WILD LIFE ON THE WING 
their supper under the first primroses. The wood 
was full of little singing winds, carrying strange 
new smells. Creaman was wont to fly low to his 
feeding grounds ; to-night for some reason he 
mounted higher, and he flapped softly along the 
woodside like an owl. Even before he alighted, 
he knew that he was not the first comer, and at 
the thrum of his wings she fluttered aside to give 
him space to land upon. The sight and feel of 
her set Creaman's pulse throbbing, and drove 
him aloft again in an ecstasy. 
He thought he was alone in his passion, but as 
the twilight deepened the woodcock people 
came out from fern brake and covert. Garry- 
brack hummed with their voices the flute- 
like "chissick" which cuts the ear, and the 
deep " hoo-hoo " which is Creaman's declara- 
tion in the springtime. Each 'cock chose his 
route and kept to it. Creaman started down 
the middle of the wood, where some gale had 
ploughed a furrow through the ranks of the 
trees a clear flight of a hundred yards, where 
he croaked as he went. Then there was a sharp 
turn where the wood was cut short by the lane, 
and he called shrilly here like a bat, that she 
(waiting by the pool in the swamp) might 
know that he was returning. Next he made a 
wide sweep up the bohireen,* and over the 
* Bohireen = narrow lane. 
