apparently just in the middle of the ridge of the back, and so she seems fairly 

 to go to sleep. While she sits, as generally while she walks, her plumes are compressed and 

 inconspicuous. 



" By this time all birds, excepting perhaps a Fieldfare, are silent. I was now sure the 

 Crane would not carry off her eggs. After enjoying for a short time longer this sight — and no 

 epithet is yet in use which expresses the nature of the feelings created by such scenes in the 

 minds of those who fully enjoy them — I found that the air was freezing. I quietly got up, and 

 on reaching the fire made myself comfortable. Some four hours later (that is, between four and 

 five in the morning) we came again to the west side of the hill ; there lay the Crane, head and 

 neck still visible. We may have whispered too loud ; for she soon raised her head. I now wished 

 to see how she would leave the nest, whether crouchingly or not. I took a line not directly 

 towards it, curving more upon it as I advanced, of course taking care to keep my eyes in a different 

 direction. When I believed that I was just opposite, I looked, as I thought, towards the place, 



