CHAPTER VIII 
THE FOURTH SEASON (1921) : RECORD OF 
OBSERVATIONS 
With the coming of April, preparations for this 
season’s campaign were complete. During the 
winter I had had constructed half a dozen specially 
designed “ hides ” or screens of wicker-work 
covered with heather, of which the photograph 
opposite will give a better idea than any descrip- 
tion. These were placed early about the common 
so that the local inhabitants, animals on the common, 
and the prospective fosterer Meadow Pipits them- 
selves should become accustomed to their appear- 
ance, and also that the Cuckoo, should she return, 
might have the opportunity to become familiar 
with them before she commenced to lay. Although 
I had all along an intuition that my favourite 
Cuckoo would come back for the fourth time, yet 
I was prepared to be not overwhelmingly dis- 
appointed had she failed to do so, since it seemed 
almost certain that another bird would seize the 
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