. Birds and their nests and eggs : found in and near great towns . arried out duringthe winter. Plate X shows a near viewof the quarry. The tunnels were, as usual,out of reach, but from a sloping field on oneside I was able to get good photographs atjust the proper elevation. The large holesseen in the Plate, one with a root project-ing, are rabbit burrows. There was no chanceof getting any of the birds to remain quietenough for even a snapshot of them, as theykept coming out of their holes off their nests,disturbed by us as we approached, almost as ifshot from a catapult, and on re-entering d
. Birds and their nests and eggs : found in and near great towns . arried out duringthe winter. Plate X shows a near viewof the quarry. The tunnels were, as usual,out of reach, but from a sloping field on oneside I was able to get good photographs atjust the proper elevation. The large holesseen in the Plate, one with a root project-ing, are rabbit burrows. There was no chanceof getting any of the birds to remain quietenough for even a snapshot of them, as theykept coming out of their holes off their nests,disturbed by us as we approached, almost as ifshot from a catapult, and on re-entering didso unhesitatingly, reaching unerringly theirown particular hole each time, and not stop-ping in their flight till they were well in martins have been described in Part II,pp. 150-2. Leaving this interesting colony of somefifty birds, we proceeded down the lane, 64 A LONG DAY WITH THE BIRDS when whirr-rr, out flew a hen red-leggedpartridge from the bank on the left. Shehad risen from her eggs and we easily foundthe nest, having marked the spot she Nest holes of sand martins in a quarry. It measured about fifteen inches across andcontained seven eggs of a stone colour mottledall over irregularly and thickly with smallpale maroon coloured specks. It was in a IN THE NORTH OF KENT 65 shallow natural hole, or one begun by rabbits,or one, at all events, only partly scooped out
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpublishern, booksubjectbirds
